Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Despite the facts, I still want to teach!
The more and more I thought about tonight’s discussion on teachers and their salaries and respect, the more it made me disagree with functionalists. I agree with some of the ideas of functionalism to a certain degree; I do think that a person is responsible for his or her own actions and make or break their own achievements the majority of the time. However, the justification for doctors making more than teachers does not seem quite fair. Yes, doctors can save lives but so can teachers. The point brought up in class about not being able to tangibly measure exactly what a teacher does was probably the best way I could think to put it. A doctor’s contribution is one of the greatest in the world but I don’t think that teacher’s should be thrown to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to pay and respect, which with my experience happens to be the case about 8 out of 10 times. I think that it is harder to measure just how great teachers actually are but at the same time, I think most of them deserve more credit than they are given. It was refreshing to hear that in other states teachers are thought of more highly; this is something that I was unaware of being from the state that doesn’t appear so great on the charts when it comes to education and testing scores. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that doctors shouldn’t earn more than teachers but the way the functionalists puts it bothered me. The fact that more people can teach and less can be doctors should result in doctors being rewarded a higher salary seems unjust; there are starting doctors that don’t really know what they are doing that make twice as much as teachers who are great and have been teaching for 20 years-does that really make sense?
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3 comments:
Remember that functionalists aren't making moral claims about the status of teachers (that it's good or bad teachers have the status they do) but rather descriptive claims (teachers have less status because of X). At least that's what functionalists are trying to do. Is such separation possible?
One of the reasons teachers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other northern industrial states have longer tenures, better status, and higher salaries is they are unionized. Collective bargaining is the norm. Should that system make it's way to SC?
Good post, Kristen.
Kristen, I feel much the same way you do. And the answer to your question is no, it doesn't make sense. Speaking of doctors, it is because of their education that they get to become doctors in the first place. Many of them often get to where they get because of the influence of good teachers. As far as I'm concerned, being a doctor is a calling but teaching is very much also. Teaching is one of the toughest professions there is for a number of reasons. Among them are: good teachers not getting paid what they are worth, not getting the respect they deserve (at least in this state), all the politics involved, the No Child Left Behind Act not being effective, and standardized testing scores being the only thing that seems to truly matter. That is not to discredit a doctor's worth to the world by any means, but being a teacher is every bit as important as being a doctor. Much like yourself Kristen, despite the facts I still want to teach because it is a personally rewarding and fulfilling profession because we have the opportunity to impact countless lives. Society in general may not value our jobs but at least our students will, especially later on in life.
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