Most parents assume that the week that teachers spend inside of schools before the students return is one of production: preparing lesson plans, working with fellow teachers and faculty members to focus on strategy, and other miscellany.
If you are not outraged by the following report, then you are not a taxpayer.
My mother and uncle, both of whom work within the school system, told me, grimacingly, that the following activities were partaken in during the preparatory week at North Hagerstown High School.
1) Dozens of teachers and faculty members were brought into the school’s rather large gymnasium and organized into a circle. As an ‘icebreaking’ activity, they were told by the principal, who stood in the middle of the circle, that she would call out random activities and events that staff may have once partaken in. “Have you ever volunteered for something?” is a typical question. If so, the staff member — remember, staff members in their forties, fifties, and sixties — were to run into the middle of the circle, jump up and down five times, and high five their fellow faculty members.
2) The same dozens were brought into the auditorium and watched the film Surf’s Up! in its entirety, while writing down answers to questions about the character traits of the various surfing penguins in the film. Why surfing penguins? Well, because that’s what the film is about. It’s a children’s film. You may be wondering why middle-aged people would be spending ninety minutes on the taxpayer’s dime watching a film about surfing penguins. It’s a valid question. My mother explained the motivation of the principal: this year’s theme, you see, is “riding the wave to success,” and it’s a great film about “not giving up.” And thus, catastrophe was narrowly averted: teachers who would have otherwise told children to give up were stopped in advance by the surfing penguins.
3) Games were played, including the throwing of rings onto various objects to score points. The points could be exchanged for something or other. The details are insignificant; the fact that this is going on is beyond preposterous. Another activity included breaking up into groups and separating into sub-groups by questions such as “Are you a non-conformist or a team player?”
Literally thousands of dollars were spent paying these people during these days. And to think that this is an isolated example would be naive.
You might now be wondering: what were the attitudes of the participants? Aren’t these people adults? What did they say?
According to my mother and uncle, who refused to participate in some of the activities and grudgingly made their way through others, they were generally shockingly complacent. It’s a stunning example of groupthink, in fact: Almost invariably, the teachers jumped up and down and high-fived each other, watched the penguin film enthusiastically, and played the games without question.
It’s rather pathetic that I have to add this explanation, but: We have a right to know what our government is up to, and we have a right to hold them accountable. We have a right to know how our teachers are spending their time in the weeks leading up to the opening of school. We the taxpayers are responsible for their salaries. If they’re throwing rings around sticks, watching penguin movies, and jumping up and down giving each other high-fives during ice breakers, then that should be out in the open.
Do you really want to know why our education system is in turmoil? Because our nation’s teachers are too busy watching movies about surfing penguins.
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures.
15 responses so far
1 midcon // Aug 18, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Considering what they have to go through once school starts, I’m not gonna begrudge them some downtime. Such motivational and team building activities happen in nearly all Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profits. And it happens on the clock. Most companies find the cost is minimal and return is greater than the the cost. In management speak – it does not create satisfaction; however, it reduces dissatisfaction.
Once you get out into the real world you’ll experience it yourself.
2 barker13 // Aug 18, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Sorry, Alex, I’m with Mid; I’m not all that bent out of shape by this.
Oh… don’t you worry… plenty of the stuff that goes on pisses me off royally and as Mid can attest, I’m fairly draconian with my regard to recommended responses…
(*CHUCKLE*)
Do I believe many teachers are overpaid? Sure. Do I believe most school systems are in large part studies in dysfunction? Yeah… to a large extent. Let’s just say there’s lots of waste – wasting of time, wasting of resources.
Anyway… not piling on. Seriously! Just providing feedback.
BILL
3 idrake // Aug 18, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I agree that private companies engage in such silly “team building” activities, too. Yet, that is on their dime. This nonsense is typical of public schools throughout the nation. Administrators latch onto anything — anything — that they think will lessen the tension of school environment and placate the teachers’ desires to get out of their classrooms and do anything other than think about their kids and lessons.
Ask any teacher what is the most important part of their day and they will respond that it’s their planning period. Most don’t use it for planning; they use it for surfing the web, calling friends, eating, etc. Teaching can be demanding and exhausting, especially with the sub-par preparation many parents give their children for school at all ages. However, the teachers do not need downtime. They have plenty of breaks during summers (during which they are paid) and the holidays during the school year. The school day is over by 4:30 or 5 p.m., at the latest for most teachers.
I think Mr. Knepper is right to bemoan this childish waste of time and public money.
4 AlexK // Aug 19, 2009 at 2:13 am
Exactly, idrake. This is on the taxpayer’s dime. If private companies want to squander money by watching films like Surf’s Up — which I doubt they do — that’s their money. But the taxpayers should not be paying our teachers to watch surfing penguin films.
Conservative arguments against the school system are very persuasive. But the most persuasive argument against it, in my experience, is having discussions with my mother and uncle. The school, a silver-medal one in US News & World Report’s annual rankings, is plagued by horrific inefficiencies, time-wasting, awful teaching, no sense of discipline, and total silliness. It’s one of those things where you just have to see it to believe it.
And don’t bemoan the fate of teachers. They have tenure, great dental and medical plans, summers off, and a great starting salary (starting at $35,000 — with summers off! — here in Washington County, Maryland).
5 AlexK // Aug 19, 2009 at 2:15 am
“Such motivational and team building activities happen in nearly all Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profits. And it happens on the clock. Most companies find the cost is minimal and return is greater than the the cost. In management speak – it does not create satisfaction; however, it reduces dissatisfaction.”
Okay, that’s nice, but isn’t the goal of teaching to, like, teach? Why are our teachers watching films about surfing penguins not giving up on their dreams (what the hell?) when they should be discussing strategy? My mom put it well: “I’d love to go to a meeting where we critically share strategy: a teacher brings up a discipline-related scenario and we exchange ideas about how we could handle them. But that never happens, because the principal always avoids anything that she thinks might stir conflict of any kind.”
6 palomino // Aug 19, 2009 at 4:12 am
“If private companies want to squander money by watching films like Surf’s Up — which I doubt they do — that’s their money. But the taxpayers should not be paying our teachers to watch surfing penguin films.”
Alex, you’ve gotta be the most uptight 20-year old in America. Even a prude like George Will sounds like a 60s radical by comparison.
Put aside the context of the surfing penguins for a moment since, for whatever reason, you seem to find them morally repugnant. The activity is nothing more than a harmless morale booster for people who have stressful jobs.
Save your outrage over govt. waste for something that is truly outrageous, and more importantly, expensive. This is nickel and dime stuff.
I hate to think what you’ll be like when you’re actually old if you follow this trajectory as you age. Good luck.
7 midcon // Aug 19, 2009 at 8:18 am
AlexK ,
You bet the goal is to teach, but there are necessary activities that go along with teaching as there are with any occupation. Many studies have shown that these motivational and other activities affect the attituteds, creativity, and performance. Sure it would be nice if you establish a value for some work and when it’s performed you get paid for the work you did but that’s not the real world.
As an example; I worked for the federal government. Although salaried (based on 40 hours per week), I averaged 65 hours per week with no overtime pay. That’s ok, I wasn’t working merely for the money or I would have been in industry. I had a passion for my work (Viktor Frankl calls it the “will to meaning”) . Such is often the case with teachers and others, including perhaps you. The fires of passion need to be stoked occasionally lest they become extinguished. Such is life, because people are not automatons even though in an economic model they are called labor and labor is traded for money.
As a current student who is closer to system than I, look at the profs you like and the ones you don’t. Why? What’s the difference? One of the ones you like might even be making a lot less than the one you don’t. So what drives the ones you like? I suggest it is a passion for what they do and that passion needs to be fed. Maybe there could be better mechanisms for doing that but it does need to be done.
So call it a perk if you will, some corporations give away vacations or have sales conferences in exotic locations, schools tend to do mundane kind of stuff, especially because they are using taxpayers money. It simply is part of their compensation package.
Now as far as Barkers comment about teachers being overpaid, it would make an interesting discussion/thread about how teachers are valued and compensated and whether the compensation is adequate. I tend to think they are underpaid, but that opinion is not based on data, so that opinion is not cast in concrete.
8 AlexK // Aug 19, 2009 at 8:47 am
I’ll ignore your first post, who seems to think that a proper “morale booster” for a fifty-year-old women is a surfing penguin film (which, by the way, was NOT intended to be a morale booster, but a fable about strategy) rather than coherent philosophy.
But as for the second:
Watching surfing penguin films is a “necessary goal”?
Throwing rings around sticks stokes the “will to meaning”?
Jumping up and down and giving high-fives are “perks”?
I tend to think that grown men and women care about their profession — and especially, in the case of teachers, the children that they teach — a little more than this. When there are so many other problems at school, there are slightly more important items on the agenda than remembering to “never let students give up.”
9 barker13 // Aug 19, 2009 at 9:13 am
Re: Midcon // Aug 19, 2009 at 8:18 am (#7) –
“Now as far as Barkers comment about teachers being overpaid…”
Tut… tut… tut… (*WAGGING FINGER*)
BARKER: “Do I believe many teachers are overpaid? Sure.”
“Many,” Mid. Not all. Some are underpaid. (True, I didn’t original add that last part, but it was clearly inferred by the first part – the use of the word “many.”)
The problem is that supply and demand are artificially removed for the equation. Meaning that the hard to find qualified high school physics teacher is paid the same as his peer (same seniority, same grade/step) the dime a dozen English teacher.
And of course tenure screws the whole set-up up in terms of getting rid of the dead wood.
Anyway, without going to deep into this side step, yeah… agreed… a fascinating debate topic.
(*WINK*)
BILL
10 midcon // Aug 19, 2009 at 9:42 am
Barker,
Agreed that supply and demand are left out of the equation. One reason for that is the classification part of the game where the only real discriminator is seniority rather than speciality and performance. Performance needs to be part of the equation but it needs to be done carefully because a teachers performance can only be measured for what the teacher has control over. Teachers can teach but it doesn’t mean students have to learn. So performance can really only be measured based on delivery of the product. Anyway, yeah this is a side step.
11 wsk // Aug 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Two quick comments. First, the assertion that teachers are “paid over the summer” mentioned by idrake is not true in all districts across the country. For example, in the district where I work as an assistant principal, teachers are not paid over the summer. Many find summer jobs to supplement their income for precisely that reason.
Second, while starting teacher pay in many districts, including my own and, it sounds like Washington County, is fairly competitive, the rate of increase in teacher pay is paltry compared to the private sector. Two college grads, one in education and the other in the private sector, may start out at similar salaries, especially when adjusted for the time off teachers have in the summer and during the school year, but chances are the private sector employee will be earning much more within 5 to 10 years than the teacher.
Having said that, teachers have enormously valuable benefits packages AND most have state-funded pensions once they retire. Those are huge perks our private sector friends, for the most part, do not share.
As for the back to school activities, I would simply caution against painting with a broad brush. It’s a far cry from one flaky principal choosing to show her faculty a kid’s movie to public education as a whole being a morass of lunacy and wasteful spending.
12 midcon // Aug 19, 2009 at 8:35 pm
ireign, I was not a member of the bargaining unit and was exempt from FLSA. One could apply for comp time but usually more trouble than it was worth. Many of the higher grades were in category and did not get overtime. Some folks got overtime but not many. We used to call it psychic income. One of the many perks. Still, I had fun and did something useful.
13 barker13 // Aug 19, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Re: Wsk // Aug 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm (#11) –
“First, the assertion that teachers are “paid over the summer” mentioned by idrake is not true in all districts across the country.”
Are you playing word games? (Not accusing… simply asking.)
What is the “yearly” median salary of teachers in your district? How many “school days” are there – school days where they’re actually teaching. (Please adjust for half days.)
What’s the starting pay of a teacher with a BA in English in your district vs. median starting pay for a recent college grad with a BA in English going into the private sector? (Now… adjust that for hours worked and days worked.)
(*SHRUG*)
See what I’m getting at?
As to how teachers are paid, here in NY teachers have a choice in HOW they’ll be paid. They can either have (higher) paychecks that stop during the summer when they’re not teaching OR they have the option of getting the same yearly salary and yearly benefits, only the (lower amount) paychecks continue throughout the summer.
“…while starting teacher pay in many districts, including my own and, it sounds like Washington County, is fairly competitive…”
Again, how’s it fair on a hourly basis? How’s it compare apples to apples – hours spent teaching to hours spend working “on the clock” or “billable hours” by private sector employees?
(Oh… and just in case anyone is thinking of it… let’s not throw in all the “lesson planning” time as making up the difference, because MOST professionals “work” many hours a week 0utside the office when they’re not technically “working” behind their desk at their office.)
“…chances are the private sector employee will be earning much more within 5 to 10 years than the teacher.”
Actually… I’m not all that sure about that. In any case, how many more hours are these private sector employees working? How many business trips are they taking? How much overtime are they putting in? How may sacrifices are they making in order to pull in those bigger bucks? What value do you place on tenure? What value do you place on summers off and all school holidays off?
Hey… I only know about my district. I live in a wealthy district. Quite a few of our senior teachers are making in excess of six figures. (And again, based on time and grade, not necessarily based on how hard they work, how many hours they put in, or how effective they are as teachers.) Now however you cut it six figures is a lot of money and so I’m not sure how widespread this “earning much more” is as opposed to “earning a bit more.”
(*SHRUG*)
Anyway… I hope to you share your experiences and knowledge with us. It’s nice to get an “insiders” view.
BILL
14 wsk // Aug 21, 2009 at 6:53 am
I actually agree with you Barker, at least in the larger sense. The point I was trying to make is that working in education v. the private sector is largely a trade-off. While most educators don’t make as much in terms of salary as most private sector employees with an equivalent educational level, there are lots of perks educators receive that private sector folks don’t. One is an excellent benefits package (I’m almost embarrassed to admit how little I pay out of pocket for a great benefits plan), a pension upon retirement, and the benefit you mention of pretty cushy work hours and lots of time off. After all, while everyone says teachers work 10 months, the reality is that when you count Christmas vacation, Spring Break, and other various days off it’s more like 9 months of real time.
The trade-off is that there is little opportunity for monetary rewards in education. You mention all the long hours people in the private sector put in, but fail to note the reason for that is there is a reward for those long hours. The best lawyer in a firm typically is rewarded financially for his or her hard work. The best teacher doesn’t make a penny more than the worst one with the same amount of time in the system. Now if you’re a crappy teacher, that’s a good deal. But if you’re a caring teacher who works hard to make a difference in the lives of kids (and there are a lot of those in education, both public and private) then it’s a point of enormous frustration. You noted this exact point at the end of your post when you mentioned teachers in your area making 6 figures based on time in rather than on how effective they are in the classroom.
I hate whiny public educators more than most, believe me. We all know going in we aren’t going to get rich teaching kids, so why bitch and moan about it once you’ve got the job? The truth is we get to go to work every day and have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of kids. I didn’t go into it to make money or to get a pension or because I’d have summers off. I chose this job and have stuck with it because I love working with kids. So to complain about the other stuff seems petty to me, and to lots of other teachers as well.
The thing that makes me a little nuts sometimes is that those of us in public education tend to get slammed by conservatives as if we were all a bunch of unionized nutjobs feeding at the public trough while the schools go down the toilet. There are many of us who disagree, sometimes vehemently, with the positions of teacher unions. And, in my experience, most teachers are sincere, hard-working folks who do their best for kids. A few of us are even *gasp* proud conservatives.
15 barker13 // Aug 21, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Re: Wsk // Aug 21, 2009 at 6:53 am (#17) –
“I actually agree with you, Barker…”
Wise people usually do.
(*WINK*) (*PLAYFUL BACKSLAP*)
“You mention all the long hours people in the private sector put in, but fail to note the reason for that is there is a reward for those long hours.”
Check median incomes and then adjust for hours worked. I think you’ll find that the disparities are not as wide as you assume.
Listen… I live in Harriman, Orange County, NY. (Monroe-Woodbury School District.) We’re 45 minutes northwest of the GW Bridge with no traffic and no police stops. (*WINK*)
I went to school in Boston – Northeastern University. I started on a Masters program a while back but the bastards at SUNY Albany axed it when I was only a third of the way done. (They were doing night and weekend courses at satellite locations an hour south of Albany and an hour north of me; they couldn’t get enough tenured professors willing to put their asses in gear two days a week to “commute” to teach classes so they basically left the grad students high and dry.)
Anyway… my point… I understand affluence and what it means to be at the (relative) top of the pyramid. Ironically in terms of this point my wife and I are heading up to New Hampshire later this afternoon to visit our friends Mary the Patent Attorney and Ted the hardware electrical engineer program manager at their 44 acre “estate” (*WINK*) we call “TedandMaryLand.” (And they’d BETTER have the frigg’n pool heated properly to a relaxing 84-degrees and the 8 person redwood hot tub ready for late evening relaxation!)
(*GRIN*) Seriously. My point is, your lifestyle and mine isn’t the average American’s. In New York median income is $45K for a single earner household and $83K for a two-income household. As I was saying the other day, here in my school district a fair number of senior teachers make $115K+/-.
Again… not to belabor the point… but my buddies Ted and Mary ain’t the average Americans. Neither is my buddy Carl the midtown Manhattan attorney who lives in Katonah or my buddy Bob the lighting designer/business owner who lives in Garrison.
On the other hand, your average high school or middle school English teacher or average kindergarten teacher… they ARE the “average” college educated American (and let’s face it, a Masters in Education is largely a joke – it’s a artificial career requirement, just another hoop to jump through so as to not make the teaching profession TOO easy to overload and thus protect wages/benefits) who is in terms of supply and demand no where near as valuable as most folks who earn the really big bucks.
Like I said… starting pay of $37K+ for 180-185 days a year AIN’T too frigg’n shabby! (And as you admit… the hours…) (*SMILE*) And then when you add the gold plated benefits package including retirement benefits… (*SIGH*)
“The best teacher doesn’t make a penny more than the worst one with the same amount of time in the system…”
We’re in accord – which is what I wrote. (*NOD*)
(BTW, I think LOTS of folks – white collar folks – are vastly overpaid. Lawyers are overpaid. I could go on and on. Don’t mistake me for someone who simply wants to “pick on” teachers.)
“We all know going in we aren’t going to get rich teaching kids…”
And that whole “get rich” thing is what I’m saying. Most people DON’T get rich. Not even close! Most folks in America are never gonna break six figures! Hell… folks like me (and perhaps you) have such a skewed view of what people get paid “in the real world” (as compared to top tier wage earners in the NY Metro/suburban region and like regions) that we throw around size figure family incomes as if they’re the norm when they’re NOT.
“The thing that makes me a little nuts sometimes is that those of us in public education tend to get slammed by conservatives as if we were all a bunch of unionized nutjobs feeding at the public trough while the schools go down the toilet. There are many of us who disagree, sometimes vehemently, with the positions of teacher unions. And, in my experience, most teachers are sincere, hard-working folks who do their best for kids. A few of us are even *gasp* proud conservatives.”
I understand. I understand AND I sympathize and empathize. My daughter starts her first real post college teaching (actually, teaching assistant – but full time) job on Oct. 31. We – as does pretty much everyone I know – have friends and family who are teachers or retired teachers. And of course… we’ve all attended school. (*GRIN*) (We all have an “insiders” view of the schools – at least from the student perspective.)
Teachers NEED to get their unions under control.
Teachers NEED to run the unions rather than allowing the unions to run them.
(*SHRUG*)
Wsk… it sounds like we’d get along fine if Obama were to invite us over to the White House for a beer (or six) and then make himself scarce.
(*WINK*)
BILL
You must log in to post a comment.