SaveOurSchools: Chicago Presents
Teach-Ins in Public Spaces of Chicago
Thursdays in September
4-6pm
Teachers: come show Chicago how much work you really do!
Bring Lessons to Plan, Essays to Grade, Teams to Coach, Students to Tutor, Clubs to Sponsor, and Parents to Conference.
Thurs., September 29th: Millennium Park @The Cloud Gate (Bean)
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Contact email: aheenan@gmail.com
I think this is a bad move. There are so many other professions that take work home to work hours into the night that don't advertise this or try to generate attention to "how hard they work."
ReplyDeleteTo me, more than sending a "see, teachers do work long unpaid hours" message, these teachers will also be sending a "and you should pay us for these long hours message" which furthers the perception that teachers view their jobs not as salaried professionals that work until the job gets down, but more blue collar hourly-wage employees.
Not a good look and symptomatic of why the profession is in its current status. The teachers/employees themselves view themselves as hourly-wage employees that must be paid for every hour worked.
I see it much differently. Teachers don't demand to be paid per hour for every single "extra" hour they work precisely because we understand that that's part of the job and it's something we signed up for. What we want is public recognition that we are NOT so-called "part-time" employees, making a full-time salary for the 30 or so hours we're required to physically be present at school. Rather, we earn our full-time salary not only through our strictly spelled-out contractual hours, but the hours we spend outside school.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect to be compensated extra except for work that truly goes above and beyond the requirements; e.g. Saturday tutoring or summer training. Most of the hours I put in outside the classroom I assume to be part of my professional duties that are absorbed in my FULL-TIME salary. And that's fine by me. What I do object to is people assuming that because our contractual hours are perhaps less than 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, we are somehow "part-time" workers when nothing could be further from the truth.