To say that teachers aren't united concerning the strike is an understatement. Not only is the dividing line union membership, but some teachers want to switch to the other union. And some teachers feel very guilty about striking.
I'm part of an online discussion group among teachers. The strike, its pros and cons, is the main topic. Recently, someone wrote that he felt that striking conflicted with his "calling" as a teacher. A "calling?" Isn't that a religious term?
Teaching is a profession, which demands academic training, like a doctor, nurse, lawyer, CPA and computer programmer. Nobody demands that those professionals "make sacrifices for their calling." Only teachers are expected to both study and constantly update their professions, while at the same time, they're made to feel guilty for expecting a proper middle-class salary.
In the teachers room we mention, in awe, the superior salaries our children receive, even though they may not be as well educated. I often do I hear my fellow teachers saying:
"My children won't go into education. They've seen my
salary slip."
I've worked at a number of varied professions, and I really love teaching. A successful lesson gives me a great feeling, but it doesn't pay the bills. The teachers I meet at professional conventions are on the verge of retirement. We wonder who will replace us. The younger generation thinks we're fools. They wouldn't want to put up with what they know we put up with. Teaching's not easy, but getting a salary that's lower than average wage is an insult.
Unfortunately, too many teachers are under the misunderstanding that they're doing some "holy work" and shouldn't let the students suffer. Teaching is a talent, a skill and a love, but it's not religion.
Teachers must demand to be treated and paid as academic professionals. Otherwise the governments and society will continue to abuse us take us for granted. Yes, "abuse" us. The striking teachers are not responsible for their students' bad behavior. Just like during summer and the long holiday vacations, they have parents who are supposed to supervise their actions.
To be a teacher is not to be a babysitter. It's also not a "calling." It's a wonderful, challenging and rewarding job for those trained, talented and lucky enough to be teachers.
8 comments:
Great post. It may or may not be a calling, but either way, teachers don't take a vow of poverty. I'm glad to see at least some of you stand up to that abuse. When we got a similar offer in 05, Randi Weingarten and her patronage mill said it was the best thing since sliced bread. Sadly only 40% of working teachers voted against it.
Good luck with your struggle. Young teachers here are often unaware they'll need money one day, and vote against their best interests before being forced out of teaching.
Thanks
An expanded version, you may like even more, is up as an op-ed on Arutz 7. Here's the link.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7533
Please comment there and pass it around.
Thanks
I'm always interested when I read about teacher unions because we don't have a teacher union here in South Carolina. I am also concerned about who will be here to teach as teachers leave the field. Plus the ones we get are so young and don't understand the commitment to this worthwile career. I am hoping to see a shift in this trend in the future.
I think teaching is harder for the younger generation. They don't understand commitment as well.
I come from a family of teachers but due to a lack of jobs, went on to be a lawyer.
I live in Israel also (Jerusalem) and I think teachers' wages are ridiculously low. To attract bright, educated people, teachers need to be paid like professionals.
OTOH, then teachers need to also WORK like professionals. That means have a Bachelor's degree at the very least. It also means that you work "professional hours" -- my office closed at 5pm to the public but I was often working until 9 or 10pm at night (with a break for dinner with my kids) on my cases for the next day. Ditto doctors. Ditto CPAs.
The fact that teachers feel that the actual teaching hours proposed by Dovrat are "too long" is silly--Israel is the only industrialized country I know of who lets kids go to high school from 0800 to 12 noon, then call it a day (Gilo HS). The local grammer school runs from 0800 to 12:45.
France ends its school day around 6pm, according to a friend who studied there. When I lived in Japan, the elementary school ended at 5pm. In California, school is out at 3 or 3:30 pm although it can start as early as 0700 if you want to take Advanced Placement classes.
No professional works a 4 hour day!
Teachers need to get professional salaries but they also need to get professional training and accredidation, and then work professional hours--put in an 8-hour "public day" like the rest of the professional world, and do your class prep and grading and conferences in the evenings like we do.
Thanks for your comment. I know of teachers who've left, because the salary is so low.
Teachers don't work just 4 hours a day. Just like bankers work when the bank's closed, so do we.
There's no place in Israeli schools for all the teachers to prepare, so we do almost everything at home. The school week is six days a week, giving more hours. In my day in NY public schools we had 6 hours tops, including lunch and study hall. I teach in a yeshiva high school, and the boys have 6 class hours in the afternoon, sometimes 7,and that's after morning studies.
Many Israeli teachers teach part-time and some teach more than full-time.
Batya, I understand what you're saying and I'm in total agreement that teachers need to paid an above-average salary....it makes NO sense that the janitor at the Knesset makes more per week than a teacher does.
Nor am I saying teachers ONLY work 4 hours a day. I know that's not true (both my aunt and my best friend were teachers)....my point was that teachers need to TEACH more than 4 hours a day as they do in many public schools here in Jerusalem. I understand grading and class prep takes place in addition to those four hours, but we all live in a society where people ALL work 6 days a week, and we ALL work very long hours.
My son's school in the States ran from 0800 to 3:30. There was tutoring available after; there were chugim after; conferences were held in the evenings (because both parents generally worked); class prep and grading took place in the teacher's home in the evenings---but each teacher taught from 0800 to 3:30 which, excluding lunch and break, came to 6 hours of teaching a day. By high school, he was in school until 4pm. So by HS, he was getting 35 hours of schooling per week.
Kids at Gilo HS are getting less than 24 hours of schooling per week. Kids at the Har Homa elementary school are getting approximately 32 hours per week.
Our neighbor's school in Japan started promptly at 8:00 and class instruction ended at 5:00---and that was elementary school. There was an hour for lunch and an hour for PE. Teachers taught for 8 hours. Class size was comparable to Israeli class size. School was also opened a half-day on Saturday. That elementary school gave its students 44 hours of instruction per week.
An Israeli friend of mine lived in France for 2 years--his class day ended at 6pm. Teachers taught (he thinks) from 9am to 6pm--excluding lunch, that is 8 hours of teaching per day.
All of these foreign teachers teach longer hours than Israeli teachers and some teach as large or larger classes. No one is suggesting that teaching is "easy" or that teachers don't work very, very hard---and I think that recognition should include a sizeable raise to reflect that teachers are also professionals.
BUT--my main point was that if you want to be paid as professionals, you need to do the "public hours" that professionals do as well--0800to 1500 hours is standard in the States (which certainly isn't saying much, as the US education suffers in comparison to that of Japan, Germany and Russia).
0800 to 1600 Sunday through Thursday would not only be more in keeping with professional hours but would also give teachers a decent "weekend." From what I've seen, not much serious schooling gets done on Fridays anyway.
The banking comparison is a poor one....bankers are generally seen as parasites who are overpaid and underworked, so I would hesitate to analogize teaching to banking. "Bankers Hours" in English is a phrase used to ridicule people who don't work too hard. Yes, they work when the bank is closed to the public, but they never work past 5pm. They put in the minimum amount of work time that qualifies to be called a "full-time job."
I think teachers need a substantial overhaul upwards in terms of salary adjustment---but in return for that, I also think Dovrat was right in calling for increased teaching hours. It's NOT impossible because it done all over the world, and teachers in other countries produce well-educated young citizens despite large classrooms and long teaching hours.
Well, first of all "we all live in a society where people ALL work 6 days a week" isn't true in today's Israel. It once was, but now most jobs are five days a week or shifts.
I can't fathom how your son's high school has so few hours. I teach in a private religious high school, and there are many more.
Personally, at my age, I have no desire to teach more classes and more students. I work part time. I don't expect a full-time salary, just one in proper mathematical proportion.
The per hour salary shouldn't be reduced, which it is in the government's proposal.
And something you may not like, I don't think anyone should have to work at home at night after a long day at work, whether it's the office or classroom.
Everyone should be able to care for their health, regardless of their profession. Proper meals, rests, toilet breaks etc are necessary. Many large firms have discovered that fitness facilities make for more efficient and healthier workers.
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