Numbers said:
Don't get me wrong, I respect and give all that I've got today to the teachers I've had over the years, but nonetheless, teaching is a real tough job and you will cop a lot of flack. The pay is pretty pitiful, the conditions are worse, but then I guess if you get self satisfaction from knowing that you've taught something beneficial to someone, teaching is probably a good job.
You paint a picture like their CO's in a max security prison or something. I guarrantee you Taxi Driver's, Police Officers and Baggage Handlers get a tougher time from the public then teachers. I'm not saying it is easy, sure you get some abusive kids, but at the end of the day your in the class room (high school) at max an hour with that lot before they move on. Plus, they are only kids- their often immature and a good teacher knows a little bit of psychology and how to handle this. Many of my best teachers never went crazy/yelled, but calmly embarrassed the disruptive kids, isolating them from the social circle they were attempting to impress. These teachers were also highly funny, interactive, passionate and treated the kids like freinds- and hence the respect flowed towards them. The teachers that often cop shit are in many cases incompetent, lack passion or have no personal skills or interest in the subject and hence should not have choosen the career path in the first place.
Anyway, lets take a generalised look at the standard day-
The normal teacher prob arrives at 8-8:30 has coffee in staff room before going to their roll call class etc. Generally teachers also get a free period on many days (an hour) plus they get the lunch/recess or afternoon break off as well (even though they do get play ground duty rostered). Then factor in events like assemblies, often 40 minutes to an hour once a week they can sit down for and of course sport- up to 2 hrs of their afternoon where they jsut monitor the kids and have a chat. For eg, i use to go to the gym for sport and ten pin bowling- at both venues the teachers would bring a magazine/paper and just sit down and have a coffee. Not a bad way to get paid. In fact, on that same day we always had a 40 minute assembly in the morning and a half hour break before sport. Thursdays at my school meant a max of of 2-3 hrs in the classroom and a full day's pay!!!!!! Lets also consider that on the normal day, we are only talking about 6.5 hours people- my high school was 8:30-2:45 (that's 6.25 hrs but allow 15 in either arvo/morning for arriving etc)
Now i have a lot of respect for good teachers and Im not saying it is not stressful, but not many other professions gets 10 week+ paid holidays a year as well. They never can get 'called in' for weekends etc There is a lot of perks. If you make head teacher etc it does nearly cap out at 80 grand a year. Not bad! Assuming you meet someone in the profession as a future partner, u could b on 150+ a year combined. I know many wealthy teachers and they love their job and also after the first few years of settling do not find it stressful at all. They also have a very nice superannuation package, which i think came in during the 80's, but sadly might be phased out for new teachers now. The 'marking' is pitiful compared to a lawyer's work he has to bring home or an accountant's work around tax time. These professions, particularly a busy solicitor work very long hours for the money they earn as do many other professionals, often including weekends. They would also be lucky to get any more then four weeks annual leave.
Plus, if your good at your area of study teaching it at the high school level can be very briezy if not boring. Look at how bludgey casual teachers get it, often just babysitting classes without having to do any teaching. Geez look at PE teachers! Of course every1 wants 2 be one- paid the same as the 4 U maths teacher and they get to stand in the sun and blow a whistle or a draw a diagram of a dick on the board and explain sex to laughing yr 8 kids.
If you want to talk about really hard teaching, then discuss being a University Lecturer cause that IS NOT easy (emphasise lecturer/academic/subject coordinator NOT tutor, cause many of them do seem to have it easy).
