In this time of great economic unrest, where rich billionaires and Wall Street tycoons broke our economy, the blame is being put in some of the most unusual of places. However, none is more disturbing than the vitriol being thrown out at the American public school teacher. They are being accused of living high on the hog, of being union thugs, and of being lazy whiners who haven't earned their pay. My recent experience on Twitter has found that no position gains more ire and criticism than defending a teacher. Supporting abortion doesn't get me as much flak as supporting a teacher. When did the teacher become the most vile, repugnant creature in America?
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering today's politics: Demonizing facts as liberal bias, making up your own facts, revisionist history, and treating science as a liberal conspiracy. We're in a culture where being intelligent is seen as elitist, where the only book our people think they need is the Bible, and if history doesn't play in your favor just rewrite it. People like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann get up on their soapbox and spew their mindless drivel, and rather than being immediately dismissed as loons and racists, they become the golden girls of the media.
Teachers are the most under-appreciated group in our workforce today. They are the backbone of our society; they teach us to read, write, count, tell time, and use proper grammar. They teach us math, science, history, social studies, and literature. Without them, that precious constitution that Republicans say is so dear to them would just be unintelligible symbols on paper. There wouldn't be an economy because most people wouldn't know how to count. They'd have no idea just how much they were paying for goods and services, and they'd just have to take the shop keepers word that how much they gave him was correct. Our society only exists as it is today because of education, and without it we will regress backwards.
Teachers deal with kids from all walks of life. They deal with kids who have learning disabilities and need extra help; with kids who are disinterested and don't want to learn; with kids whom English isn't their first language and have trouble understanding the lesson. Sometimes they are the last line of defense for a kid who is being abused at home. They must not only deal with the kids, but the parents too, who can at times be even more frustrating to deal with than the students.
Teachers do not make a lot of money given the service they provide. They start out making half of what the average teacher makes, all while dealing with massive student loan debts that they are often still paying off well into their forties. With so many schools underfunded, a lot of them use their own hard earned money to pay for school supplies. They often have to come to school early to get set up, and bring their work home with them; sometimes staying up late into the night grading papers. They do receive benefits in the form of a pension, but they don't collect that until they retire or can't work anymore. To say that teachers are well to do and quite well off is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, and to state that the teachers are lazy and don't deserve the money they make is about a repugnant a statement as you can make. The fact is, teachers are notoriously overworked. When people say that teachers get a three month paid vacation, this isn't an accurate statement because they make less when they do work so they can continue receiving paychecks during the break.
Society exists today because of teachers. They are one of our most important assets and anyone who makes a large figure of money can only do so because of the education he or she got as a child. As our nation's teaching practices improved, the nation flourished, and as the quality of the education diminished, our nation began to decline. However, this decline in education is not the fault of the teachers or the unions, but rather the fault of government officials who'd rather give big tax breaks to wealthy individuals than to properly fund our nations schools. I'm so tired of people demonizing our nation's teachers, as their hard work allows our nation's way of life to continue. If you really support America, then you will support our teachers and not try to devalue them.