I am not a teacher. However, my partner is. This past year she took a teaching job taking a pay cut from her previous job. Previously she worked 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., now it's more like 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., on a good day. Back at her old job she got an hour lunch. Now as a teacher, she is lucky to get time to eat the carrots in her lunch bag. Mostly she scratches for prep time, quickly eats a bite, and has to plan bathroom breaks. All the while she is on stage being energetic and educational to 22 wonderful kids. If this weren't enough, after getting her own kids to bed, she does some prep before bed. And the weekends, well last year we would be up late watching a movie, or visiting, or having a fire outside. Now as a teacher, exhausted from the week, she usually falls asleep part way through the movie around the crack of 9 p.m. So my thought is this, though there is always waste in any business or program, I don't think that our educators are the problem when it comes to being overpaid and underworked. If you spend some time around one and help in their class you will see what I mean. I would venture to say they are underpaid for all that they do. And summers off, the shortened version they get, is really just making up for the long hours of overtime and no lunches the previous nine months and trying to get them recharged before they start all over again. I think we need to look at other areas for examination and not be so critical of the teachers who are trying to educate our children, doing the best they can with the resources and time they have.
Joshua Salisbury
Grand Rapids
