It had to be said....

“You’re in it for the kids so what does the pay matter?”

“The hours are wonderful plus you get summers off. I wish I could be so lucky!”

“Well eventually it will be easier because you just use the same worksheets year after year, right?”

“Naturally you wouldn’t expect to do it for the money.”

“The benefits may be awful, but those intangible rewards are great. Besides, you get loan forgiveness...so your education was free!”

The ridiculous list I hear goes on and on.

I am a teacher, a professional who takes time to hone her craft, to learn the ins and outs of the profession. I  am on Twitter, Facebook, the College Board forum, the Right Question Institute forum,  Pinterest, Blogger, and other sites to collaborate, share, question, learn, reach-out, and discuss best practices with other professional teachers. I spend my summers attending conferences, developing new curriculum, practicing new strategies, pouring over student feedback, reviewing new texts, and creating new lesson plan units.

I have a Masters of Arts in Teaching. I am paying off the loans for that degree myself. There is no government entity forgiving my loan, no magical inheritance dropping from the sky, and no grant money. I have no complaints about paying for my loan (other than the interest rate), and would love to pursue a PhD should I ever pay off this debt. I do this because I want to be the best, and I expect no less than the highest quality from myself in my career.

Going into my fourth year of teaching, I am amazed at the inane comments I hear about the teaching profession. Notice the word choice ladies and gentlemen – PROFESSION. This is a career choice, not a charity. The fact that I happen to love what I do does not justify the idea that I am poorly compensated. I have never heard "loving your job" used as logic for why you are undercompensated in any other field. No one in their right mind says that to a lawyer or doctor, a businessman or an engineer, so please do not say that to me.

True, I love working with teenagers, but do not make the mistake of assuming I am only doing this for the kids. I am passionate about teaching – the theory, practice, application, and effects. I did not choose any other career working with this age group, I chose THIS ONE because it is the career that I enjoy the most.

Furthermore, the hours are not great. I recently met a career changer who went from being a teacher to being a lawyer. He smirked when I mentioned that I was going to my fifth conference this summer, and was working daily on new curriculum for the coming year. “Obviously, you’re not doing this right,” he laughed. “You’re supposed to have summers off and leave school early…” Yeah buddy, you try doing that and see if you make partner…I may not be up for advancement, but I take my work no less seriously.

So the next time you find yourself justifying a teacher’s low pay with an inane, illogical, or sarcastic comment, think to yourself: 

If this proposition was true, would you really want this person in front of the classroom teaching your kids?