It amazes me how much misinformation there is about the job of teaching.
Letter writer Marilyn Going (Sept. 16) claims that teachers work only 39 weeks a year. What she and many others don’t understand is that while students are in class for 39 weeks, teachers work considerably more than this to ensure student needs are met.
Most teachers start coming in to work two weeks before school starts in September, and almost all teachers I know do work on weekends and holidays. Ms. Going also doesn’t factor in all of the hours before and after school to ensure classes are prepped and work is marked, as well as volunteering time for extracurricular activities.
As far as wages go we have not had a pay raise in three years. In the new agreement we will get 7.25 per cent over six years. If you adjust that for inflation we are actually taking a wage cut of 8.5 per cent.
Letter writer Gertie Pool (Sept. 16) states there are 40,000 teachers in B.C. so by her simple math they each teach only 12.5 students. Classes are not allocated like this. More than 8,000 of that figure are TOCs (substitute teachers) so they are not working in classrooms every day. A further 2,500 are counsellors, librarians, etc. who do not teach classes but do work with children.
I encourage people to learn the facts before drawing wild conclusions.
Jim Sanderson
