[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 @ 14:04 +0000, wa2egp at att.net said:

> > I looked at average salaries and in most cases the teachers were above
> > average.
> > 
> > It's certainly like that where I live.
> 
> Well that a problem with "average".  In my district about 80% is at top scale

Hardly anyone in any profession is at the top in Tidewater... :)

> so the average is skewed if you are talking about adding everybody's pay
> and dividing by the number of people working.  Now if you are just averaging
> the pay on each level, it comes out different.  Now if you are doing the first
> adn you compare it to a job where there is a lot of turnover so most do not
> get to the "top" (if there is one) then, of course, teachers get a higher
> average pay.

No, this is in comparison with other professionals, doesn't even include
blue collar.

If teachers are underpaid around here, then so is everyone else.

Also, teachers have a lot of garanteed perks, raises, and other benefits
that just about no other workers can get.

One big perk is that it appears to be impossible to fire them.

> > Also, there is more to education than college. I know welders who've
> > had several times as much classroom work as any teacher. Society just
> > doesn't view things like that, even if it is courses in advanced
> > physics, as "education". Likewise any cop whose been around for awhile
> > has had literally years of classroom education, and I don't just mean
> > "crime" classes.
> 
> Ah, but can they do my job?  Or should I ask, do they want to do my job? :)

They have to teach all the time, and a good number of them teach in high
schools and college.

It used to be that way in a lot of professions, but training in the
workplace is pretty much gone. People say it has something to do with
tax changes in the late 60s, but I don't quite follow how that caused
the end of mentorship and company training.

> > Locally teachers hit their top retirement rate faster than almost any
> > other civil servant in the same pay range.
> 
> Now you say civil servant.  What about the other jobs in your comparison?

I say civil servant because they usually have it easier than the common
private worker.

Of course, in the last few years civil service has become less
attractive, with tons of them being threatened with job loss and no
benefits.

For decades it was the job that couldn't lose, but that seems to be
changing.

> > Then you have people like Jesse Jackson, who is so smart, he is
> > frequently able to make up totally new words while giving a speech.
> 
> Are you being sarcastic here?  He usually says what suits the moment,
> like a politician.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.  Whatever smarts Jesse has, he uses for evil
purposes.

When he came here a few years ago he kept repeating some word like
"discommensuratingly". It was so bad people laughed, but he never
stopped spitting on the podium until his time was up.

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