Hey gang, so last Tuesday before the break I went to the screening of American Teacher at the downtown campus. This was an opportunity to pre-view and comment on the film that is the "other-side" of 'Waiting For Superman.' It was made by the same people and had some big names attached to it. I was really pumped about this, because 'Waiting For Suprman' really was not fair to us. Unfortunately, this film was obviously made by the same people, and they obviously still do not get it. The entire movie was about money. Basically they expressed that we work a lot and may not get compensated fairly for all that work, uhhhhh duh. Then they showed 4 actual teachers lives, none of whom i thought were exceptionally amazing teachers, and all of whom represented a very small sect of teachers. For instance the Harvard undgrad/Columbia Masters grad who is an elementry teacher and thinks she should be paid a fortune because she went to an Ivy League school. Or the Texas HS teacher who earns $54,000 a year works at a Home Depot 7 days a week all year round and somehow is still in debt up to his ears. Finally the San Fran teacher who they painted to be the greatest of them all who left teaching because he could make double the salary at his familys real estate business, and later said "even if I could make this kind of money teaching I wouldn't go back because the stress level is too high."
What I have to say about all this, is screw the people who made that movie, screw the teachers in that movie and screw anyone who has to watch that movie just to understand that we work hard. You know I worry about a lot of things. I worry about finding a job, I worry that my resume isn't up to par, I worry kids won't like me and I worry that someday I'm gonna pour everything I have into a kid and it won't be enough; that he/she will still fall through the cracks. What I don't worry about, is my salary. Because in the small amount of time I've been in the classroom, I haven't been paid a dime. And being in that classroom makes my life a hell of alot more stressful and I feel liek this is the busiest semester of my life and that I'm constantly burning the candle at both ends. That being said, this is the BEST semester I've ever had, hands down. I love every second that I'm in that classroom and I have already seen the potential we have to make a difference, and when I think about doing that for the rest of my life I cannot wait to get it started.
I'm not an idiot, yes I would love the opportunity to get paid more, and I think we deserve to be paid more. I'm all for teacher evaluations that determine pay or anything else that will compensate GOOD teachers for the work they do. But I can also tell you that my family survived on far less than what that Texas teacher is making. And I can tell you that waking up everyday to go to a job you hate is miserable. So I thank God that I don't have to do that. We're all going to be great teachers and there is no doubt in my mind that we will be richly rewarded, it just may not be monetarily. And if those teachers in the video want to quit over money, then good riddance, cuz you weren't doing it for the reasons anyway.
*I'm sorry to get all preachy and serious on you but I had to get that out
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