Nurture vs. Math

Hear me roar, a bit

Unpopular opinion alert: teachers are not paid what they are worth because teaching, by and large, is considered a Woman’s Profession.

Hey now, take a breath. I have some outstanding male teaching colleagues in my district — right here in the elementary school, in fact — and I follow scads of other Educator Men on the socials. I’m not discounting them, ignoring them, or leaving them out. In fact, they should probably be as riled up about this as I am, and many of them are. Teachers as a whole are paid 26.4% less than other professionals with the same amount of college education. We really have to push back on this fact, don’t we? Why is our job devalued in our society? As the Washington Post says, Nothing against actuaries (median salary: $113,990), but isn’t helping a first-grader learn to read as valuable as assessing insurance premiums on your Hyundai Elantra?

However, the 82 cents on the dollar that women receive versus our male counterparts still exists in education. According to Education Week, this has a lot to do with the fact that 1) men take on more extra-duty assignments that come with pay, and 2) are more likely to be paid for extra duties, particularly if administration is primarily male.

Oh yes. Did I mention that, while women make up 74-77% of teaching positions in the United States, they only account for 56% of principal positions, and 30% of superintendent positions?

Whew, I’m done with stats now. You can relax. They aren’t my favorite either, but they do help to tell this story. The next part may prove stickier and more uncomfortable, however, because it involves observations, theories, and … feelings. *shudder*

My job, the job of my fellow educators, involves being responsible for tiny (and not so tiny) humans for a major part of their day. We are accountable for their health, safety, and happiness from 8am to 3pm, give or take. It is understandable that, to many folk, keeping 18-30 children alive is our main duty during the day. It is this reason why I hear my profession described as “glorified babysitting.” It is the reason that the word “nurturing” enters the conversation and pokes a hole in any discussion of equal pay.

“Nurturing,” you see, is what women do. We care, we nurse, we encourage, we mother, we love, we sacrifice …

Uff da. First of all, no WE don’t. I know plenty of women who reject/dislike/are-ambivalent-to some or all of these designations. It doesn’t make them “less of a woman” anymore than men who embody these traits and actions are “less of a man.” I don’t feel I should have to say all of this at this point in history, but we all know these gendered stereotypes are harmful, garbage-y dreck.

Secondly — and more relevant to my topic — the nurturing part of my job is one of a hundred things I do every day. The individuals who are pretty sure they could do my job if they wanted to have absolutely never tried to teach a class about cause and effect text structure while also trying to figure out if they should really move on to the next math standard when 4 students are absent, and also there isn’t a sub teacher available for when your team member has to leave for an appointment this afternoon so what are you going to do with 10 extra students in your classroom … while also giving one student Vaseline for their lips and trying to figure out just how long another has been in the bathroom.

Did that paragraph give you anxiety? Any tightness in your chest? Did you laugh? What I described was every day. Not a bad day, not an unusual day, just a day. Imagine doing all of that on a day when you have a bad cold or you’re sad because your dog is dying, but it is much easier to come in and do the job than to try to figure out how to write sub plans for everything you have to accomplish and there probably isn’t a sub available anyway.

Every year, we discover more educational research that makes me change how I do my job. This idea that, 9 years in, I can rely on the lessons I teach every year? On the contrary, I met with coworkers just yesterday to see what we need to change with our schedules and instructional practices. We are continually checking to make sure we are using best practices to help our students succeed. Teaching involves constant monitoring and adjustment. It is never ending.

I love my job. If you’ve read more than a couple of my posts, you already know that. I worked very hard to be excellent at my job. I paid (am still paying) a lot of money to be excellent at my job. I have a Masters degree. I have piles of graduate school credits beyond my MA to make sure I stay excellent at my job. So why does my husband — who works his ass off in the trades — make over $35K more than I do? (Yeah, I said it. Let’s stop making talking about money so taboo. That’s a privilege of people who don’t have to track their checking accounts.)

Despite my raggedy citations above, this is very much a piece from my heart — my heavy, tired, hurting heart.

Thank goodness for the children. They responded so well to my lesson on, “Why We Should Not Use Our Elbows to Drink Out of Our Milk Cartons.”

Thanks for reading.

Love, Susie