Hot for Teacher

Remember how weird it was to see your teachers outside of school? Hard to imagine they even have lives outside the classroom, isn't it? I can tell you, as the proud husband of an excellent teacher, that they do. In fact, they spend most of their time outside the classroom getting ready for the next time they're in the classroom.

Teachers don't stop working when the school bell rings. They go to work early, grading and planning, and they coach, advise clubs, meet/correspond with parents and they stand on committees and attend faculty meetings.

And they take work home with them. Oh yes, they take lots of work home with them. More grading, more planning, more test-writing, more quiz-writing, more contacting parents and colleagues.

Teachers work anywhere between 50 and 70 hours a week, depending on: how many kids they teach, how many parents they have to deal with, how many clubs they have to sponsor, how many sports they coach, home many committees they are on.

Despite the hours they work, and despite the importance of their profession, teachers are notoriously underpaid. Not only that, but they are seriously underappreciated. Parents are rude and insulting, the general public has no idea how hard they work, and -- if you work for a public school -- politicians are constantly telling you what to do, blaming you for failing kids and making excuses for why you can't be paid as much as other professionals.

Forget about the summers. With the number of hours teachers work each week in 9 months, they're working at least as many hours as most people do in 12 months, if not more. So they deserve the break -- not that most of them get to enjoy it. Most teachers I know work some kind of part-time job in the summer just to make ends meet. If teachers worked all year long, they'd still be underpaid and overworked.

And, for all this they get a few lousy scented candles at the end of the year.

Now go out and hug a teacher.