Nosotros've all heard it. Any fourth dimension everyone complains about teacher pay, half a dozen teachers roll their eyes and say, "Well, I'chiliad not in it for a large paycheck. What matters to me is …" The way their eyes light upward when they finally understand fractions. The ones who come dorsum years later and thank me for that letter I wrote. The hugs when my kindergarteners haven't seen me over a long weekend.  The gamble to aid mold and inspire future leaders. The emails I get from kids who still remember that economic science project.

And don't get me incorrect. That stuff is neat. Merely when you lot say, "I'g not a teacher because of the money," you imply that possibly the rest of u.s. are mercenaries who became educators for the fat paycheck and the glamor of it all.

Why Teachers Should Stop Saying They Aren't In it for the Money

And I don't know; maybe there are some people who went into didactics because they idea it would be an like shooting fish in a barrel way to earn a decent living with an awesome schedule and summers off. After all, half of the teachers in my state quit inside the kickoff five years, so I assume it didn't live upwards to their expectations in some way. Just most of us became teachers because nosotros love teaching. Considering nosotros feel called to teach and, at to the lowest degree in my case, tin't imagine any other job bringing united states of america the joy we detect in the classroom. No teacher who is "in it for the money" would stick around more than a year, unless he or she was utterly unqualified to do anything else.

And that'southward the problem, isn't information technology? Due to depression pay, lack of respect, and unreasonable demands, there are extreme teacher shortages in a lot of places. Which means that you can practically walk in off the street and become yourself hired every bit the math teacher, regardless of your ability to either do or teach math. Teaching can be a "last resort" profession considering, even if nobody else will hire you, a school volition probably take you out of desperation. And every time a veteran teacher says, "I'm not in information technology for the money," they're buying into a system that accepts subpar teachers past offering subpar pay.

Stop Saying You're Not In It for the Money

Earlier you lot bring upwardly the New York pay scale, I'll freely admit that in a lot of places, teachers go a decent salary. If you teach somewhere that yous're compensated fairly for what you do, great! If y'all do a lot of work exterior school—and don't we all—merely the chore satisfaction makes up for it, awesome!  Merely that'southward non the case for all teachers.

My school district only gave out raises…for the first fourth dimension in close to a decade. For a while, I got paid less for every yr of experience I gained. I'k lucky; my husband has a job that pays well, so I was able to avoid getting a second job while raising an infant. Simply non everybody has that luxury, and they shouldn't have to. Teaching is a career. Non a hobby. Non volunteer piece of work. Not a missionary post. Information technology is a career, for which we've trained and for which we should expect a living wage. The fact is, there are places where practiced teacherscannot afford to be teachers because it won't pay the rent. And that's a tragedy, considering those are usually the places where kids are most badly in need of skilful teachers.

Stop Saying You're Not In it for the Money

There'south e'er going to be a politician saying that bad teachers are the problem. We're always going to run across that guy at the political party who says, "I wish I got paid to sit down effectually for three months in the summer!" so chuckles obnoxiously. And there are ever going to exist the armchair generals who stink up the comments section with, "If teaching is so bad, why don't you detect a different job? I wouldn't want somebody who'due south only in it for the money educational activity my kid!"

Nosotros can't avoid those people. Just it'd exist dainty if we stopped being our ain worst enemy. I could exercise without the friendly burn. You don't care about the money? That's swell. Mayhap you're married to somebody who'due south bringing in the big bucks. Maybe you live somewhere with affordable housing. Maybe you don't have kids in daycare. Either way, it's great that y'all can arrive work on a modest salary, and I'm beingness sincere most that.

But don't look down on those who tin can't. Don't be complicit in a system that loses good teachers because they can't afford to do their job anymore. Most teachers dearest teaching…but we also honey being able to buy groceries and keep the lights on.  Teaching is an incredibly important task; permit'southward insist that our leaders treat it that way, rather than savor our martyrdom when they don't.