“You know what I love? I love seeing some young conservatives because I know it’s not easy. (Crowd applauds and shouts.) Keep up that fight. Bring it to your schools. You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth. You don’t have to do it. Because you can think for yourselves. They can’t.” 

Donald Trump , Jr.  2/11/19

You know what I love?  I just love it when wanna be politicians label and toss people into homogeneous groups to suit their causes.  I love it when politicians assume that because I teach that I have an agenda like they do, to apparently brainwash small children into thinking that a particular type of governance is better than any other.  I love it when politicians resort to name calling rather than intellectual discussion or debate to prove their points or ideas.  Oh I’m sorry – did I just throw all politicians into one homogeneous group?  How politically incorrect am I?

I’ve been avoiding the news for a while now, mainly because I can’t deal with the negativity and name calling.  However, tonight I read a post on social media written by the daughter of a friend of mine, both of whom happen to be teachers.  In it she wrote an eloquent open letter to Jr. expressing her thoughts as to why indeed, she was a loser, listing all the things she loses because she chooses to teach children.  Then she describes all of the things she gains as a result of her losses.  She admits, she is a “loser”.

Of course, losing is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.  Just like anything else, it’s difficult to make a judgement call like this unless you’ve actually walked the walk or in this case, walked in a teacher’s shoes.  Everyone I know has had teachers in their lives, but having a teacher and BEING a teacher are different things.  Just like seeing a doctor and being a doctor are different things.  The difference being, people who aren’t doctors don’t tend to tell doctors how to practice or call them losers.  Am I actually comparing teachers to doctors?  Why not?  Both professions take many years to obtain various degrees, both require internships, both are professionals, both focus on helping people.  Yes, I’m putting them both in the same category.

Tonight again as I was scanning social media, I came upon people “discussing” the teacher strike in Denver where teachers are asking for better pay.  Teachers all over the country work more than one job and/or work over the summer (when they’re not in school or required professional development), have roommates or can’t afford to buy a home.  One response jumped out at me as I was reading – “stop complaining.  You knew what you were getting when you chose teaching.  Stop complaining or find another job”.

Well, here’s the first misconception.  Teaching is not a “job”.  It is at the very least a “profession” and at the very most a “calling”.  Those who choose teaching because it seems like something fun to do where you have great hours and summers off are very quickly disillusioned when they discover it’s exactly the opposite and promptly leave to find another “job”.  For those of us who have stuck it out, despite the low pay, the disrespect, taking second jobs and roommates to survive, taken on the added requirements by people who are not in education, the constant testing of children and taking away of recess and the arts, we stay because we love and want to help children.  My calling is to help children to be kind, responsible, hard working, respectful people, with no intention of pushing them into one particular vein of thought, but to make them aware of multiple ways of thinking and doing and living, guiding them to find their way and to make their own decisions.  My discipline may be music, but my calling is to guide children to be the best humans they can be.

So is it too much to ask to be treated fairly, as a professional, when we hold in our hands the lives of our country’s children?  I’m very fortunate that I’m paid a decent salary because my district respects our teachers, but this is not true everywhere.  Is it too much to ask to make a professional salary when one holds a professional degree?  Yes, young people get into teaching are just grateful to have any salary after going through school, but soon, reality sets in when they start looking at maybe getting married and/or raising a family.

I’ll end with this analysis I’m sure many have seen.  Let’s say we pay teachers what we would pay a babysitter because after all, some look at teachers as glorified babysitters.  And let’s say that each parent pays $5.00/hour for seven hours a day to teach that child.  That’s $35.00 per day to teach that child.  But I don’t have just one child in my class, I have 25.  So, let’s make that $875.00 per day.  The average teacher works a 180 day calendar, which of course doesn’t include all of the other meetings, professional developments, classes, workshops, etc. that are required, but that’s ok.  So that means if I teach 25 kids each day at $5.00 per hour per child, I should be making $157,500 per year.  In reality, I personally am being paid about $2.10 per hour per child and I’m fortunate.  Just think about that for a little while.

So, maybe I am a loser.  I chose to get into this profession, to answer this calling.  I’m intelligent enough that I suppose I could have chosen any number of things to do, but I was called to teach and to teach music specifically.  Perhaps we need to start a movement – “I’M PROUD TO BE A LOSER”.  And when the next election cycle comes along, perhaps we’ll see a new group of losers instead.