Today marks the end of Teacher Appreciation Week 2016, and although many teachers were thanked on social media, given gifts by their students and offered discounts by retailers, many educators are left with a bad taste in their mouth.
The idea behind teacher appreciation began in 1953 when former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Congress to set aside a day in honor of educators. In 1980, the National Education Association first recognized the day as a national observance, and in 1984 the National Parent Teacher Association designated the first full week in May for teachers. Thus, National Teacher Appreciation Week was born.
In 2015, an estimated 50.1 million children (prekindergarten through grade 12) attended public schools across the nation. Those children are building a foundation of knowledge from the men and women entrusted with the task to educate the nation’s future workforce. Such children will be exposed to new things, be challenged, be pushed out of their comfort zones, and discover things about themselves they never knew before — all with the encouragement of their teachers.
So why then, many teachers have asked, are educators still undervalued in society? Educators are, after all, the people who make many first impressions on youth and are responsible for seeding the knowledge that will help grow them into productive members of society.
If the salary exchanged for a job is any indication of how important a job is deemed, than teachers seem to fall into a category of less importance. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015 Wage Estimates, a teacher’s annual salary falls below a plethora of occupations that many can argue are not as fundamentally important to the future of the country.
For example, the people who repair and install elevators make an average of $77,350 a year. An insurance salesperson makes an average of $64,790 a year. Subway and streetcar drivers make an average of $60,580 a year. Food service managers make an average of $53,640, and postal service mail sorters make an average of $50,650 a year.
Teachers, on the other hand, make an annual income less than all these occupations. On average they make $47,410 a year — to help develop the minds of the next generation.
At the White House on May 3, President Obama honored 2016’s National Teacher of the Year Jahana Hayes, along with other nominees. He also sent out a tweet the same day thanking his fifth grade teacher for her inspiration. And in 2015, he made a presidential proclamation affirming the importance of the nation’s teachers.
“A world-class education can unlock a young person’s full potential and empower them with the knowledge and skills to reach their highest aspirations,” he wrote. “As a nation, we must provide every girl and boy in America with such an opportunity, and this cannot happen without great teachers.”
But young people are starting to question if teachers are really that valued. In fact, less college students are deciding to enter into the occupation. In 2014, only 5 percent of students who took an ACT college entrance exam planned to be involved in the profession, down from 7 percent in 2010.
Last year, TeachStrong, an alliance of 40 education organizations, joined forces to encourage the nation’s leaders to prioritize the elevation of the teaching profession. In their recent survey, they found that only 43 percent of America’s teachers feel valued in society. Despite 90 percent of American adults citing teachers as an important role in society, three of four agreed on the side of teachers – they feel teachers are undervalued.
On that same day that Obama honored 2016’s teacher of the year, education historian and activist Diane Ravitch vented her frustrations about Teacher Appreciation Week on her blog.
“Many states continue to pursue ways of limiting teacher pay, increasing class size, or otherwise manipulating the conditions of teaching without improving them,” she wrote. “What does it mean to appreciate teachers? It means respecting their professionalism.”
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