"Teachers Have It Easy": The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of…

This book was of course mostly preaching to the choir, but it did bring into focus some issues that have only swirled around in my mind, i.e. if teachers are professionals why must they clock in/out [it's not like I actually only work those hours, after all], and the big one that I get a lot - if teaching is such a great thing and teachers are so wonderful, why does one get the third degree or made to feel like they've chosen a lesser job when one says they went to a competitive college and became a teacher? I get that one A LOT. Happily, my current teaching situation does not have the pay issues, and I have been able to afford a house (albeit with a big mortgage), but the issues of respect and professionalism are still very true.... and sadly, right now it seems that teachers must have it really easy and must be living really large, because I feel like they are being blamed and scapegoated in many places. ( )

I would love all my teacher friends to read this and discuss it with me. It's not a book you read for the pleasure of reading--the structure is too choppy for that--but I think it's an important book. While we've all seen charts and graphs showing what teachers' salaries are, the first part of this book was umpteen first-person anecdotes from teachers about what the couldn't afford to do, how many hours they had to work, how they had to leave teaching for financial reasons. It's depressing, sobering, and important. The second part of the book spotlights financial plans that various districts have tried (incentives, bonuses, pay structures) and to what success. ( )