'The case against summer vacation'

Buck, I never said that Obama invented the idea or that he was the first to start a discussion of improving education. I said that he is generating discussion and that is a good thing. That's all. I was giving him credit for recognizing the need for change even though I hate pretty much every idea he has offered on the subject.

 

I taught at the high school level for six years, and still maintain my certificate. I got out about seven years ago and don't anticipate returning.

Yes, there are teachers who do it for the schedule and coast once they have tenure. I'd say it's higher than in other professions. But is it most teachers? No. One of my frustrations with teaching is that once you're tenured there's no real incentive to improve, but I'd still argue that most teachers have the professional pride required to do so anyway.

Teachers don't have to save for retirement? True -- if you got into the system 20-plus years ago, at least in my state. The teacher retirement plan offered now here is still pretty good, but it's mostly your own money going in. The days of retiring at 50-something, collecting 80 percent of your previous paycheck, then taking another teaching job are pretty much over.

The way the pay scale works is intriguing, too. I started teaching at age 24 and would have hit the maximum of the pay scale at age 40. Without any cost of living increases in the contract, I'd basically be making the same salary for the last 25 years of my career. In the school district where we live, the top of the salary schedule is what my wife (a nurse) made at her first job out of nursing school.

More on topic: One of the reasons for keeping summer vacation is that teachers need a time to go back to school. In my state certificates need to be renewed every five years and to renew you have to complete credit hours. It's possible to do in the evenings, etc., but it's much easier to do in the summers (you're busy enough during the school year without having to worry about taking classes, too). It's also worth noting that these additional credits are required, but teachers have to take the classes on their own time and pay for them out of their own pockets.

I typically looked at summer vacation as comp time. I was paid for eight hours a day for 183 days a year, and put in many, many more hours than that. Ten weeks off at the end of the school year seemed about right.

 

I understand the distinction you're trying to make, and I'm not trying to be argumentative.
I just don't give anyone credit for 'generating discussion' about an issue that has been discussed nonstop for 40-50 years or for recognizing 'the need for change' in a public education system that people have been trying to improve or fix for that same span.
It's like giving a politician credit for being anti-crime.

 

Yeah, I'm spending too much time in public-school classrooms to be reasonable . Sorry.

 

You must not be part of the negotiation team for your bargaining group.
You lack venom and vitriol.

 

Some people make it a higher priority than others, Buck. Frankly, it seems like you just don't want to give Obama any credit for anything, even the faith praise I was offering.

 

Obama is the first one I have heard discuss keeping certain schools open until 8 or 9 at night.

 

Maybe I'm just more skeptical and cynical.
I just think it's specious. Whether it's fixing public education or cracking down on crime, it's usually grandstanding and rhetoric masquerading as discussion and problem-solving.

 

I don't have kids, so I don't have a dog in this fight. I will say that we might as well get them ready for the real world and go year-round, five days a week for 50 weeks with a two-week break, just like the rest of us working stiffs.

 

More stereotypical bullshit.

Your career may very well be rewarding, but it is far less important to society than someone who teaches kids. Most professions are.

 

Tell me about the "vacations" when I spend the next three days of "summer vacation" at school getting ready for the year, which begins in two weeks.

Or when my wife is angry at me come January because I don't come home until 6 p.m. every night.

 

And someone like me who comes home at 1 a.m. to a sleeping wife is supposed to feel sympathy?

"importance to society" really is measured by "can this person be replaced if he leaves?"

Garbage people are important because, without them, there would be mountains of filth and an inevitable health hazard. But because if one leaves he can be replaced quite easily, the position simply is not deemed important.

If your kid's second-grade teacher retires today, a replacement will be easily found the next day. He may even be a former journalist who was fired from his job as an agate clerk and just decided to start teaching (like one of my teacher friends). I have a hard time exalting a job that can (or could, before the economic crisis) be landed so easily. I've sat in on his class and have seen others at the high school in which he teaches. Students are glassy-eyed and look like they are struggling to stay awake.