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Schools

LETTER: In Defense of Your Teacher

A letter to the editor from an Aberdeen Middle School teacher.

Ryan Burbey, an Aberdeen Middle School teacher, wants to give citizens some insight into his job. You may not like the proposed salary increases for school employees, but he says it's only fair.

Burbey has spoken at multiple budget hearings and school board meetings since the fall. Below is a letter he sent to Patch. It is unedited and printed in full.

In Defense of Your Teacher

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Over the past couple of years the rhetoric about education and our teachers has continuously escalated.  Over and over the cries of, “You are lucky to have a job,”  “Why do you deserve a raise,” and “If you don’t like the pay, go somewhere else.”  Have echoed through our community.  Movies like Waiting for Superman and various media personalities have vilified our dedicated educators.  Tired of lack luster performance in our schools, many would heap the blame in a giant stinking pile at the feet of our teachers.  I think we can all agree that our educational system needs to change, but the time has come for the finger-pointing and hyperbole to end.

While I am exceedingly happy to have chosen a career with significant job-security and with good benefits, neither I, nor any of my colleagues, are lucky to have a job.  We have all worked very hard to become certified professionals.  Perhaps once the old adage that, “Those that can’t do teach,” was true but certainly this is no longer the case.  Teachers are required to complete a rigorous undergraduate program.  They also must pass challenging content and pedagogy test to achieve certification. Likewise, they are required to continue their education in order to maintain their certification.  Specific certification requirements are listed at this website. Within ten years of beginning their employment, every teacher is required to achieve a Masters’ Degree.  Information about the laws governing teacher certification can be found here.

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Even a cursory examination of these site will dispel the idea that teachers can’t or don’t “do”.

Those that believe teachers “make enough” or “are well-paid”, should know that all that coursework required to maintain certification costs some serious bucks.  While admittedly Harford County Public Schools reimburses teachers for tuition costs, it only accounts for at best two thirds of the tuition for maximum of 12 credits each year.  In addition to tuition costs, these graduate level classes require exorbitantly expensive textbooks.  The cost of books for the one class, in which I am currently enrolled is over $300.  All told, within the first ten years of teaching, every teacher must re-invest thousands upon thousands of dollars into maintaining certification and continuing their education.  So when people question why we are so upset that we aren’t getting “raises”, they should consider the financial pressure, which teachers endure just to keep their job.  Similarly, when critics try to characterize salary step increments as “raises”, they should consider that these very modest incremental increases in teacher wages are meant to offset the burdensome cost of mandatory professional development and continuing education.

Teachers in Harford County have not had step increases in two years.  This austerity penalizes the youngest and quite frankly the poorest members of our profession, the most.  They must take classes and they must buy books.  Local colleges and universities aren’t arbitrating their tuition and fees based on the “tough times”.  The teacher salary freeze means that teachers in their third year of teaching are making the same as those who have just begun teaching and have not yet begun to incur graduate expenses.  Similarly, teachers who trusted that their salary steps would be forthcoming as agreed when they were hired must struggle to find ways to meet the bills.  While some have said that the hardship of teachers taking second jobs should be taken with a “grain of salt”, I can tell you for a fact that many teachers have done just that.  I know them.  I work with them and sometimes I see them at their other job.  Those that have not, monthly play everyone’s favorite game, juggle the bills.

People around the county and across the country have also questioned teachers’ commitment and work ethic, saying things like, “You don’t work holidays,”  “You have summers off,” “You only work 6 and a half hours a day”.  This kind of narrow-minded rhetoric is akin to begrudging your doctor for taking a vacation or not being open twenty-four hours a day.  If you will indulge me a few minutes of your time to read on, I will delineate exactly what teachers do besides just teach. 

When you are late to pick up your child because of traffic a teacher waits with them and comforts them.  When your child acts in a play, performs in a concert or competes in Destination Imagination, it is a teacher coaches or mentors them.  When your child goes to a dance, a social event at school or prom, teachers plan and chaperone them.   How may you ask are teachers compensated for this?  We are only compensated with the smiles, thanks and successes of our student.  All these and other extraordinary and uncompensated duties, teachers do for you and your children, not for material gain or recognition or fame.  They do it because it is just the right thing for them to do.  They do it because if they did not, who would?

Teachers don’t control the budgeting, organization or curricular mandates of our schools.  Teachers don’t decide what schools are built and where.  Teachers don’t decide which programs get funded and which do not.   Teachers can’t stop waste in government or graft or mismanagement.  Teachers don’t set tax rates or make fiscal decisions.  We just seemed to get the blame and suffer the consequences

It is time that we, as citizens of Harford County, do what is right for teachers.  It is time that we fund the re-institution of appropriate salary steps for all of our teachers.   It is time that those who would impugn the reputation, the preparation, the dedication and the service of our educators stop their destructive and insulting rhetoric.  It is time that the tax-weary re-direct their anger and stop grinding our equally weary teachers through the mud of a political tug of war. It is time that we, as citizens of Harford County, told our elected officials to treat our teachers fairly and make education our top priority.

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