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Teachers Are Lifesavers—Sometimes Literally

Educators care for kids in ways even parents don’t. Here’s the story of one such student

There are more than 400,000 teachers in Canada, and that’s just those in the country’s public elementary and high schools. There are another 30,000 in private schools, 50,000 full-time professors at universities, and countless numbers of part-timers at all levels.

But don’t stop there. Some teachers teach ESL (English as a second language) and FSL (French). There are teachers in prisons, daycares, adult education classes, auto shops, and carpentry, and let’s not forget retired teachers—there are tens of thousands of them.

All in all, that is a huge segment of our population who are, or have been, dedicated to enriching the lives of young people.

Yet I cringe at times when I hear or read some of the teacher bashing that goes on out there. You just have to go online to read it or tune in to radio talk shows (remember those?) to hear it. Teachers, say the naysaying critics, are “overpaid” or they’re “underworked.”

This is a very strange and confused attitude on the part of some. After all, teachers are responsible for preparing the next generation of Canadians, the ones who will grow up, find jobs, and pay taxes, which will, among other things, support our pensions. They’re not only teaching students the basic foundations of knowledge from reading and writing to times tables and fractions but also how to be thoughtful, kind, and respectful. In other words, how to be productive citizens of Canada and the world. But maybe we can’t think of the big picture, so let’s narrow the lens.

The little picture is pretty simple. Do we really want to trust the most precious parts of our lives to the underpaid and overworked? I don’t think so.

I keep seeing comparisons to what teachers earn to the average industrial wage. And guess what? Teachers make more than the average. Of course they do. They’ve gone to school for at least four years of post-secondary education. The average teacher has been working for eleven years. They should be making reasonably good money. Many are raising their own families at the same time.

Then there’s the underworked part. That argument usually starts with July and August. Teachers get the whole summer off. No doubt about it—that’s nice. But they argue they need the break.

I know there are lazy teachers. Just as there are lazy bankers, letter carriers, doctors, and, yes, lazy journalists. But overwhelmingly, teachers are not lazy. In Ontario a few years ago, the teachers, looking for better conditions, stopped participating in extracurricular activities as part of their fight with the government. What an uproar that caused. School plays, sports teams, newspapers, chess clubs, fashion shows, and on and on. None of them are possible without teachers freely giving their time with no extra pay, no bonuses, no overtime, no lieu days. Critics who are anxious to count the summer against teachers never count all those extra hours in the teachers’ favour.

And sure, classes go from about 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but anyone who thinks a teacher works six and a half hours a day doesn’t know many teachers. Preparing for class takes time. Talking to kids after school takes time. Meeting with parents takes time. Marking takes time. I can’t imagine reading through sixty essays on why Hamlet is so sad and writing helpful comments in the margins. There are field trips, overnight trips, art projects, after-school sports and clubs. They all add........

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