At the ripe age of nine years old, I had my entire life planned out.
In a small elementary school with about three hundred people in it, I decided that I wanted to grow up and be a high school history teacher. I was absolutely fascinated by the subject and I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to stand in front of a group of kids and make a subject that a lot of people find a bore, extremely fun to learn about.
My mother is a teacher, as is my aunt, and almost every adult in my life is connected to the education system in some way, just because of the circle of friends my mother kept. I have always felt a connection with my teachers, especially those in History, so what better for me to do then follow in their footsteps? I had my life planned out at nine.
That was long before I understood how the economy worked, along with the value of money.
However, it wasn't long before I was discouraged for wanting to pursue education as a profession. "You'll never make any money!" people would tell me. I was told time after time I would hate myself for choosing the job I had dreamed of since I was nine, but I wouldn't let them change my mind. What does money have to do with anything if you are happy? Turns out, in today's economy, a lot.
For being the most important job in the world, teachers sure are not getting paid what they deserve. Think about it, what profession could anybody have in this world without someone teaching them how to read, to write, to count, let alone to teach someone the parts of the brain to perform neurosurgery or the parts of a computer to repair it?
People often undermine the amount of work teachers put into their jobs.
You see pictures and videos and articles everywhere of teachers financially struggling, but why? The problem is the stigma with teachers. Many people doubt the abilities of teachers, believe the false assumption that they are "overpaid" and that they're just 'so lucky' to get the weekends and summer off. Truth is, you don't realize the hardship of being a teacher until you experience it. Like I said, my mother is a teacher, and a dedicated one at that.
Although she is off the clock at 3:30 every day, most days she doesn't get home until six in the evening. When she comes home, she cares for her family like most mothers and fathers do, running mad to get all of her kids where they need to be, if she's lucky, gets a good meal, and then sits down with her laptop until nine or ten at night grading papers, making lesson plans, or taking classes required by the Department of Education to maintain her degree. Her weekends are the same, not getting much free time to do as she pleases because she is focused on providing her students with the best education they can get.
Her summers are spent learning the new curriculum, taking more classes, working to ready her classroom for her new students, and buying supplies for each child.
Their workday never ends.
Their weekends don't have free time.
They don't get paid enough to take their families on the vacations they wish they could go on (if they can even find time to leave home, due to all of the summer work that needs done before they start a new school year). No matter how much you dislike school, or how you think other jobs are more important than the profession of teaching, you have to realize the amount of dedication these people put into teaching children and making sure they are prepared for the future. Everyone always says it takes a different kind of heart to be a teacher, and they aren't wrong.
With the amount of pressure from parents, society, financial matters they face, combined with their small amount of "free time," these people deserve the utmost respect from our society.
The least we could do is pay them more.
This isn't me as a future educator trying to raise my own pay. This is me trying to call out for justice for all of the past teachers who spent years in a system being underpaid for truly one of the most important jobs in the world. Within the next few years, we are going to see a shortage of teachers, because society has placed a higher value of financial stability than the importance of educating future generations. People are abandoning their majors and passions because they are afraid they will not be able to make ends meet with bills and other necessities. Think of your favorite teacher, and how much they impacted your life. Now think of all the hard work and dedication they put into their job for barely any reward at all. This is injustice.
So when people ask me, "Why are you going to be a teacher? You won't make any money!"
I tell them that I was put on this Earth to follow the great teachers before me, and impact my future students' lives and education. Money has never been an object for me, but it shouldn't have to be to do a job with this level of importance.
(For further information, feel free to click the hyperlinked text, explaining more of the injustice in the Education system in the United States)
