As the daughter of a teacher, I can confidently say teachers deserve to be paid a lot more. Don’t get me wrong, I know that teachers aren’t doctors or CEOs of massive companies. But I’ve seen first hand how time-consuming and difficult teaching can be.
My mom comes home every night, swamped with papers to grade, parents to call and lessons to plan. Lots of times when her students don’t cooperate or are behave poorly, it can really put a damper on her day.
In most occupations, employees don’t have to worry about their fellow colleagues throwing paper airplanes or sticking gum under their seats. I understand that all types of jobs have their struggles, but the difficulties that teachers endure is not reflected in their salary.
Below are some reasons why teachers should be paid more:
Salary
College students are discouraged from becoming teachers solely based on salary. If you mention to anyone that you’re thinking about becoming a teacher, no one is afraid to say how tight on money you’ll be. Even with the benefits like summers off and retirement plans, many students are scared off from this career path.
Luckily, my mom isn’t the only source of income within our family. Having two sources of income allows for my parents to provide for all of us. However, this isn’t always the case for everyone.
If being a teacher is your only source of income, you can definitely suffer financially if you’re trying to provide for more than just yourself. With that being said, increasing the salary will consequently decrease discouragement, which many students studying education tend to suffer from.
Picking Up A Second Job
Continuing on the track of salary (or lack thereof), many teachers have to pick up a second job just to maintain a steady income.
I know my mom’s friend is a fitness instructor after school on the weekdays just to pick up some extra cash that she’s not making as a teacher. This takes away precious time she could be using to improve the classroom, but instead she needs to work a second job just to keep up financially.
After School Hours
Teachers spend hours after school doing work that they’re evidently not getting paid for. Growing up and still to this day, my mom is constantly staying after school to meet with students for extra help, attend meetings or even volunteer at after school activities since the school desperately needs help.
All these hours of extra work restricts hours that my mom could be spending with her family or getting other work done. There’s only so many hours in a day and I can tell my mom gets very stressed out when she has other commitments to attend on top of her regular teaching job.
Using Their Own Money
Another issue is pressure to create the best experiences for students, and sometimes that requires teachers to buy supplies or other items when the school itself doesn’t cater to this. Additionally, lots of students might not be able to afford all the supplies recommended on the list and teachers don’t want any students feeling left out, so it then becomes the teacher’s responsibility to provide those supplies for them.
Many schools do not give teachers enough money to cover the necessary expenses for the entire year. However, providing supplies that students themselves can’t shouldn’t all fall in the teachers’ hands, especially when their salary is already not much to begin with.
Lack of Support
Teaching can be very stressful. On top of that, blame falls a lot on teachers. They have not only the pressure from students and faculty to do their best work, but parents create a lot of tension on teachers.
If a parent feels a teacher isn’t living up to their preconceived expectations, constant complaints from others can make a teacher feel inadequate.
With all the difficulties that come with teaching, my mom never forgets to remind me of how rewarding it is. Making a child feel special, helping them improve their grades and watching students grow into young adults is all worthwhile despite all the struggles.