lumy12

What's this Friday 5 stuff, and how do I start doing what you're doing? I'm 35% retarded, as you know, so I can't figure anything out on my own on here.

I wish I could sleep like you. I'll be up for only about another 4 hours, no biggie.

From:

archerstar.livejournal.com

You go here (http://community.livejournal.com/thefridayfive/profile), and you join/add it to your friends list, and every thursday night/friday they post five questions for you to fill out and post to your journal. It's pretty fun and is good for about ten minutes of mindless entertainment. Hope that helps!

From:

Such a helpful Kat.

Sorry I taunt you so!

From:

archerstar.livejournal.com

You taunt me with your blood donation!!! Stupid US law and stupid frakkin' mad cow disease.

From:

minimery.livejournal.com

Good luck with giving blood. I did it once and nearly passed out more times than I could count. It'll be awhile before I get up the guts to try it again.

From:

I've nearly passed out before. But that doesn't stop me from trying to give again :) Usually they reject me because my iron is too low. One time I had a fever - didn't even know it, wasn't sick or anything, but they wouldn't take me. Heh.

From:

I agree, teachers are way underpaid :(

From:

Here is where I lose friends. Teachers are paid just fine. There's no gun to their head making them be teachers. They are great people, for the most part, and I respect them immensely for putting up with all the crap they put up with.

BUT.

When's the last time you talked to a smart kid who wasn't your own? Whatever American teachers are doing as a whole, just isn't working. It might be the system, and not the teachers, sure, but, whatever. All of us grownups can think back to their two, or three, good teachers at most. And how many unmemorable ones did we have? Dozens! So they weren't much good.

Plus, they get a ton of time off, too. There are a lot tougher jobs than being a teacher, I am sure. I actually know a teacher who completely agrees with me, and says when he thinks about it, he's overpaid if anything.

I'm thinking the most underpaid people on the planet are nurses. All that money doctors are making, and they're not the ones at the front lines. Nurses literally take a lot of crap from people, and are completely forgotten and unappreciated, as a whole. I don't even personally know a nurse, I just have seen what some of them have to do on a daily basis.

The teachers-are-paid-enough argument is one of my two extremely unpopular opinions that everyone hates me for. The other is that most superstar professional athletes are completely underpaid. The top 10% of stars, I'm saying. The average player, forget it, they make too much. But its the person who you are buying the ticket to go see, that guy. He doesn't make nearly enough money. Yes, I know, $10 million is a stupid amount of cash. But if he makes his team $50 million in pure profit, he should be paid more.

I'll shut up now, I can go on all night. Write me hateful comments!

From:

Karina may debate you, she's quite the Ravenclaw. Though she's not around a lot on the weekends.

Is Mike the one who thinks he's overpaid? That'd be interesting.

The nurses that work for my company (in one of our recent takeovers, we got some actual nurses instead of caregivers) make gooooooood money. The RNs do, anyway. CNAs make quite a bit less. But don't feel sorry for ALL nurses.

We've talked about the athlete thing before, and I can see your point. I still think they're overpaid, but it's not THEIR fault.

From:

I don't have the time or the negative energy available for hateful comments. I do like discussions, though.

I can see what you're saying, but I consider that a teacher must spend years in school. They have to pay off their student loans and pay for a household and keep their heads above water.

I went on salary.com (http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layoutscripts/swzl_nationalrangebell.asp?jobcode=ED03000010&error=1&jobtitle=Elementary%20School%20Teacher&narrowcode=ED01&narrowdesc=Education&yearsofexp=&geo=U.S.%20National%20Averages) to look this up and make sure I wasn't just playing into rhetoric.

Local to my area, the starting wage is $31k. I figure they come in at 7:30am to prepare for the day. School gets out about 3:30, they get a half-hour break and probably leave around 4, 4:30. Let's say they get an hour break- if they get off at 4:30 that's an 8 hour day.

Say they only work 9 months out of the year, then have 3 months of no work, and no pay wherein they have to find some other means of supporting their families... IF they can find a part-time job waiting tables or working fast food (I also have teacher friends who have to do this) that is not taken up by teenagers also out for the summer. That's $3444.4 a month.
5 days a week is $861.00 a week, or $21.53 an hour. You're right- on paper that looks decent. WAY decent.

Even still, and this is strictly my perspective so bear with me.

Depending on the age range, they may have to run the gambit and deal with everything from child abuse, a.d.d., drug &/or alcohol addicted kids, to maybe even having their lives threatened.

It is to them to teach others' children about sexual education, because parents are too squeamish. They have to walk a balance between too much and too little information, and still seem to wind up with the blame when Jane gets knocked up.

It is to them to deal with people who resent them for being present and doing their jobs. I would totally consider teaching as working in a hostile environment. Even if your life isn't literally on the line (Kip Kinkel's mom taught in my high school- I knew her so this issue is very real and present for me,) you have to drag people and FORCE them to learn.

Their salaries, bonuses, and jobs are dependant on how "good" they are. I really think sometimes it's the luck of the draw which students you get, and with adolescents being the little sheep they are, one bad apple really does spoil the bunch.

And you can't kick the little assholes out! You have to deal with it and keep teaching. You lose your temper and curse at the little fuckers just ONCE and not only could you lose your job, you could be involved in a lawsuit and be banned from teaching anywhere. Eep!

When I was in school... aw shit 15 years ago (damn that dates me) I knew people who were purposefully as cruel as possible to the teachers as they could legally get away with FOR FUN. I knew of girls accusing teachers of sexual misconduct because they pissed them off. I watched boys taunt teachers with language that, for an adult, would be grounds for harassment.

Kids, adolescents but younger and younger every year, are learned and knowledgeable in especially nasty ways of making people miserable.

Oh and THEN they get the parents who insist you HAVE to give Snookums an "A" because she's such a special little angel and how DARE you mark her down for not turning in her assignments. To have parents screaming in your face because your kid skips class and was marked down for attendance - the thought alone makes me bristle.

(I'm disorganized.)

From:

I could go on and on (and probably have..)

Point is- how much do you pay someone to put up with all that shit? The GOOD people don't stay good for long, pretty soon they don't give a shit and get sick of putting so much of themselves into it (I'm generalizing but it's usually the younger teachers we remember as being fresh, idealistic, and rocking our socks in school, no?) or they move on to a college level where people pay to be there and want to be there.

How much do you pay someone for educating your child?
Your child is your treasure. How much is it worth to you to ensure the future of the country is well educated, receives personal and undivided attention regularly, is understood and treated as an individual?

There are jobs tougher, I watch Dirty Jobs. But are there jobs which are more important than ensuring our nation has a basic level and standard of education?

My daycare lady is regaling me (my baby isn't in school yet) about how they need to provide money for teaching supplies because there isn't enough in the budget. In addition to their regular school supplies, each child is being asked to bring 2 boxes of tissue to be used by the class, a box of chalk and $15 extra for the teacher to use at his/her discretion for classroom supplies. That blows my mind!

I would like to learn more about benefits teachers receive. They don't get stock options, I can say that for sure, but I wonder about their retirement benefits, and how good their health insurance is.

Teaching isn't the profession for me. I am great AT teaching, but could never do it under any of those conditions- not even for $20 an hour. I still think that is WAY underpaid for Sainthood.

From:

I can absolutely agree with everything that you said, I can totally see that side of things. All of that being said, as I think I said (but I really am lazy enough not to my page up button and see), no one is forcing anyone to become a teacher.

The worst people on the planet, probably, are rapists, then pedophiles, and then somewhere underneath them are the majority of high schoolers.

I want to blame EVERYTHING on bad parents, because I think that's where most of our problems come from. You say your children are your treasures, and they SHOULD be. My mother would have killed for my two sisters and myself. I was lucky, apparently. I think the VAST majority of parents truly have given up on their pain-in-the-ass kid once they are a teenager in 2007. I opened a store at a mall in a very nice part of town, and all day long its filled with those weirdo kids in groups, and you know what I'm talking about. It's a constant parade of these pains-in-the-asses, and I think the real truth is, Mom and Dad, who are likely separated, can't wait until the other gets custody of that pain-in-the-ass, and truly doesn't give a damn what Junior is doing all day, as long as they leave them alone.

Good parents, ALL of them, are underpaid. I'm gonna guess most teachers don't care, like most parents don't care. So, I should amend my statement to the 10% (probably less) who are TRULY good teachers, are underpaid. The rest of them can stop whining and crying and do something else that wasn't forced upon them, either.

I've heard the teaching supplies thing, too. It is total bullshit that any teacher should spend two cents out of their own pocket, but I think 100% of teachers spend a lot more than that on kids who they didn't give birth to, and there is a major problem there.

I *think* benefits are where they are doing okay, I have a customer who is 5 years away from retiring, and he's gonna make bank. He loves to teach, he loves his kids, except for the two or three who ruin it for everyone else, and wishes those kids away, year after year.

Also, chunky peanut butter is WAY better tha

From:

n smooth. Damn computer.

From:

No, no one forces anyone to be a teacher. I think they get into it all wide-eyed and idealistic thinking they'll be different and change the world. Such a precious few that do. I think everyone gets slapped with that not-so-pleasant wake up call in their late 20's.

Parents? Yeaaaah... I have a lot to say on the subject of parenting. I'm far from perfect myself, but as a privileged white female I have a lot to say on a full range of topics when I don't necessarily have the right or go-ahead. *flex*

I'd say you're raising your kid to about age 12, when peer pressure really starts to take over. Raising a kid is more like herding cats. You can give them a general direction and make sure they use their feet.

I see so many parents who aren't involved, don't listen, and yeah who have thrown up their hands. Mine's 4 and some days it is SO hard to persevere. I cannot imagine trying to do it alone.

The Baby Boomers grew up being the focus of their parents' attention, who wanted to give them everything they didn't have during the Depression. They, in turn, gave GenX&Y even more than that PLUS daily affirmations and No "whippin's." So many of us grew up really screwed up, in really screwed up circumstances. And now we're trying to raise kids of our own?

There's no rules for social behavior. There are hardly any social mores that reach across the board. It is more touted to be different, rebellious, and as "special" as one can possibly be than to follow the rules and "fly right." No wonder kids have behavior problems!

Wrapping around to our original topic of discussion, I'll restate that you couldn't pay me enough to spend 8 hours with most of these little assholes. My sister does daycare and comes out with horror stories- all she has to do is keep them alive until their parents can be arsed to spend "quality" time with them. She doesn't even have to produce ~~blood from a turnip~~ edumakashunal results.

From:

meli-in-sac.livejournal.com

I swear her name was Mrs. Eckman.

She used to always wave at me while driving on the street (if I was walking to and from school) and get mad if I didn't at least smile back.

Truthfully, I think teachers are paid just fine (at least where I live) and the benefits can't be beat (at least where I live). Unfortunately, they give us too much work to do. I'd take fewer classes over a raise any day.

(Yes, I know it's an odd way to break my LiveJournal silence!)

From: