After reading newspapers, watching television news, and puzzling over the constant stream of criticism of schools, I think it is time for me to come out of retirement and dispel some myths about public school teachers and teaching.
I feel well qualified to do this because I have taught everything from pre-school to college level classes and as the late George Burns, speaking on another subject once said, “I’ve been at it longer than just about anybody.”
Myth No. 1: Teachers work school hours and only nine months a year.
It used to be true that school started the day after Labor Day and ended in June. Today, in schools on traditional schedules, students attend from mid-August until early June. Teachers, however, work several days before school starts and several days after school is out. There are meetings to attend, rooms to get ready, materials to organize, and lesson plans to prepare. It is not unusual for elementary teachers to spend as much as two weeks before school starts getting ready for students, and to spend at least two weeks after school ends to pack everything away. Teachers do what dedicated workers everywhere do — whatever it takes to get the job done right.
Most schools operate on a six-hour day for students. Teachers are required to be at work before school and after school. Most teachers spend this time preparing for the day or tutoring students, attending meetings, supervising student activities, or consulting with colleagues.
There are papers to grade, parents to call, evening meetings, materials and lesson plans to prepare, and more. With 30 students in a class, most teachers can plan to spend an additional two or three hours per night on grading papers and preparation. It makes a 10-hour day most school days. Add in the hours spent over the weekend catching up with grading, report cards, planning, etc., and it can total up to a 60-hour work week. Again, whatever it takes to get the job done right.
Myth No. 2: Teachers have a “job for life.”
This myth is popular with anti-union writers and speakers. Truth is, teachers must successfully complete college coursework and serve 8 to 12 weeks as unpaid student teachers before applying for a position.
If they are hired, they are on “probation” for three years. This means a teacher can be released without cause until the first day of their fourth year of teaching. If the teacher remains in that same school district and manages to stay ahead of the buffaloes, they may retain employment — provided they take additional college course work to update skills and renew their certification. But spouses get transferred, circumstances change, and families move. When a teacher moves to another district, they must start all over again with a three-year probationary period.
Myth No. 3: Teachers get automatic raises for just putting in time.
In Colorado, state funding per student ranks among the lowest in the 50 states. Colorado student achievement — as measured on standardized testing — ranks above average for the 50 states. Teachers must be doing something right! Looking at industry and business, experienced workers get raises and almost always earn more than beginning workers. Expertise and experience are valued in the world of work but not so much in the fishbowl of education.
Myth No. 4: Teachers receive generous pay and lucrative pensions.
Until the recent economic slowdown, every spring I could count on headlines announcing that graduates of Colorado School of Mines would be landing jobs paying two times what I was making as an experienced public school teacher with a master’s degree. Ouch. In the district where I worked for over 20 years, a beginning teacher with a wife and two children received a salary which made his children eligible for free lunch. Nobody goes into teaching for the money. There are no company paid insurance plans, no end-of-the-year bonuses, no company Christmas parties, and not even a gold watch when you retire.
At a school where I taught for six years, the teachers planned a celebration marking the 35th anniversary of the opening of the school with music from that era, displays, honored guests, cake, and punch. We discovered photos from the opening day of the school, including a photo of several staff members in the teachers lounge. The furniture in the photo was the same furniture still in the lounge 35 years later!
At another school, when I started the floor tiles in the ladies’ second floor restroom were broken and the mirror above the lavatory was missing. Fourteen years later, when I retired, neither had ever been repaired.
As for pensions, yes, teachers pay into PERA (Public Employees Retirement Association) with every paycheck. Generally, with 20 years service, a teacher can retire and receive a monthly pension based on years of service and annual salary.
In my case, I worked full-time while attending college and paid into Social Security over the years. When I had enough birthdays to apply for social security benefits, I was told that my PERA benefits were a “windfall,” reducing my social security benefits to less than 80 dollars a month. I have received social security for almost 10 years, and it is still less than $80 per month.
Myth No. 5: The “best and brightest” do not go into teaching.
Is it really smart to spend all that money on a college education to get prepared for a career where the pay is low, the work is incredibly challenging, and the workers are not respected or valued? Look at any comic strip, movie, or television program and see for yourself how teachers are portrayed. The women are frumpy, the men bald with enormous bellies. Whatever happened to the portrayal of teachers in the television shows “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” “Our Miss Brooks,” and “Coach?” Would Mr. Kotter in “Welcome Back Kotter” really be welcomed back today?
Heap on the uncertainty of budgets, the run-down school buildings with no air conditioning and/or ancient heating systems, administrators and school board at odds with each other, and the list of reasons not to go into teaching grows. Let the so-called best and brightest go for the glory where the pay is good, the offices are plush, and they can go the bathroom when they need to instead of waiting for the bell to ring. Or they can go to lunch at a restaurant or maybe even take off early on a Friday afternoon. As for teachers, well, never mind.
In my case, I knew the second day of first grade that I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to grow up and be just like the lovely lady who taught me how to read and opened my eyes to the world of learning. I somehow managed to be in the top 10 percent of my large high school graduating class and was ranked in the top 100 of my college graduating class. While not claiming to be the best or the brightest, many of us do claim to be caring, dedicated, willing to serve, and to give our best efforts to help children learn. That is why we became teachers.
Myth No. 6: Teacher unions are evil.
Before unions, women teachers were paid less than men teachers doing the same work. Before unions, ladies who got married or got pregnant were forced to resign from teaching. Teacher unions wrangled decent pay and working conditions for teachers and the financial protection promised by a small pension. You may not know that the discovery of a penniless retired teacher living in a broken-down chicken coop led to the founding of AARP. Unions fought for some modicum of job security, putting a stop to teachers being let go on the whim of the school board or at the hands of a tyrannical administrator.
Thank goodness dedicated teachers still continue to teach and to reach out to students from terrible family situations, to students coming to school hungry and without decent clothes and shoes, to students who have never owned a book or had a story read to them. Thank goodness there are teachers who keep on working and caring to make this world a better place, one child at a time, one over-crowded, under-funded classroom full at a time.
Doris Cruze is a graduate of Texas Christian University and the University of Northern Colorado with 29 years teaching experience. She is retired and lives in Littleton where she is a community volunteer.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
