#teaachers

So, to get off on a sort-of-non-poltcal note...yet somewhat political...Both of my parents were Middle School science teachers. My dad had worked in the same school, same job, even same room, for 27 years. My mom had been in here same job, and same room, for 16. Every year they taught, they got a small raise. Not much, but enough for an incentive to stay on for one more year. They had their benefits, and their rights. They were in the teachers union.

Then Scott Walker is voted governor of Wisconsin.

Every small raise that my father has worked for for 28 years (at this point) is down to like he has only been working for seven.

My mother had just gotten to a good salary...and now its like just when she started at her first year.

Now let me tell you a little something about teachers, from a teacher’s child stand point:

- They put in way more work than you think they do.

-They do NOT have weekends off. They do NOT have vacations.

-All night  (EVERY NIGHT) during dinner, during game night, and even while tucking their children into bed, they are grading papers and planning the next day’s schedule.

-You may think that the teachers assign homework and tests...ITS THE FUCKING SYSTEM AND CURRICULUM THAT THEY HAVE TO FOLLOW. And if they don’t follow it exactly, they get reprimanded. 

- THEY FUCKING CARE. They care if a student isn’t doing well. They are teachers for a reason. They want to see you succeed. They didn’t just decide to do this job for the hell of it. They want to teach. This is their passion.

- They actually love the subject that they’re teaching. They just wont admit it because they’ve done it over and over and over and over again. If you take, merely two minutes out of your day to talk to your teacher about mitochondria, Dr. Frankenstein, or fuckin’ Di’Vinci, they will talk back with such passion, and will ignite a fire under your ass like you wouldn’t believe.

But now, both of my parents had to retired because it was financially more logical. Now my dad mows lawns and my mom picks up dead bodies for the morgue. JUST because its financially more “reasonable.”

I don’t care if you vote Republican if thats what you believe in.

Just don’t fucking vote for Scott Walker.

Field Note. Education “Teachers, Facing low salaries, opt to moonlight at additional jobs“ 

Teaching is a profession and a profession grants respect. So here in America about  20 percent of primary and secondary school teachers moonlight. That is, our kids teachers work at low wage, night shift work to survive. That number is up from 11 percent in 1981 when Ronald Reagan started telling us gover-mint was the problem.

In Texas, 41 percent of teachers take on second jobs.