I’d like to share the below letter, not because it’s unusual — although it’s interesting — but because I have received many, many letters like it in the last week or so.
Jay,
I don’t work in secondary education; I’ve worked at a large urban community college that hires many high-school teachers to teach part time, usually at night during the school year. Most of them were wonderful.
For several years, I was the department chairman, in charge of staffing classes in fall, spring, and summer. I always had a group of high-school teachers who coveted the summer classes, because they were the best and easiest source of money between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I was happy to help when I could, but there was always the problem of too few classes and too many teachers. Plus, my full-time community-college instructors always had first pick.
One year, I was staffing for “Summer I” — classes that ran to about the Fourth of July — and was explaining to one of my high-school charges that I simply had nothing for him. “What do I tell my wife?” he demanded. “How will I pay my rent? You know I have two kids. What do I tell them?”
I felt terrible, but simply had nothing. I wasn’t running an employment agency. I kept an eye peeled, though, and a day later I called him. Something had come open after all: not Summer I, but a ten-week class that would finish out the summer. Without a trace of self-consciousness, he turned me down. “Oh,” he said, “I couldn’t teach that. We’re going to Spain in July.”
And there you have it. At the root of so many of our problems is a sense of entitlement. It's more than that though. I have friends who are on unemployment now. But they still go to movies, eat out, and buy i-phones. You see, they deserve those things. It boggles my mind.
When my husband and I were in college I remember thinking twice before I would buy a coke from a coke machine. That is how closely we watched our money. But no, those on assistance still buy things they should never be buying.
I'm not sure how we change this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKeep denigrating the teachers Jay. After all it's only people like you that should vacation in Europe. The GOP, keeping American workers down for the last 50 years.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a community college instructor myself, I know that this is a common tale. I recall one faculty meeting, early on in my career, when too much time was spent discussing a particular part time instructor not getting the class he was "expecting" (part time work is, by nature, class by class and term by term). I think the discussion ended when the political science instructor arguing for the part time instructor's "rights" said (quite seriously and with much indignation), "Well, now he'll have to sell his home and live in a cardboard box!" Young and naive (and liberal) as I was at the time, even I thought, "Really? He's less than $1500 away from living in a cardboard box? He'd better find himself a job - and quick!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDrPalinpresume,
You obviously have lost your irony detector. I have no problem with teachers going on vacation to some wonderful places. The problem is the way they claim poverty, “'What do I tell my wife?'” he demanded. “'How will I pay my rent? You know I have two kids. What do I tell them?'” and then turn down work to go on that great vacation. Where I come from that is called "chutzpah."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDrPalinIPresume:
I think the point the author was making is trying to rationally reconcile the following two statements:
“What do I tell my wife?” he demanded. “How will I pay my rent? You know I have two kids. What do I tell them?”
... with ...
“Oh,” he said, “I couldn’t teach that. We’re going to Spain in July.”
The conclusion being that if the teacher has enough money (and time) to travel to Spain in August, he shouldn't be worrying about the rent. Again, it could be that the teacher's trip to Spain is being paid for by someone else, but again, should he be taking time off to go on vacation when he can't pay the rent?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy yes, I have encountered that attitude - in the line to drop off kids at school where Mommy's precious babies can't walk an extra 20 ft and have to be dropped directly in front of the door ... at the grocery store where people with 20 items get in the 10 items or less line ... and, apparently, in the Wisconsin state capitol where the AP reports:
"Meanwhile, the demonstrations have left the Capitol a mess. The normally sparkling floors are smeared with dirt, protesters' signs cover the marble walls, air mattresses and blankets lay in hallways and state troopers guard every corridor, limiting movement in the building."
Gee, I wonder where we got this sense of entitlement and 'me-firstness?'
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe good doctor who posted first (a PhD in Education, I presume) isn't up on the consept of "irony." The poor teacher, complaining that he can't pay his rent and support his children on his meager salary, can afford to go to take the family to Europe.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, Dr PalinIpresume, we should give the teachers *whatever they want* -- absolutely unstinting largesse from the taxpayers pockets -- because they're doing such a great job of teaching! Our children is learning real good, and stuff.
External Link
"U.S. students' average scores in international comparisons have often been below the average of developed countries. In the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment 2003, 15 year olds ranked 24th of 38 in mathematics, 19th of 38 in science, 12th of 38 in reading, and 26th of 38 in problem solving.[108] In the 2006 assessment, the U.S. ranked 35th out of 57 in mathematics and 29th out of 57 in science."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDr. Palin, I will let the others respond. I can only shake my head and wonder what reality you live in. Your response exemplifies the thinking that lead to the economic mess we find ourselves in at the public and private levels. How do you reason with such thinking?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBegging for work a little work on pain of starvation on the one hand, while turning down a lot of work because it would interfere with your holiday on the continent on the other hand. Shameless.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDr. Palinpresum: that was hardly the point of Jay's post.
Anyone who can afford to go to Europe should go. But don't complain about not being able to pay rent, feed, or clothe your children while packing for the trip.
The attitude you seem to express is that the teachers of our great country are ENTITLED to a trip to Europe. That is the problem with our society today. . . we all seem to think we are entitled to live a comfortable life. We will never get back on track until we disabuse ourselves of that attitude.
We are guaranted life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness - not happiness itsself.
Enjoy your trip.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat exactly can that mean, "keep American workers down"? In a market economy, entrepreneurs create jobs and that gives workers advancement opportunities. Hell, some workers can even become entrepreneurs.
The only entity I see holding workers down is big government -- taxes, regulation, and litigation abuse are what kill jobs. For everyone.
Oh, and that entitlement attitude? Yeah, that's you holding yourself down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI haven't encountered this exact attitude. But thanks to the nature of my work, I am able to spend plenty of time working from my beach house during the summer. This typically involves spending a couple of hours on the beach each day. That means being surrounded mostly by teachers who have the summer off and having to listen daily to their whiny and idiotic prattle.
I'm sorry, but while certain people speak of the nobility and self-sacrifice of teachers, they are not underpaid professionals but mediocrities who won the lottery in comparison to their abilities.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJay is denigrating people with a vast sense of entitlement, who think the world should change itself to satisfy their every need, while also refusing to adapt themselves in any way.
It's interesting that the liberal troll who made the first comment here took this to mean "teachers."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA lot of us can't take a july trip to Europe, because we don't get enough time off from work. ON the other hand, a lot of us make a little more money than teachers, since we work 260+ days a year, instead of 200+ days a year.
And some might be in jobs that would allow us to take unpaid leave for the summer; But most employees don't really offer that choice to workers. So people who love summers off have few choices for employment, teaching being one of those choices.
ON the other hand, teachers should have a hard time vacationing during the school year, except on breaks, while others can try to take their kids out of school and go anytime they want. Many school systems discourage this, making it hard to get approval for absenses, or make up work missed.
But Jay is right. If you are starving, and can't pay your rent, you don't travel to Spain for the summer. And if you need a summer job to pay the rent, you should line it up first, and schedule your vacation for your free time, rather than expecting employers to have work for you whenever you are free.
I think that is the shocking thing of the story, that the person just expected to be able to get a good-paying 6-week job in the time period he needed it, and got indignant when all he was offered was a better job at a time that was inconvenient.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI obviously don't know the context or the veracity of that story, but as the husband of a public high school English teacher, I can assure you that we will NOT be going to Spain this summer or anytime soon. I can promise you first-hand that, with two kids, despite two full-time incomes, we truly are struggling to get by, make rent, etc. For financial reasons, my wife and I have, in fact, never traveled outside of the country.
To suggest that public school teachers are somehow getting rich, living a life of leisure, would be absolutely laughable and insane, if there weren't so offensive, and if there weren't people like NRO readers/commenters who believed it.
I find it endlessly ironic that the GOP/right-wing insists we are in such a financial mess that MUST make these deep cuts to teacher pensions, salaries, etc - not to mention education nationally and programs for the poor, sick, and elderly - but billions and billions of dollars in tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year - THAT'S OFF THE TABLE!!
I find the hypocrisy genuinely sad.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDr Palinipresume. Are you really that dense or just totally disingenuous? The point of the letter was not that teachers don't deserve vacations in Spain but that this moron was whining he needed the first summer session job to pay his rent. If he had enough to go to Spain, then he was just lying to the author of the letter.
Good lord, is no one on the left even a little bit truthful or capable of seeing reality in a real way?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDrPalinIpresume - cute name.
Anyway, teachers have created the scorn brought on them. Teachers today are nothing like teachers 50 years ago. See, 50 years ago, America had the best education system in the world. This is what helped to propel us to the top. Teachers were respected and revered because they earned that respect. We are now ranked 23 out of 24 industrialized nations.
We no longer have the top rated education system in the world. We have a system that 40% of the kids don't graduate and those that do can't read at a proficient level. We have an entire generation of kids that are undereducated and lack the skills and knowledge to do the jobs we have today...these jobs are being filled by foreigners. We have universities that have to offer remedial classes because students coming into college are not prepared. We have high schools that are labeled drop-out factories because most of the kids don't graduate. And 25 years of high school drop outs has destroyed the neighborhoods these kids come from.
This is what our public school teachers and the teachers union has created. They continue to fail our children. They deserve all the scorn they are receiving.
And I'm going to guess you are public school educated since you can't seem to comprehend the point of the letter Jay received. The point was the teacher became upset because he couldn't get a summer job at the community college and chastised the hiring manager by telling her he couldn't pay his rent. Then when she calls him back, he couldn't take the job because he is taking a trip to Spain. If he didn't have money to pay his rent, how is he affording a trip to Spain? Maybe he was lying about not being able to afford his rent? That is the point of the letter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTo all posters suggesting that Jay was merely making a comment about one particular person, not talking about teachers generally or in any way suggesting this was a common attitude...
REALLY?
Please don't pretend to be an idiot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, I for one am truly embarrassed that a couple with two full-time incomes have not, for financial reasons, ever traveled outside of the country. Indeed a needless tragedy given the fiscal health of state and federal budgets.
Although both college educated and working in the private sector, my wife and I were never able to travel anywhere but to Canada even after our one son got out of college, so I feel your pain.
I like to do my part. Please feel free to move to Detroit and visit Windsor often.
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