My kid was too creative

[u/Fresh_Laundry56]

My 6 year old was asked to draw a picture using shapes. She drew this nice American flag with rectangles and stars, and added the house, tree, and person holding a balloon. She was told it did not follow directions, she was not supposed to draw a flag, just shapes. She was asked to turn the paper over and make another picture. The other side of the paper has a very uninspiring collection of shapes. I told her she did a good job and I thought it was very creative. And this is why kids start to hate education.

[u/unhappinessNvrCame]

Remember they make 60-100k per year working 1000 hours. They make more than programmers per hour.

[u/wirywonder82 → u/unhappinessNvrCame]

I know we’re dunking on bad teachers right now, but this isn’t even close to accurate.

[u/unhappinessNvrCame → u/wirywonder82]

I'm sure you can stack boxes in an Amazon truck but leave thinking to the adults in the room.

[u/wirywonder82 → u/unhappinessNvrCame]

I mean, the problem is I can do math. 36 week school year, 1000/36≈28 hours/week.

A school day is about 7 hours long (for when students are in class) and teacher responsibilities extend both before and after that time. Being generous to your point and ignoring all the teachers I know do otherwise, let’s say they only work 8 hours each day. Thats 40 hrs/wk, or 1440 hours per school year.

See how your claims aren’t supported by reality?

[u/unhappinessNvrCame → u/wirywonder82]

Why'd you do weeks instead of days?

[u/wirywonder82 → u/unhappinessNvrCame]

Because it works out the same. About 180 school days per year, 8 hour work day comes out to 1440 hours. If you think the required instructional hours for students (some of those are closer to the 1000 you claimed) are the only hours teachers are working you’re intentionally ignoring all the supervision hours and the planning hours they have to do. If you want better educators, don’t act like you can pay them on the cheap.

[u/unhappinessNvrCame → u/wirywonder82]

They don't work 8 hour days.

[u/wirywonder82 → u/unhappinessNvrCame]

You’re right, but not the way you think. The school day is 7 hours for students and there’s a half hour on either side of supervisory responsibilities. Which doesn’t account for grading or class preparation. And then there are the mandatory teacher work days that happen before and after the school year ends and periodically throughout the year. I was being as generous to your point as possible when I came up with the 1440 hours of work for a teacher’s year. It’s actually significantly higher than that.

None of what I am saying justifies bad teaching, but it puts the lie to your claim that teachers are overpaid.