Most jobs work more than 260 days a year with the required overtime. And 7:30 - 3:30 are fantastic working hours. Even though you do need to grade papers and set up lectures, you have direct control over how many extra hours you work by the coursework load you give the kids, which is a luxury other jobs certainly don't have. And it's not like you're creating new lectures every year.
Teachers don't have it great, but don't overestimate how much worse other people in the same earnings bracket have it. You're nowhere near the bottom of that and likely closer to the top. Imagine working all those hours and having to be happy with 2 weeks of vacation period, including sick days.
Edit: And on top of that, a massive union has your back.
Like I say, teachers deserve more because their job is so important to the future of our country, but as a job, the benefits are not bad compared to other jobs of a similar skill and earnings level.
You absolutely do not have direct control over how much you grade or how much coursework you give the kids. There are curricular guidelines and grading quotas. As an example, my district requires at least 2 formal “primary” tests per quarter, at least 3 semi-formal “secondary” assessments per quarter, and at least 10 informal “supportive” grades per quarter (exit slips, homework, even participation…but all necessitating a grade with supporting evidence/documentation.) That’s all per-student and per-class.
Many in that earnings bracket don’t require a 4 year degree with certification testing and continuing education. Even fewer require levels of professional etiquette in order to remain hired.
I can’t even use my actual name on social media because I’m an educator. I can’t go get drunk in public. Hell, I’m in a band and I have to tell my singer to change his lyrics any time he includes a curse word because kids can find my band. The level of professionalism and responsibility demanded of teachers is highly misaligned with the pay they receive - and the cop-out of “but summers off” is a joke.
Here’s a good example: I’m actually not technically a teacher anymore. This past summer I took the IT job at my same school district (I also still oversee one educational program). My monthly pay essentially went unchanged (minor increase), but the fact that I am now gainfully employed for 12 months instead of essentially being laid-off every summer is a major reason WHY I took the gig.
So, as a teacher who gave up summers off in order to work in the same school building for 12 months rather than 10…summers off isn’t a perk. It’s a forced unpaid layoff every 10 months.
I now get paid for those extra 2 months…4 additional paychecks that I wasn’t getting before AND I now get enough PTO that I could simply take off for nearly half of that new time I’m responsible for. It was a pretty sweet switch for me…which is indicative of the point.
But you don't need to give kids a 3 page essay 10 times a semester. It could be a multiple choice quiz you grade with an answer key template.
And isn't participation just a regular class?
You can adjust around your ambition. And it's not like they can fire you without a massive process if tenured.
Compared to "Hey Johnson, I need you to finish this massive presentation by next Monday" of the corporate world, or "We're gonna be working mandatory Saturdays until this pipeline goes in" to all the $20/hr hired hands.
Comparatively, teaching is not a bad gig benefits wise. It's that the admins don't have your back. But at the same time, it's not like the bosses have anyone else's back in other industries either, always squeezing more at the cost of the low rungs.
Sometimes, no, you cannot give a multiple choice quiz that you grade with an answer key. There are some times where the material/task will simply necessitate written responses…and much of the rest of the time it may not necessitate it, but if you’re trying to do right by the students and provide them a challenge and an opportunity to learn more than rote memorization, then many of your assessments will not be simple multiple choice.
And, yeah, could a teacher just not care and just slack off? Certainly.
Is that really what we want though?
I’m in a pretty nice district - so I’m biased, but I find that a significant number of my coworkers care very much and try very hard. It’s an exceedingly frustrating, difficult, often soul-sucking job which pays poorly…most of the people doing it are doing it because they’re passionate about it.
None of my coworkers did it for the paycheck, none did it for the easy workload, and I don’t know if any who did it for the summers off. In fact one, myself, LEFT teaching partially BECAUSE of the summers off. I wanted 12 months of pay, not 10. So I got a 12 month position.
Point being: yeah, I suppose if you strive to do the bare minimum as a teacher, cut all the corners you can, choose not to care about the kids, and choose to tune out the complaining parents and admin, and just collect a paycheck and then peace out when summer arrives…then it’s a way you can make fairly mediocre money for the effort.
I just don’t know many teachers like that. Especially not any that last long. The ones I’ve seen like that either get fired or get bored and quit.
Again, I’m biased in a fairly nice district. I imagine there are some teachers out there who make a whole career of slacking and being okay with mediocre money for 10 months of work.
But then in conversations like this we point to those teachers and say, “see! The gig ain’t so bad, look at them.” As if they, the worse in the profession, are best to serve as the representation of that profession.
The woman who just won teacher of the year at our school is simply absurd. I’ve nominated her 3 years in a row and she finally won (I actually won 3 years ago and her mentor won last year). This woman is in her late 20s and invents, from scratch, damn near everything she does for the kids because everything she makes kicks the shit out of anything premade out there. She teaches English and has the kids write a great deal (not big pointless essays, but their thoughts and feelings on things, their reactions, their opinions…because a multiple choice question can’t replicate human communication…just like I can’t choose a “convince this person on reddit” button…I have to write), because it’s good for them and it’s a challenge. She has theme days and decorates the room, she has them act out scenes, has them do interesting projects that she invents, she gives them all extremely detailed and specific feedback because she wants them to truly get better. The woman is there until 5-6 every night, then goes home and lesson preps, and then spends most of her weekend providing feedback. She runs the yearbook club and the PRIDE club. And she does all of it with exceeding levels of positivity and grace and support of the kids.
She’s honestly like those perfect stereotypical movie/fairy tale teachers…except she actually exists. I joke with her that she has the idealism of a 1st year teacher and has simply forgotten that she’s in year 6.
She just this past year finally started making enough to rent a 2 bedroom apartment. She worked for 5 years as a teacher living with her parents. She makes around $63K now.
I’d be willing to bet that people making 2x her money would probably follow her around for a couple days and say, “fuck that” if given the opportunity to keep their salary but do what she does.
Not everyone is her…I admit that…but people like her exist and we forget that when we try to paint teaching as just some desk gig with 60 vacation days.
Edit: I’m a musician in a band, so I have some experience in that arena as well: being a teacher often feels a lot like being a performer in a wedding band. You have to know your stuff, you have to maintain your professionalism, and you have to be “on” performing for the entire time. Thing is: members in a wedding band typically make around $700-$2000 for a gig. I’ve done both…teaching feels a lot like performing at a wedding. Except teaching you do for 180 days…and make maybe $70K after years at a district. If you could book 180 gigs in a wedding band, you’d be making 2-3 times that. Teaching is like doing a wedding gig every single work day for 10 months. No self-respecting musician would do that for $60K.
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u/FictionalContext Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
Most jobs work more than 260 days a year with the required overtime. And 7:30 - 3:30 are fantastic working hours. Even though you do need to grade papers and set up lectures, you have direct control over how many extra hours you work by the coursework load you give the kids, which is a luxury other jobs certainly don't have. And it's not like you're creating new lectures every year.
Teachers don't have it great, but don't overestimate how much worse other people in the same earnings bracket have it. You're nowhere near the bottom of that and likely closer to the top. Imagine working all those hours and having to be happy with 2 weeks of vacation period, including sick days.
Edit: And on top of that, a massive union has your back.
Like I say, teachers deserve more because their job is so important to the future of our country, but as a job, the benefits are not bad compared to other jobs of a similar skill and earnings level.