Posts

Give Them the Pay They Deserve

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     Teachers have countless responsibilities, and yet it doesn't seem that they get recognized for everything they do. You would think that, since teachers are the ones training and educating our future generations, they would be paid a relatively generous amount. But really, educators are getting drastically underpaid. I wanted to share some information with you regarding their salaries today. Teachers Salaries Today     In 2018, it was discovered that around 20 percent of teachers quit because of the low pay ("Teacher Compensation..."). At this rate, we won't have many left who are willing to educate our children for the small amount of money they are offered. In the United States, the current average salary for a teacher is $63,645 ("Teacher Compensation..."). Many people claim that this salary is higher than that of many other similar professions; however, you need to factor in things like inflation before making that comparison. When looking at this sa...

Two Different Countries, Two Different Schools

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      We all have our own experiences with issues surrounding education, but what some people don't realize is that those experiences can be different for everyone. The quality of education in third world countries is completely different from what we have here in the United States. We are so focused on the education issues in our own country or state that we don't realize what may be happening in other parts of the world. All issues are valid and important, but some outweigh the others. New Hampshire         In New Hampshire, we have recently had many issues regarding the funding of our schools. Historically, the idea of taxes and how they should be paid has been a prominent topic in discussions, and now it has made a reappearance. New Hampshire citizens all say that the current school system isn't beneficial for students or taxpayers. The government is attempting to create a new formula for taxes and the funding of schools, but each one evidentl...

A New Generation of Students = A New Education System

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          This past week I have watched many Ted Talks centered around the idea of education reform. Our current education system is relatively the same as it was 100 years ago even though every other aspect of society has changed. ( Unsplash)          While there have been times in our history when the government has tried to change the education system, none of them ever really succeeded. If you are old enough, you may remember the No Child Left Behind Act, which was established in 2001 ("No Child..."). This act had 4 main pillars: accountability, flexibility, research-based education, and parent options ("No Child..."). President George W. Bush put this act into place to provide all children with fair and equal opportunities for high-quality education ("No Child..."). However, this attempt at a new system failed in 2015 because it required all students to make a mandatory score on standardized tests ("No Child..."). Since th...

Why Is Teaching So Stressful?

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This week, I read the article “10 Challenges Facing Public Education Today” which focuses on multiple challenging aspects of education. The section “The Pressure Is On” is about how the amount of stress that school puts on both students and teachers is steadily increasing.  One idea that I found interesting was that teachers are actually just as stressed as students. According to a study done at the University of Missouri , 93% of elementary teachers reported having high levels of stress (Alvarez), and I don’t think that’s something that’s widely discussed. Personally, when I look back at my elementary school years, I realize that my teachers managed to hide their stress and responsibilities from us so well that we didn’t notice. To this day, it's even often hard to tell when my high school teachers are stressed. It made me wonder what exactly is making teacher’s stress levels so high, so I looked up some more information about this idea.           O...