Most Commented Stories
All of this week's most commented stories.
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- Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
- You can be a DrunkBuster
- Wind power a vital component
- School districts eye 1 percent sales tax
- Value of farm products clear, not so for RICL
- Being jobless all too common
- Richard C. McCawley
- Alleged argument at party leads to a domestic battery charge
- Catherine Steele
- Giving back to Easter Seals
- More Bostons are coming
- Obama declares major disaster in Grundy County
- JoAnn S. Peters
- County will perform reviews, inspections for Diamond
Most Recent Comments
The most recent comments on the site.
HagenMonumentsBraidwood regarding Catherine Steele
Let us know if there is anything we can do to help. Keeping you all in our prayers.
HagenMonumentsBraidwood regarding Richard C. McCawley
Let us know if there is anything we can do to help. Keeping you all in our prayers.
coalcityexpat regarding Wind power a vital component
Yes, areader, Final Jeopardy music has resumed.
coalcityexpat regarding Wind power a vital component
areader - yes, of course, too much carbon dioxide IS very bad. OSHA maximum safe level is 30 thousand ppm atmospheric concentration. What is your point? Present concentration is 400 parts per million. Add to that the fact that since 1998 (the past 15 years) earth temperaure has not increased. This in spite of carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration has, during that 15 years, has increased.
Concerned1 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
Very well said Ryan543. For years I have been saying that teachers do not get the respect they deserve. If people would stop and think, they would realize it's the teachers that spend the most time with our children. Parents should teach their children to be respectful. Some of the behavior that takes place in our schools is appalling, to say the least. We entrust our teachers with our children 7-8 hours a day show them the respect they so deserve.
Ryan543 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
So, I think teachers are under-compensated in pay, and worse, under-compensated in respect. We should take a lesson from other countries that are producing better-educated people than we are: teachers should be valued and respected. You get what you pay for. If you want good teachers, you need to pay them well and treat them well. My wife was a great teacher--many students learned well from her (according to their own comments and compliments), and every administrative review rated her as excellent. But the system treated her very poorly, so she no longer teaches.
Ryan543 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
Finally, a teacher's year is more than 9 months. They're at school usually a week before students show up to set up their room, and they're there another week or two after students are out. And, on top of all that, teachers are required to take continuing education classes almost every summer. So they rarely get a couple months off during the summer.
Ryan543 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
Third, teachers are much more restricted in how they can spend their time. They can't just take a week of vacation when they feel like it, or show up to work an hour late because their sick children kept them up late the night before. They also have to deal with very obnoxious and disruptive students sometimes, and sometimes they have to deal with parents that are even worse (especially when they think that somehow they know how to teach better than someone who has 6 years of training in education).
Ryan543 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
Second, while some teachers do have it a little easier, depending on the subject they teach, many teachers put in as many hours in 9 months as people working 40 hours/week work in 12. The school day may only be 6-7 hours, but people forget that teachers have to be at school earlier than the start of the day, often leave much later than end of the last class (especially if they coach extracurriculars, which most do), have to make lesson plans for each day, which can take an hour or more, and have to grade, which can take multiple hours per evening if they give daily homework.
Ryan543 regarding Two ideas being floated to reform pension system
First, why shouldn't a starting teacher get 56k for a master's degree? Professionals (yes, teachers are professionals--everyone can teach, but a lot of people don't know how to teach well--you need good training to do it right) in many other fields (e.g., engineers) get paid significantly more than 56k for a master's. And that 56k is in Chicago. Downstate, a master's will only get you a starting salary of 31k!
