Most of the jobs I've held in the past have paid very little and demanded more of my time than my paycheck justified. Working in the schools systems, I was constantly met with stupid children who took their stupidity out on teachers who merely try to educate them. I have been hit at, kicked, punched, sexually advanced by minors, broken up fights, dealt with mind games from children, and fought with administration about how they treat their "classified" employees. My pay as a substitute teacher was $125 per day, and my hourly rate as a paraprofessional was close to $11 per hour. I had to deal with my team arguing and discussing how to handle certain situations and student IEP plans without that information ever being relaid to me effectively, and then finding myself in situations where that information would have been handy.
The only person that seemed to have her head on straight with my team was my boss, Sara Thompson. She took her job by the neck and shook it like a dog, not allowing the frustrations of teaching children with behavior disorders to take her over. She always made sure I knew about changes in IEP's and always kept in the loop about what was going on. The other two, while I still liked them, always seemed put off by me and kept me secluded from the activities of the students in the BD program. Plus, if I was trying to help one of our students calm down, and Sigrid walked in, she would interject and take over the situation, destroying any hope I had of establishing myself with the student. By the beginning of the second semester I was so burned out by certain individuals and how they treated me, I completely gave up caring what they thought and decided to just go about helping the students in my own way despite what the "Behavior Model" said. I knew this would potentially lead to my removal, but to be honest...I didn't care. So many times I thought to myself,
"Why the fuck am I doing this? Everyone is pissed at each other everyday and nothing ever seems to go according to plan."
A few days ago I realized something. My current job, of which I've been employed for just under two months now, is paying me $41,000 per year with numerous opportunities for receiving overtime. I begin my job at home and END at home, meaning I don't have to leave at 7:00, or even 6:30 to beat the hectic morning Denver traffic on I-25 to get to work. The company has given me a company truck which I use to drive from job assignment to job assignment, and gas and maintenance on the vehicle is paid for by them. I receive full benefits, a "Touch Pro" Sprint cell phone that I use for both personal and work related ramblings that also allows me access to the Internet, texting, and a plethora of other features. My job has me working through a ticket system, which means I only go out on jobs if and when I receive a job ticket; I almost always do, but there have been days where NO job tickets came my way. In essence, I still get paid my salary even if I didn't do a lick of work. But even when I do have to work, most of my time is spent driving to get to a cell site, and a lot of the time it's on a beautiful day in the mountains. I do have a supervisor, but never do I have someone hovering over me making sure I'm working. Basically, if I don't have anything to do, I don't have to try and FIND something to do. This new job is amazing! It has it's downsides, but never in my life have I been as stress free with a job as this one.
How is this possible? This job pays SIGNIFICANTLY better and the job I busted my ass at paid me shit. Can someone say "oxymoron?" But this is the truth of the matter. Many of the jobs I've had have kept me in the humanities field where I worked closely with the development and prosperity of people and children. I now work in a field where all I do is make sure cell phones maintain coverage and drive around a lot. This is the difference between careers in the humanities vs. everything else. The values of modern society are basically telling us that paying teachers more is not an appropriate way of spending district and city wide funds funds, but when it comes to out cell phones, pay the technicians and switch operators anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per year. I'm not complaining about my job, I love it. I will never look for another job for as long as I can help it. But the standard of education is so low in comparison to keeping a cell phone up and working. It's sad and somewhat frustrating.
It's people like my last boss, Sara Thompson, who deserves more than what she was handed. I applaud her and her natural ability to teach and her love for it despite the flack she gets in return. It's people like her who need to multiply the most if we are to have any more people with the same drive and ambition. I can only hope one day, someone will put their foot down and make sure teachers get the paycheck that they deserve for putting up with the many hardships that come with humanities.
