Sunday, December 12, 2010

Teachers and Change

JSOnline talks about Teachers and Change.

My comments:

Teachers are the only employees I know of who can vote on their own raises (Our "rulers" not withstanding).  Teachers want to be known as "professionals", yet belong to a "labor union".  In my experience, teachers don't particularly care what their employers (taxpayers) have to say; they want what they want.  Teaching is a "closed profession".  That is, nobody cares what you know or how well you can teach it to others.  You better have that piece of paper that says  you are an "educator".  Teachers are (generally) not experts in the subject they teach.  The are experts in "education".  The idea that teachers are underpaid is ridiculous.  In many places, they start at a salary that would be the envy of many coming out of college into their first job.

I used to respect all teachers.  Then I started attending school board meetings.  Go to one and you will see what I mean.

2 comments:

Dad29 said...

You mention the "closed union shop" mentality and you are dead-on.

I know a LOT of people who can teach extremely well, and who could never, ever, become a teacher in the union shops.

It's the "qualifications" game writ large. HR/ER people do it all the time in private industry, too.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Yup. the HR game isn't that tough, but they make the rules to protect their turf. I'll add that the Safety (as in OSHA compliance) game isn't particularly difficult, either. But turf is protected there as well.