Our Education System...



I do not believe this to be true.


I don't believe it either.

And I don't want to be a dick because I really do appreciate teachers that are good at their job and I have a child going into second grade and kindergarten and I appreciate the teachers at their school.

But the average salary for an elementary school teacher is over $62,000 a year. And no matter how many mental gymnastics you have to go through to tell me otherwise, they work 9 months out of the year. And where my kids go to school they only have class Tuesday through Friday. That all sounds pretty awesome to me. Granted, you'll never get rich in that job, I get it. But you'll make a good living, have a great schedule and when it's done a great retirement (that is protected if you get divorced). Not too shabby.
 
Grok is fucking up the numbers in my opinion. Average salary of someone with only a high school diploma and nothing more is not 49,000-52,000. I call complete bullshit on that.
You think that's too high, I guess?

I dunno, I think that would be about right. If it used to be 25-30k 25 years ago, that's probably about doubled.

And a lot of people in the trades have only a high school diploma and make pretty good money.
 
You think that's too high, I guess?

I dunno, I think that would be about right. If it used to be 25-30k 25 years ago, that's probably about doubled.

And a lot of people in the trades have only a high school diploma and make pretty good money.

A lot of the people in the trades have schooling beyond highschool too. Lineman, go to lineman school. Welders often go to welding school. So are we counting them as people with only a highschool diploma? Because that feels stupid. But I also think working 9 months of the year in an airconditioned building with great hours probably beats fixing an electrical line in the middle of the night in a snow storm.

Google AI puts the number at $42,000-$46,000 for someone with only a highschool diploma and nothing else. I'm curious if those figures count part time workers and unemployed though. I double checked and no those figures are not included. My guess is you'd have significantly more workers with only a highschool education getting less than 35 hours a week but I could be wrong.

And this is in no way trying to say those without education beyond highschool can't succeed. I think some of the best entrepreneurs are those without a college degree. But in general if you want to go work for someone else, it's easier with something beyond highschool.
 
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A lot of the people in the trades have schooling beyond highschool too. Lineman, go to lineman school. Welders often go to welding school. So are we counting them as people with only a highschool diploma?
I'm sure they are, yes. I think all they care about is college. And I don't think it includes the unemployed.
 
I'm sure they are, yes. I think all they care about is college. And I don't think it includes the unemployed.

I think all they really care about is making teachers sound like some suffering class. But then define it as daycare workers and preschool workers. Which I guess the gap is going to close when you force McDonalds and Walmart to pay people $15.00 an hour.

And I guess my point about unemployment is just that most people with an early education degree could have employment right this second if they wanted. Plenty of demand.

Someone with only a highschool diploma? I would assume far more likely to be struggling to find a job. Or frankly not even trying to find a job because they don't want to really work.
 
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I think all they really care about is making teachers sound like some suffering class. But then define it as daycare workers and preschool workers. Which I guess the gap is going to close when you force McDonalds and Walmart to pay people $15.00 an hour.


My sister is a teacher (High School English) and if you sat down and talked to her for 15 minutes, you'd understand why the profession is under stress right now. Student behavior is at an all-time low, they're still dealing with the negative effects of the pandemic-things will never return to how they were, and they're so short on teachers, they're having to hire people who are not certified and have no idea what they're doing. It's been a fucking nightmare for her and she is seriously considering going back and getting her master's so she can be in administration. This is what she has wanted to do since she was 6 and she can't stand it anymore.
 
My sister is a teacher (High School English) and if you sat down and talked to her for 15 minutes, you'd understand why the profession is under stress right now. Student behavior is at an all-time low, they're still dealing with the negative effects of the pandemic-things will never return to how they were, and they're so short on teachers, they're having to hire people who are not certified and have no idea what they're doing. It's been a fucking nightmare for her and she is seriously considering going back and getting her master's so she can be in administration. This is what she has wanted to do since she was 6 and she can't stand it anymore.

And I have immense respect for the good teachers (Let's face it there are bad ones, but I've been lucky so far to have only delt with good teachers). Teachers have can amazing impact on children's lives. They did on mine. They will on my kids.

I get the shitty student behavior. I get the teacher shortages. I am curious what negative effects of the pandemic is she dealing with? Honestly the only thing that I have seen really changed since the pandemic is that we went from a 5 day school week to a 4 day school week. And we no longer make up snow days, we just call them "distance" learning days and kids do assignments on their computers from home. These all seem like pretty positive perks for teachers. I'm not sure what the negative lasting consequences are? Tighter security at the school? I will say I have seen that not sure it makes teachers lives worse. Just parents.
 
And I have immense respect for the good teachers (Let's face it there are bad ones, but I've been lucky so far to have only delt with good teachers). Teachers have can amazing impact on children's lives. They did on mine. They will on my kids.

I get the shitty student behavior. I get the teacher shortages. I am curious what negative effects of the pandemic is she dealing with? Honestly the only thing that I have seen really changed since the pandemic is that we went from a 5 day school week to a 4 day school week. And we no longer make up snow days, we just call them "distance" learning days and kids do assignments on their computers from home. These all seem like pretty positive perks for teachers. I'm not sure what the negative lasting consequences are? Tighter security at the school? I will say I have seen that not sure it makes teachers lives worse. Just parents.



She has so many discipline problems in her class, it makes staying on target virtually impossible. And the parents are even worse. They take the kid's side every single time. Her superiors expect her to work miracles and when she can't, which is nearly all the time now, she is held accountable for it despite their lack of support. She's been teaching for 25 years, btw, and loved her job up until about 6 years ago.
 
She has so many discipline problems in her class, it makes staying on target virtually impossible. And the parents are even worse. They take the kid's side every single time. Her superiors expect her to work miracles and when she can't, which is nearly all the time now, she is held accountable for it despite their lack of support. She's been teaching for 25 years, btw, and loved her job up until about 6 years ago.

Yeah, I think social media is a bit of a disease that has made these things even worse. It's why I would never run for an elected position around here. It's awful on social media and one year a group is getting you elected and the next they are making you the villain and making sure you no longer have a job. Screw all that. And I know at least around here a lot of the same happens about the schools. Parents act like children just as much as the children act like children.
 
Yeah, I think social media is a bit of a disease that has made these things even worse. It's why I would never run for an elected position around here. It's awful on social media and one year a group is getting you elected and the next they are making you the villain and making sure you no longer have a job. Screw all that. And I know at least around here a lot of the same happens about the schools. Parents act like children just as much as the children act like children.


It's so different from the 70s and 80s. My parents NEVER took my side, and for good reason. Now they can act like complete imbeciles, and their parents will come in and defend them like they're angels.
 
“We made a mistake.”

Maybe it’s time to punt the people who made those mistakes from their positions of power and let those who told you it was a mistake at the time make the rest of the decisions from here on out.
 
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