- #36
stewartcs
Science Advisor
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Apparently most of us (including me) sit around doing nothing at work! :rofl:
If we are talking about a global average and who is most respected, I would think religious leaders rank pretty high.
DaveC426913 said:This is very bizarre logic (that is, if you're not pullin' our leg). You think that they don't deserve respect because they sit around doing nothing a lot? If they took up professional housecleaning while waiting, that would make them more respectable?
Firemen are great chili cooks.Kurdt said:I'm the son of a paramedic that shares a station with firemen so I'm probably rather biased. :tongue:
Paramedic was the first thing that occurred to me; that's what led me to firefighter.Kurdt said:I'm the son of a paramedic that shares a station with firemen so I'm probably rather biased. :tongue:
jimmysnyder said:Software engineers.
My mother respects me.BobG said:Software engineers?
Astronuc said:Some like the Dalai Lama who advocate peace are certainly highly respected, then others like Pat Robertson or Ruhollah Khomeini (Ayatullah) who advocate violence are not. On the other hand, some people respect those who do violence based on some notion of promoting or defending a particular faith.
Unfortunately.Clearly Pat Robertson and the Ayatullah have huge followings.
I do not respect you.brewnog said:Clowns.
Zantra said:3. Teachers- Molding minds, cultivating tomorrow's physicists and inventors- doesn't everyone have a teacher they'll never forget? And they put up with 30 crazy kids every day year after year for practically minimum wage at times. A round of applause for doing something that has to be done because of it's own virtue.
And now from the teacher here:Turbo-1 said:Regarding teachers' salaries: My wife and I lived next door to two teachers a few years back who were pulling down more than $35K/year apiece - far better pay than most of the people whose taxes paid their salaries. They had all summer off, school breaks, and every holiday that ended in a "Y", paid health insurance and generous retirement packages. Since their vacations and breaks coincided with those of their kids (now grown and gone) they never had to pay for child care and they got to spend much of the summer taking family trips with their camper-trailer. They bought new vehicles every few years and always seemed to have enough money to do a big home-improvement project every year or two (Add a garage, new siding, etc) That doesn't sound like "poorly-paid" in a town where some of the best skilled jobs are paying $10-12/hr.
Astronuc said:Unfortunately.
I know a few teachers who take the summer to do additional education, and some who even teach summer school, in addition to the regular school year.Chi Meson said:Yes and no to both of you. Teaching is neither as difficult and underpaid as some make it out to be, yet it is by no means as easy and lucrative others say it is. Some teachers suck. Some teachers are worth 10 times what they are paid. The best teachers out there would not be teachers if we didn't get those summer vacations. I wouldn't.
I think this applies to many jobs - in the middle class.The pay is OK. It is neither poverty nor immense riches, the retirement plans are pretty good, but not fantastic. Insurance is quite good indeed, but not the "amazing ride" of many stories I have heard. Teaching is indeed middle-class work, and indeed we get middle-class pay.
Certainly. I don't see teachers as a whole are paid too much. Individually, there are some great teachers as there are those not so great. Then there are great students as there are poor students, yet a teacher is supposed to teach the whole groups the same way. NCLB doesn't differentiate individual ability - it simply grades the group.I've said this before on PF:
Do you think teachers are paid too much?
Do you think our teachers should come from the highest quality candidates?
You can't say yes to both.
I think (good) teachers are grossly underpaid, and the good ones have saint status in my mind and heart. Good teachers are the ones that just have their hearts in the right place because they could make a lot more money in industry. Thank god for those saints.Chi Meson said:I've said this before on PF:
Do you think teachers are paid too much?
Do you think our teachers should come from the highest quality candidates?
You can't say yes to both.
no, they don't. The best of the best should be able to get 6-figure salaries, shouldn't they? Seriously, has anyone isolated the "teacher's gene"? An excellent teacher is someone with high intelligence, with passion and drive and willpower, and the ability to get along with (and lead) lots of people (different kinds of people) at the same time.turbo-1 said:Teachers should come from the best of the best. They often don't ...
scorpa said:When it comes to the teacher thing I will fully admit I am biased. I went to a school where of my 13 years there I can only recall 1 possibly 2 teachers that I absolutely loved. The rest were awful and were only at our school because they were not good enough to teach in the city. So essentially we got the left overs. I know there are amazing teachers out there and they do deserve to be paid well, unfortunately I just have never seen enough amazing teachers to think they should as a profession be getting more money. I think teachers should be paid on merit, if you are good at what you do then you get paid well.
The thing that probably makes me lose my respect the most for the teaching profession is the constant complaining you hear from those in it. It seems like every year there is a teacher's strike, and every year because of that they get another pay increase. And while they are on strike they blatantly lie and say it is "for the kids". It is not for the kids, it is for their own benefit. You going on strike so you can get paid more is not helping your students. I especially love how they always seem to go on strike when the grade 12 students are within a month or two or writing their diploma exams...that is hardly helping them.
You have to deal with crap in every profession that is just life. When I graduate I will be working in a hospital lab, I will get probably be paid less (or about the same) than teachers but I don't care because I will love my job, I am not going into it for the money. I'll get to take crap from doctors and nurses that do not understand what I do, and never get any recognition from anyone because most people don't even realize people in the lab exist (even though that is where their diagnosis comes from). That is just life. Teachers know exactly what they are getting into when they decide to be teachers and if they don't there is a wonderful thing they have to do in university called "student teaching" so they should figure it out there. They have lots of time to decide to step away from the profession.
Sorry about my rant on this it is just one of those things that really bother me. I feel teachers are well paid and don't appreciate what they have at all. It is true I wouldn't want to do their job but I doubt they would want to do mine either.
Chi Meson said:Biased, yes.
No ,your mother loves you. Very different.jimmysnyder said:My mother respects me.
scorpa said:Biased perhaps but still based on true experiences. I have no problem with and greatly respect those teachers that are good and truly want to be there, I just think there are to few of them. They provide a necessary and very important service. It is just discouraging to see how many people go into education because they could not get into anything else. Everyone I know that could not make it in their chosen field (physics, math, premed, biology, law) ended up deciding to go into education because it is the easiest faculty to get into that will actually land you a job when you graduate. They need to make that faculty harder to get into so the only people who actually want and deserve to be there are.
Being related to several teachers, I can tell you teachers do far more work than you are giving them credit for.Art said:I agree wholeheartedly that good teachers should be very well paid but the first hurdle to overcome is identifying who the good teachers are.
I don't know about in the US but in Britain and Ireland the teachers threw a collective fit when it was proposed testing their competency. They claimed the stress of it all would be too much for them to handle on top of the stress of their 6 hour day and 15 weeks paid holidays. One wonders how these folk would survive in the real world of typically 50-60 hour weeks and at a minimum annual performance reviews?
If teacher's unions were to embrace meritocracy then good teachers could and would be rewarded but it seems the risk of the underachievers being found out outweighs the benefits - at least in the UK and Ireland.
Chi Meson said:Come on. There are no "education usurpers" who are preventing the true teachers from getting jobs. I certainly did not go into teaching because I passed the "want and deserve" exam. I, with degrees in Physics, English, and an MFA in creative writing [don't ask], chose to teach rather than go into photonics (where I was heading) because I felt that 13 weeks of vacation each year made up for a $50,000 per year deficit.
Kurdt said:I've always wondered why firefighters were so respected. For the most part they sit around doing nothing. If they're respected because most people wouldn't go into a burning building to save someone then I'm disappointed.
Astronuc said:Farmers - the ones who work the land they own.