WordType Designs™
Driven To Distractions©
The Sound of One Hand Clapping©

A rchive Date
[ 25-05-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
      [http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Robinson_Ian/2007/09/09/4481071-sun.php

      Enough whining
      Teachers make money hand over fist despite their complaints
      By IAN ROBINSON
      Sun, September 9, 2007

      Two columns in a row from Sun columnist Lyn Cockburn - who is one of those old-fashioned lefties who make Jack Layton look like a reasonable fiscal conservative instead of the raving lunatic economic illiterate that he is - essentially urge the canonization of the humble school teacher.

      She apparently overheard a couple of guys at a gas station complaining about how much money teachers make, considering how few hours they work and how much vacation time they get. Eeek!

      Cockburn used to be a teacher.

      This occasioned the two columns, which parroted the old bugaboo endlessly repeated by many in the teaching profession that most of their work is "invisible." They prepare lessons and grade papers at home, and put in so many invisible hours that they could make more per hour at 7-Eleven. Yeah. Right.

      I wish I could work invisibly. Instead, my employers - unreasonable, vicious individuals one and all - only think I'm working when my ass is glued to a chair in front of a computer screen.

      They monitor how many pages an hour I edit too, and if I screw up, they very gently and lovingly correct me, usually by saying stuff like: "Hey! What gives with this headline? Were you dropped on the head as a small child?"

      School teachers have become a protected species, like certain types of whales and snails, essentially beyond criticism. What? You don't like the blue whale? You want to ... eat them? Next thing you tell me you're going to criticize teachers!

      (Note to my kid's teachers: You get mad at this column, write a letter to the editor. Take it out on him and I'll litigate.)

      After much exposure to the education system, I will admit the pedagogues to whom I was exposed as a child, taught me valuable life lessons. They taught me how to hate.

      I'll spare you the details, but until my daughter went to school here in Calgary and my son followed her, the only truly efficient use for teachers I could contemplate was as: a) Compost for my roses b) Skeet

      But I've changed. I recognize that not only are there fewer psychos in the profession, the good teachers are very, very good and my children have grown up adoring some of them.

      But .... The mythos of the underpaid, valiant teacher is just that. A myth.

      Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder found that pay for American teachers - who generally are considered to be compensated less generously than Canadian educators - was within 10% of that of accountants, biological scientists and registered nurses. Vedder even looked at the number of invisible hours worked by teachers, based on their self-reporting.

      Now, self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. It's why driver's licence data is always wrong. Men always report an extra inch and a half to their height and women always whittle off 10 lb. or so. Self-reporting is also why we're worried about teenagers having orgies.

      Survey a bunch of 15-year-old boys and ask them how many sexual partners they've had and the virgins report double digits. Nobody ever insists on photos of the lying little fellers. If they did, the researchers would say: "You've had sex with 14 girls? Yeah. Right. Not with those zits, buddy."

      But even without questioning the number of invisible hours the teachers claimed to work, Vedder discovered that on an hourly basis, teachers earned more than: Architects, civil and mechanical engineers, space scientists, nurses, physical therapists and librarians."

      Personally, I don't mind that. I kind of dislike most children other than my own - mine are polite and well- behaved and when they're not, they're usually at least amusing - and I wouldn't want to be a teacher.

      What I do mind is the complaining, either by teachers unions or ex-teachers like Cockburn. Good teachers perform a valuable service. They also make money hand over fist. I don't begrudge them that. Good for them.

      But enough whining already.

      Have a letter for the editor? E-mail it to webmaster@calgarysun.com
      Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved


      World Fact Book (CIA)
              ]
      Cross-Indexed:

      New document Icon


Some pages may require Adobe Acrobat Reader™


Copyright and Fair Use Information: The contents of this web site is protected by international copyright laws and may not be reproduced in any form or manner whatsoever, if for the purpose of resale or solicitation of a donation. The essays included here, may be reproduced only if: 1)They are not altered in any way; 2) reproductions must be accompanied by this copyright page ; and 3) it is given freely and without charge.
Fair use: The fair use of copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in above sections, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is fair use the factors to be considered include : (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and; (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market value of the copyrighted work.
Home | About Narrative? |Contact
Copyright © 2025. All Rights Reserved
HAG122125 (1998 -2026)