Hicks Family Blog: April 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Day 16 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

The recent attack on teachers in the media. I do not know every aspect of every legislation decision and specific laws, but I do know every aspect of my job. I must say it burdens my heart to know that people can say such awful things about somebody's profession. Our job is to educate students, but as an elementary teacher I also nurture them. It is hard for me to understand how parents or society can point fingers when I wipe their child's tears, laugh at their jokes, listen to their stories, try to teach them right from wrong, encourage them, and lift their self-esteem. I am not sure what schools people are looking at, but at Central Cass the teachers are very loving and caring. They have patience and decency when it comes to dealing with their students. Yes, we get summers off, I knew this when I went to school, just the same as nurses knew they would need to work weekends, real-estate agents knew they would have to work evenings, or managers knew they may have to work holidays. It is just the way our professions are. We are contracted for those nine months and technically laid off for 3 months in which we can't collect un-employment. I am proud of my profession, and I take it to heart when others knock it down as I see it as one of the most important roles in our society. I will also leave you with this :) ENJOY! Oh- and no picture as I included this high informative article for your viewing!

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET'S SEE....

That's $585 X 180= $105,300

per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000 (ABOUT $29,000 where I work in North Dakota!). $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.

Update: I'm glad that many people have shown their support for teachers by reposting this note, but I am not the original author. I received this as an anonymous chain letter email, and I wanted to share it to support the public workers of Wisconsin.

Day 15 - A picture of your career.

Well...I would probably get in trouble if I put any pictures of my kiddos on here. I teach first grade and love every minute of it. The kids are wonderful in Casselton and the parents are very supportive. Here is a picture I just pulled from the internet.