Nothing in My Life Prepared Me for This
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There is nothing in my life that prepared me for substituting during the one-day Los Angeles Unified School District teachers’ strike. If anyone doubts that teachers deserve more money, try dealing with their students for a day.
Nothing in my business-oriented professional career prepared me for working with 150 fourth, fifth and sixth graders during five different periods of a six-hour day.
To hold their attention, maintain reasonable decorum and handle a myriad of problems from “he hit me” to correcting punctuation is a task I would only wish on a dedicated, professional teacher.
As I return to my work in which I pay the lawyer $130 to $250 an hour, the plumber $40 an hour, the accountant $65 an hour and the electrician $55 an hour, I have to wonder what has happened to our priorities. Do we consider the work of teachers so insignificant that it carries a price of less than $20 an hour?
The men and women charged with educating our young people deserve a better shake from this society.
If you think they have a soft, easy job, try standing in their shoes for a day. I did and my feet hurt.
KAREN MASON
Los Angeles
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