I thought that I would add my "two cents" on the "Teachers Are Paid
Too Much" debate. I agree, I think teachers are paid too much!! (Just
kidding) The amount of money a job pays has a tremendous imact on
the type of people it attracts. It is scarey to think about the brain
surgeon one might receive if brain surgeons were paid $6 an hour.
My point is that teacher salaries (in general) are not competitive with
other jobs requiring a four year degree, not to mention that some states
require teachers to eventually get a masters degree. Therefore, one
might argue that our schools get the "bottom of the barrel" for teachers,
the barrel being the pool of four year graduates. It is easily arguable
that those with great amounts of intelligence and ambition, a good work
ethic, etc will be motivated to find jobs which pay a considerable ammount
more than teaching, even if they potentially would make great teachers.
That is not say that if the starting salary for teacher's suddenly sky
rocketed overnight (I know, I'm dreaming) I would like the idea of a person
being attracted to the field for the pay alone.
It has become apparent that the low pay teachers receive (my starting
salary was an impressive ((sarcasm)) 23K and change- this for a person
who worked hard to pay for college and graduated with honors) combined
with the demands inherent in the profession have created very low competition
for teaching jobs; ie teacher shortages. This obviously means that
some people who do not possess the aforementioned characteristics and who
are just not "cut-out" to be teachers will "fall-into" the job because
of the shortage.
To summarize, and put it rather bluntly, low pay attracts a low caliber
of person (remember the brain surgeon). There are obviously exceptions
to this rule: I consider myself to be one of them. No matter how
low the salary, teaching will undoubtedly attract a certain number of altruistic
people who consider teaching to be their "calling". However, schools
loose wonderful teachers because they struggle to "pay the bills" and can
get much higher paying jobs elsewhere. Furthermore, even if a low
salary does not motivate a person to find a better payng job, it can easily
become a factor which leads to the person "burning out" and performing
way below their potential. I love my job, and although I have so
much to learn, feel that I am good at it. However, sometimes when
I pay my bills and look at my living arrangement, I wonder if I made the
right choice or if I would be happier in another profession which compensated
me more justly.
To summarize and simplify even further, I feel that an across the board
increase in teacher salaries of about ten thousand dollars would make the
profession more competive, and thus would attract "better" teachers.
This obviously wouldn't be a metamorphosis which would occur over night-
while it would increase the competition for getting into the field and
attract highly qualified individuals who would otherwise be deterred
by the pay, it would do nothing for the "'dead wood'" already in the field.
However, I think (I realize not everybody is going to see it my way) that
a fairly drastic increase in teacher salaries is a "no-brainer" and long
overdue.