Carter Coates

Palmer
English 111 (4)
20 Nov 2018

Raise the Salary of Teachers

The world possesses countless paths of making money, and for good reason. As

the population of the world continues to increase, there’s a hunger that grows for more

jobs and opportunities to earn an income. There are certain careers that are required

more by the population than others. Some of those careers that come to mind are

lawyers, police officers, scientists, and doctors. There’s also a career that should belong

on that list as well but often is forgotten about and that is teaching. Teachers do not get

paid enough for the work they do and the educational credentials that are required to do

their jobs.

Looking at the top paid careers in the world, the highest paid profession is a

physician with a salary of $195,842. A physician wouldn’t have known half the things

they were required to know for the job without the education from their high school

teachers. If the physician took a health class in high school, they would’ve been taught

the necessities for human health and everything surrounding the field by their health

teacher. If you were to think about the primary classes every student is required to take

in high school, English class would come to mind. Part of the role of an English teacher

is to teach their students how to become good authors. Some of those students go on to

become famous writers. As a writer, they would be making an average salary of

$60,250, when the average salary of a high school teacher is $57,200. Why should

someone that acquired all of their knowledge of their profession from a teacher be

making more annual money than that teacher? I’m not suggesting that teaching should

be in the top five highest paid careers, but it doesn’t seem right when a writer is making

$3,000 more than the person that taught them everything about how to write.

Many teachers are often forced to look into a second job to earn enough money

to supply and pay off their college debt because the salary of teaching alone isn’t

enough. Teachers are already faced with some of the most difficult situations. Most

people probably think that teachers are solely required to teach a classroom of students

how to write or how to solve an equation but they would be completely oblivious to think

that. Elementary teachers basically have to babysit everyday they go to work. If a

second grader has an accident in the bathroom, their teacher is expected to clean it up

for them because they would be lost if they had to take care of the mess themselves. A

high school teacher may be asked to deal with a student’s thoughts of self harm at any

point in the school year. If that student doesn’t feel comfortable talking to their high

school counselor about their feelings or they don’t have anyone at home to listen to

them, they are very likely to reach out to their teacher that they see everyday and have

a connection with. The truth is, a teacher isn’t fit to put up with a second job because

teaching requires so much by itself. This is stated by ​Nínive Calegari in an article in ​The

Washington Post​ by saying, “No teacher should have a second job and teachers should

struggle less financially so they can focus on their critical work in the classroom.”
(Calegari 1). It would be very beneficial to the school system if teachers didn’t have to

worry about having a second job to support their lives. Staff members could solely focus

on their lesson plans and students.

Of course, there’s a logical explanation for why we can’t suddenly increase the

pay of teachers. Jason Richwine, from ​The Federalist​, argued that, “​education—the

degree held by around half of public school teachers—is among the least challenging

fields of study.” (Richwine 1). It’s a good point, and I can see where that would be an

issue. You don’t just want to throw more money at people that go to college for four

years for one of the simplest and most common degrees to earn. However, the effort of

keeping up with students, grading tests, organizing assignments, all for the purpose of

helping students excel and go on to do great things is deserving of a higher salary.

Being a teacher implies many things. It implies that you are capable of dealing with

hundreds of kids, you are capable of teaching a variety of lessons and skills, and you

are a role model in the eyes of the new generations that will soon take control of the

world. There is a variety of things a teacher can teach, from pottery to calculus, all

things that sprout an idea in a student’s head of what they want to do when they

become an adult. Teachers do more than teach lessons required by the state. They

lead the beginning of a student’s journey that they will be experiencing for the rest of

their lives.
 Teachers do too much work to only be paid $58,000 a year​.​ They need their

salaries to be raised so they don’t have to be concerned with getting a second job.

Everything that teachers teach is the basis of a greater picture. A history teacher

teaches students about dinosaurs and ancient egyptian artifacts which sprout the idea

of becoming an archeologist in one student’s mind. That student then goes to college to

study more about history with a new teacher, a professor this time. That professor

teaches that student all they know about archeology and now that student is prepared to

do great things in the archeology world and now they are making up to $82,000 a year,

in a profession that they wouldn’t know anything about without the help from their

teachers. It isn’t right for teachers to be able to spread their knowledge across all of

their students who go off to college and the real world to make more money annually

than their teachers that told them all they need to know.
Work Cited

Why Teachers’ Salaries Should be Doubled - Now

Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/25/why-teachers-sala

ries-should-be-doubled-now/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.32b604b5c8f9

Why We Shouldn’t Raise Teacher Pay

The Federalist

http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/25/why-we-shouldnt-raise-teacher-pay/