Last August, I was fortunate enough to secure a one-year teaching position as a physics and chemistry instructor in Snohomish County. Perhaps more fortunate is the fact that I spent the previous year, with the support of my parents and fiancee, completing a math/science masters in teaching. I know I was lucky in this instance because the completion of my master’s degree meant that I would be taking home about $800 more a month even though it added $21,000 to the $25,000 I already owed to FedLoan for completing my bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
My story isn’t unique among the people I work with, by any means. Most of my colleagues (70.4 percent, according to the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) have at least a master’s degree, and at least one that I know of, has a doctorate in a specific content area. Many of these people took pay cuts from their jobs in the private sector or passed up opportunities to be contributors in their field because they were drawn to the idea that teaching meant making a difference in somebody else’s life as well as their own. Teaching for me meant sacrificing the opportunity to not just work in, but manage a lab for a lucrative biotech company in Redmond, but again, at 25, I am drawn to the idea that teachers matter.
I wanted to thank Mr. Eric Olson for pointing out in his May 7 letter some of the challenges parents face when teachers strike. I can imagine it is difficult to secure child care for an unanticipated day off of school. As Mr. Olson points out, teachers do not “even consider the burden and pressure that [a one-day strike] puts on working parents.” I know it really did not cross my mind as I considered the issue, but then again I never think of myself or my classroom as being gratis daycare. Fridays must be an issue for parents too.
Mr. Olson points out that teachers are “insisting on an early release every Friday for so-called workshops,” and that he has heard from bus drivers that we take the time to plan the weekend and swap recipes. An interesting take on what goes on no doubt, and I can see how what we do could be confused for cooking. During last Friday’s release time my department was ordering chemicals like solid sodium hydroxide, potassium permanganate and hydrochloric acid for our students to use in labs; which could sound like cooking if you only had a general sense of what goes on at school. I planned for my weekend a little bit too; making sure I had everything I needed in order to grade projects my physics students had submitted on thermodynamic cycles. I didn’t give it too much thought though because I knew I’d be in for three or four hours on Sunday as usual, so if I forgot anything it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Josh White is a resident of Lake Stevens.
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