Let’s Not Let Sexism Get in the Way of Education
Teachers deserve more, and you know it.
Imagine having a job where you work from 7 am to 5 pm every day. On top of that, you have to take homework with you and sometimes work on the weekend. Many jobs may meet these criteria, so let’s dive even deeper.
This specific job is a job where you are constantly getting told to prove your knowledge and expertise no matter if you have a Bachelors, Masters, or even a Ph.D. in the subject matter. A job where if you need to take a sick day or a vacation day, you have to work extra to do so. A job that entails buying your own supplies to even be able to do that job well. A job in which you are in charge of children’s lives, creating differentiated lesson plans for each of these students, all while communicating to administration and parents and creating a written play-by-play on everything you do.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. On top of all this, the compensation for this tasking job is practically nothing. In my state, the starting wage for teachers is 38,000 a year, which is sadly better than other places in the United States. Which is the same as saying I make $19 an hour if I only were working 40 hours a week. Which we all know, is inaccurate.
So why is it like this? How do our incredible and knowledgeable teachers, that shape the minds of future generations, get so taken advantage of? Why do most teachers need to get a second job just to be able to survive?
Women, that’s Why
Now, we could look at our government funding and how it is less than 3% of how all of our tax money is spent. We could look at that funding and see that most of that money doesn’t go towards the teachers anyway. We could look into teacher’s unions and how having them has created minor change, but nothing nationwide. We could even look at other countries and how the United States is not near the top in Education, and why that may be.
However, I’m more focused on the root cause of all of this. It’s simple, Education is a women-dominated career, and women don’t have a great track record in this country.
Women, over the decades, have been applauded for their self-sacrificial characteristics. We are mothers first or wives first before able to meet our own needs. We are applauded when we put everyone above ourselves, because that is what is expected of us, and this type of ideal is exactly why we have gotten manipulated into a career that should be compensated more fairly.
As teachers, we again are applauded and given praise for the sacrifices we make for the children to be able to succeed. We are encouraged to use our own money (the very little we have) to stock our classrooms with enough supplies and resources for our lessons. We are pushed to spend extra time outside of the classroom to make sure everything is graded and created on time without any extra compensation. I mean, of course, we want the students to thrive and gain the best education possible, but why put this idea that teachers have to “sacrifice” for this to happen? Why can’t the system be reformed to mutually benefit the students and the teachers? This has happened in other countries which have led to higher education outcomes. It’s almost like if teachers are appreciated, treated with respect, and are compensated fairly, they may be more prone to teach to the best of their ability because they have the stability and resources to do so. Rather than having teachers “burn out” due to the lack of these things.
Women and the work that we do are also undervalued in general which has led to horrendous wage gaps across all fields. However, in this specific field, it has led to the notion that “teaching is easy”. The idea that if women can do it, it can’t be that hard of a job. Especially since they are happy to do it because it’s for children. Well, that’s all bull****. It’s an extremely hard job that takes a mental toll that requires years of education and preparation. This idea was practically proven during the shutdowns of COVID and the rise of homeschooling during this time. Parents struggled, and yet nothing has been put in place to compensate for the value of our teachers.
I am going to go as far as to say that the opposite actually happened. During COVID, speaking about the district I was working for specifically, teachers were forced to sacrifice even more. Teachers were required to do all recess duties and lunch duties, sacrificing any prep period they were given. This leads to teachers working even longer hours. These same teachers also got their “steps” taken away from them for two years. This means that the minor raise they get with the years put into their career (not even enough to cover inflation or rising prices, especially during this pandemic) were taken away. That money was redirected to new programs that the teachers had to spend even more time learning.
It’s an unending cycle.
Society believes that for students to succeed, it must be at in expense of our teachers. Our teacher’s pay, time, work-life balance, and mental wellbeing. However, this does not need to be the case. If we took the time to see the roots of why this is occurring and show the true understanding and values of our teachers, we could start making change.
If we truly want our students to have the best possible education, we should start with the ones educating. We should take care of our teachers and show them that they are valuable.
Imagine that. Imagine a society where being a teacher is just as hard as mentioned above, but they are valued for the tasks they are doing. That teachers feel stable enough in their careers where they don’t need a second job to survive, and they can spend that time focusing on their lessons. Where they have the resources to fill their classrooms with enough pencils for their students. A society where teachers are more worried about their students learning than proving their abilities and expertise over and over again.
I bet that society wouldn’t have a teacher shortage, that it would have higher rates of positive educational outcomes, and more students would receive better education due to stronger impacts of those teachers. I also would bet that if more students had stronger education, the society would be better overall.
