Letter Of The Day

I am appalled at the idea that teachers are overpaid or that education and knowledge could be considered a commodity.

First, I challenge anyone who feels teachers are overpaid to step into a classroom of 30 15-year-olds and complete a lesson, then grade those students’ work, try to find current lesson plans and information in your 15-year-old textbooks and deliver the lesson with interest and have them actually remember it and learn something.

Second, education and knowledge are not commodities in the sense that one can buy and sell them for a profit. The educational system is cumbersome, yes; however that is because learning is cumbersome.

Does everyone learn how to read the first time they pick up a book or sing the ABCs? Students learn at different rates and in different ways. It takes a flexible model to allow for those differences and still encourage progress.

Why is teacher pay based on years of service then? It takes years to hone teaching skills. It takes the summers of curriculum building, classes, nights of lesson planning along with classroom experience to gain those skills. Yet base pay is necessary because teachers are the lowest-paid professionals with four-year degrees.

Don’t forget, it is the teachers who educate the doctors, lawyers and business people of tomorrow. The most educated people, who could also make great teachers, often don’t enter the profession because it doesn’t pay enough.

Is “performance” the answer? The best teachers are often given the most difficult students. Thus, their performance may be skewed by the results of some test score versus the progress a child has made in their classroom.

No matter what the scenario may be, teachers are worth way more than the measly salaries they are paid. Education is not for sale.

--J. Powers
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