Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: however, is that I may have to give up my idealistic dreams of making a difference in the world by teaching because there simply isn't enough money to do it., The issue that saddens me the most
I got a glowing review from my boss (the vice principal) today. He asked me, “how did you get so good?” It seemed overly rosy, but I appreciated the compliment. He told me how I had come a long way since the beginning of the year and how next year would be so much easier because of my hard work.
Well, there’s the thing….
Just earlier I had told another biology teacher that I didn’t know if I would be coming back next year. It’s not that I don’t want to. I do enjoy teaching, and I know that my second year would be so much better. The problem is that I have encountered a major obstacle that perhaps not even my idealism may be able to overcome: I can’t afford to be a teacher.
My husband has been out of work for quite some time now. We have been getting by on his unemployment and my modest paychecks. The problem is that the unemployment will run out sometime in the summer and the job market in this area for construction workers is bleak at best. A much better option, we have decided, is for my husband to go back to school.
However, that will make me the primary bread-winner for our family until my husband graduates…. in about 4 years. Even with the yearly salary increase, my teacher’s pay is not enough to pay the bills and feed my family. With the unemployment gone we will fall several hundred dollars short every month.
It seems my only solution is to find a job that pays more or risk losing our house.
There are many conclusions I suppose that could be drawn from this:
society doesn’t value its teachers enough to pay them well or that society put entirely too much value on houses and buildings and now that bubble has popped, or perhaps the need for unemployment extensions or reform, or maybe the virtues of higher education, or the worries that the economic downturn will cause the quality of education in America’s public schools to suffer.
All of these are worthy issues to consider.
The issue that saddens me the most, however, is that I may have to give up my idealistic dreams of making a difference in the world by teaching because there simply isn’t enough money to do it.
My husband and my children come first, however, and in the end I know I will do whatever is necessary for my family to be successful.
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