A few weeks back I was mindlessly scrolling through my Twitter feed after a long Monday at work. Most of the accounts I follow are hockey related (go Ducks!), or Critical Role focused. I sprinkle in a few reliable news outlets and some accounts whose opinion I value or find intriguing. A five minute scroll catches me up on news of the day, the latest developments of the Ducks roster moves, and some fantastic fan art of Orym, Fearne, and Fresh Cut Grass. I try to avoid controversial accounts, or people who post every five seconds looking for “engagement”. Every once in a while, however, the Twitter algorithm throws me for a loop with a random “suggestion”. For some reason it felt that I might “enjoy” the following Tweet from a highly followed account :
I have…many thoughts.
“Public school teachers hate working”.
Um, no.
Most of my adult life has been devoted to working this job.
I work hard. I work extremely hard every single day. My family, friends, and colleagues can all attest to this. I am exhausted when I get home from my work day. I wake up at 4:30am every morning and get to work by 7:00am. From the minute I arrive to the minute I leave, usually around 4:30pm, I am working. I create lesson plans, respond to parent emails, meet with colleagues, create and revise assessments, research lesson ideas, grade assessments, etc. Oh, and I teach 5 classes a day. My brain is actively working for 9 -10 hours straight. I work through my 35 minute lunch period, and try to get a few exams graded during the 10 minute snack break after 2nd period.
I don’t hate working. I love the work that I do. My work gives me purpose. The work I do is valuable and important. I know that every single day I show up to work is a day that I can help a student achieve their dreams. I help children understand how to apply critical thinking and logic to the problems in their life.
How dare you claim that I hate working. Shame on you.
“They only have to work 9 or 10 months of the year”.
This is technically true. My teaching contract is from the middle of August to the first week of June. This is a factual statement.
What this statement leaves out is that I only get paid for 10 months of work as well. I do not receive a paycheck for the months of July or August. I must budget wisely throughout the year to make sure my 10 paychecks last 12 months. If they don’t, I must find other means of earning money to get by. Things can get pretty dicey by the middle of September.
The more degrading implication though, as I understand it, is that teachers don’t really work a full job, or somehow have it easier because of this. I cannot disagree more. During a normal school year I am paid for about 185 days of work, 180 with students and 5 for beginning of the year planning and professional development. I work an average of 9.5 hours each day, but only get paid for 8 of those hours. I also work almost every Sunday for 5-6 hours creating lessons and grading assessments. I don’t get paid for any of that time. This equates to about 1,938 hours of work in a school year, or 242.25 8-hour work days. A normal calendar year has about 260 weekdays in it. I work almost the equivalent of a normal corporate 9 to 5 job, and I do it all in 2 less months.
Don’t tell me that I “only work 10 months a year”. Let’s end that tired cliche right now.
(If you want my receipts on how much I actually work in a year, I logged every single hour of work for an entire school year here back in 2012/13, just for funsies.)
“Get every holiday off”.
Yep, I do. It’s pretty great.
I also earn the hell out of those days off.
See above.
“Every weekend”.
Now, I must admit that teaching is the only career I’ve ever had, so my knowledge is limited here. But, don’t most careers get the weekend off? Aren’t there labor laws in place that require employees to only be scheduled so many days in a row, or so many hours in a week? My only other job before teaching had me work Monday-Friday. I’m assuming that hourly workers can choose to work overtime or take on extra shifts, but they get compensated more for their time, right?
Perhaps I am naive and need to do more research, but I thought there were rules and laws about that kind of thing.
I don’t think weekends are a luxury that only teachers enjoy.
“They got a one year paid vacation during COVID”.
You can absolutely go %@&$ yourself.
That’s all I have to say about that.
“And it’s still too much for them.”
One beneficial thing about the pandemic was that it opened many eyes to what was truly essential in our society.
Grocery store workers. Essential.
Docks workers and long-haul truckers. Essential.
Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff. Essential
Workers in food production facilities. Essential.
Twitter pundits? Not essential.
Teachers and child care providers. Essential.
The result of this revelation? People know what they are truly worth, and they start demanding it.
Teachers don’t have too much. They are demanding what they deserve for the essential work they do. If they don’t get it, they harness the power of their union and demand it for themselves, and their students.
I think Shonda Rimes summed it up pretty well back in March of 2020 when schools were forced to close:
“Amazing”.
Congratulations. You finally got something in your Tweet completely correct.
Teachers are pretty amazing, aren’t we?
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