Quote:
Originally Posted by fishbones
Most people don't go into teaching for the pension. They go into it for the summer vacation.  Seriously, I think most teachers go into it because they really want to help children learn. In order to be in that profession, they have to join the union. Once they're in, they are pretty much committed to whatever the union wants to do. I can't really fault them, but I agree about the pension being an outdated for of a retirement plan. |
I completely agree with you with regards to why people get into teaching. All of the younger teachers I know are some of the most motivated individuals. After a decade or two of dealing with everyone else's problem kids and realizing that all you have to do is the minimum work expected from you as long as you are not diddling the children, the more veteran teachers stop caring - again, there are exceptions to the rule.
The luxuries of seniority-based power - dead weight be filtered out and teachers that perform above and beyond are not rewarded - gold ribbons and stars outside the Main Office don't count. It is amazing how impossible it is to get rid of bad teachers if they have been teaching for 10-15 years.