I am a teacher.

Recently in the town that I work in there has been lots of trash talk about teachers because times are tough and so are town budgets and the teachers union has been asked to give concessions to their contract. And they said no. And all the other unions said yes. That has made some people call us lazy uneducated slobs and others call us arrogant and ignorant. Those comments have created a fire in my belly that needs to be let out.

I am a teacher. I was born to be a teacher. It’s in my blood. My grandmother was a preschool teacher for almost 40 years. In my adulthood, I’ve had no career that didn’t involve education in some way. I don’t know how to do anything else. I am passionate about it. For me, there is no greater professional accomplishment than watching a child find success in something that previously eluded them. Working with special education students, I know that success is often very hard won. I’ve laughed with students, I’ve cried with students, I’ve taught students the value and meaning of friendship and teamwork and integrity.

When someone insinuates that all I needed to earn my teaching degree was the intestinal fortitude to withstand a few keg stands (can’t say I’ve ever done one) it’s insulting. I went to two prestigious private higher education institutions to earn my degrees and worked my ass off to earn all three of them. I could’ve gone to those colleges and gotten degrees in business, or finance, and now be working in some high rise office building wearing fancy suits, but I didn’t. I decided to dedicate my life to helping children find a love of learning.

For that, there have been many sacrifices. I don’t live in a big house, I don’t drive a nice car, and I don’t buy expensive clothes, we don’t take big vacations, or own a second home. I have lots of student loan debt that will be paid off just in time for my children to go to college. I sacrifice time with my family to go to work early, or stay late, or bring work home (mentally and/or physically). My husband and I have almost always had at least one part time job in addition to teaching to attempt to sock away savings. In fact, most teachers I know work additional jobs to make ends meet, and sometimes those ends don’t always come together.

I’ve heard all the comments about the ease of teaching. You only work 10 months of the year, you get every vacation day in the book, you actually are never teaching because of sick days or personal days. Please. I work a full year’s worth of work in 10 months. Teachers rarely take sick days because they don’t want to miss an opportunity to teach their students, or take the extreme amount of time it requires to leave sub plans for someone. And given the choice between a snow day and a school day, most teachers would say school. This is a hard job. The people who think it isn’t usually don’t last and leave to profession.

So it bothers me immensely when I hear that people think we don’t make enough sacrifices or work hard enough and that we should give more. I’m not sure I can do that. I can’t fight harder for the students I believe in. I can’t think anymore about lesson plans and IEPs. I certainly can’t give back any of the money I’ve worked so hard to make. If the town gets their way and the teachers agree to a 0% increase my household income will be reduced by $15,000. That’s a much bigger sacrifice than I am willing to make.

I do love my job. I am a teacher. I have made sacrifices for this passion far greater than money. I wish that the people who think that this is a cushy job that doesn’t deserve a fair salary could see that. If that makes me lazy, or uneducated, or arrogant, or ignorant, so be it.