'The case against summer vacation'

I have built photoshop and InDesign centerpieces for my job while at home, too. I also have worked nights and weekends and holidays for 27 years. Just finished working 10 days in a row. And I've never taken a sick day. The sympathy ain't flowing from this corner. Sorry.

I qualified my statement by saying "before the economic crisis". Be careful about the "displaying ignorance" crap. The mirror can be a cruel device.

Because "before the economic crisis" my county was hiring 1,000 teachers every year and, like I said, I have seen SEVERAL newspaper colleagues seamlessly move into the profession.

My wife taught English for 15 years in Krivoy Rog and Saint-Petersburg but can pretty much forget about finding a similar job in this country, in this climate, today. So I pretty much know exactly what I'm talking about here.

Nobody ANYWHERE can find a job easily today.

 

That was far from the only ignorant statement you have made on this thread. If you weren't talking about things that apply now, what was the point of saying it? Oh yeah, you want to disrespect teachers. Kind of sad given that you seem to know a few of 'em.

You still didn't answer my question about when you went into work those days you came home at 1 a.m. I've done it, too. No sympathy flowing from my end for you, either, but you keep scrambling to try to find ways to misrepresent teachers as lazy.

You have anecdotal evidence of a handfull of people who moved from journalism into teaching and that is supposed to say something? Please. Give it a rest already.

 

This is what I was trying to get at earlier and got scewered for. Teachers get no sympathy from me for the hours they work -- and I'm not expecting any for the hours I work. It is after all a chosen profession on both ends. I have no idea what a 40 hour week is, have never worked less than probably 50. At my last post through the winter I would work 28 days straight, force myself to take a day or two off and then work another 28 days, it was of course a non-union shop, the only thing keeping that in check now is that I work in a union shop. I work every long weekend, for that matter I work all weekend every weekend. I get little time off and have spent thousands of dollars on equipment, not to mention gas, for work that I never saw a nickle back. For sick days I've taken two in eight years -- one where they had to send me home because I was near death at work, and the other because I thought I broke my ankle (turns out it was a real bad sprain) and spent the bulk of my shift in the emergency waiting room and geting x-rays. And I know I am far from a rare case among journalists who work their bag off just to get by and keep their job, and then often that isn't even enough -- have lived with an axe swinging over my head for the past two years under the constant threat of being laidoff, I fortunately have not been yet.
Nothing has been said that will get me to bow down before teachers for the work they put in. Some absolutely go above and beyond the call of duty and they should be commended for it. I, however know far too many that coast, and saddly it is probbaly a lot closer to a 50-50 split than anyone wants to admit.

 

No I bleeping don't. People read "disrespect" into ANYTHING. On the second page (post #32) YOU made a snide post complaining that "I just knew part of this thread was going to be full of people bashing teachers."

Read that closely: "Full of people bashing teachers."

The ONLY post with ANYTHING negative in it to that point was the one by Beef03. One post = "full of people bashing teachers."

Talk about your bleeping overreactions. I challenge you to find another post before #32 other than Beef's "bashing teachers."

I only maintained they are not "vastly underpaid" . . . and I refuse to exalt their profession over what many other hard-working Americans do every day. They work hard. So do we. That's it. And that's not bashing anything.

Jeebus.

 

Most school years are 180 days. We essentially get 10 weeks off in the summer -- Memorial Day to the second week of August, with a few smaller breaks sprinkled in.

 

BTE, it was a reaction and a prediction. Again, work on your reading comprehension.

You just keep on digging through the thread and quoting tiny bits of people's posts rather than pullilng pieces that suit you out of context. Though I will be clear -- I meant exactly what I said in that one line. That is exactly what you are doing.

 

"Most Predictable Thread Ever" nominee, 2010.

 

I think this thread should be renamed "We Work Just as Hard".

 

How 'bout: "No One In The Whole World Since The Beginning Of Time Has Ever Worked As Hard As I Do Ever. Ever. And That Goes Double For Teachers."

 

I think it's been pretty reasonable for the most.
BTE, Beef and Crimsonace have all been reasonable.
All BTE and Beef have said is they don't buy the constant martyr portrayal of teachers.
I don't either.
That doesn't mean I don't respect what they do.

 

If you guys want to earn a little extra money, sign up to be a substitute teacher and report back to the thread as to the ease of the job.

 

So the list of people we can never make fun of goes something like this...
1) Crippled kids
2) Orphans
3) Teachers