Tomorrow, 20-30 young children will arrive at your house around 7:30am. Some of them will be calm and collected; others will be bouncing off the wall from a sugary breakfast; and some will not have eaten breakfast at all. Some of them will be friends with each other and some of them will not like each other. Some of them will speak like little geniuses and others will have trouble reading. Your job is to plan a day of engaging activities that will keep this group of children happy and well-behaved. You have the option to design the day however you want, but your performance will be judged by how well they do on a test at the end of the year. Youll repeat this task with some variation for almost every weekday over a nine month period. Well give you a generous 20 minute lunch break every day, and you can work from home in the evenings to plan for the next day. Your starting salary will be about $30,000 and over time youll make about 50% less than your peers who also graduated college but are working in other professions. You are going to love these kids like crazy and put your heart and soul into this job. Youre not in it for the money. Youre in it for the looks on their faces when they finally understand something new, for the joy of seeing them build their self-esteem, and for the impact youll have on their future and in turn the rest of the worlds future. Just the little things, right? Oh, and just so you know, a lot of the time youre going to hear people say: Gosh, I wish I had your job. Only work part-time for 9 months and get my summers off! Must be nice.
The first week in May is Teacher Appreciation Week.
If you didnt get excited about the job offer Ive just described, chances are youre not a teacher. And thats ok. Not everyone is built to be a teacher. It takes a certain kind of person to spend day-in, day-out in a room full of kids. It also takes a certain kind of person to take care of our kids in a system that is far from perfect and isnt going to change overnight. Those people deserve our appreciation. Not just this week, but every week. They deserve our appreciation even if theyre not perfect or they dont always get it right. 99% of teachers are in the classroom for the right reason; they care deeply about every kid who comes through the door and they are doing their very best to do right by each of them.Because 99% of teachers are in the classroom for the right reason; they care deeply about every kid who comes through the door and they are doing their very best to do right by each of them. This year, for teacher appreciation week, lets take it outside of the classroom. Sure, we should still do nice things for our teachers to show them personally how much we appreciate them (here are some ideas). But if we really want to make a difference in their lives, we need to do more. We need to speak up loudly and clearly to defend teachers against those who criticize them based on inaccurate and unfair information. We can start by reading the National Education Associations Myths and Facts about Educator Pay. In addition to the salary statistics shared in our hypothetical job description, youll learn:
Annual pay for teachers has decreased sharply compared to other professions over the last 60 years
Most teachers work about 50 hours per week (not just the 6-8 hour school day for which they are contracted)
Most teachers spend the summer teaching summer classes or taking professional certification courses to keep up their license.
Youll also learn that tenure does not equal job for life it simply ensures that teachers can only be fired for just cause and have a right to due process before being fired.
Next time you hear someone say that teachers have it easy or are overpaid or are never fired youll have some facts to counter those arguments. If we truly appreciate our teachers, we need to speak up when we hear people making these claims. Whether we see these arguments in the comments section of a newspaper article or at a discussion for a town school budget vote, we cant just silently disagree we need to say something. Write a letter to the editor, speak up in a public meeting, or write to your congressperson to advocate for legislation that supports teachers. For Teacher Appreciation Week, and beyond, lets give teachers the gift of our support and our voice, especially when times get tough. Because thats an easy thing for us to do compared to what they do every day for our kids and our communities.
I had no idea how infuriating the question “how can I help?” would be when there was a sink full of bottles and an empty fridge. Mom friends to the rescue.
Setting goals allows kids to experience growth socially and emotionally by helping them develop self-regulation skills, gain responsibility and build confidence.
Our family vacations—as cheap and tiring as they have been—have made my kids empathetic, curious, and open-minded world travelers, and this makes me proud.
Carrie Howe
Author