When Did We Go Back To the Colonial Era?
Back in the Colonial Era and up through the early 1900s, part of a teacher's salary was room and board. This was provided by the families whose children attended the school. If your kids went to school, you were expected to have the teacher live with you for several weeks, after which, the teacher would go live with someone else.
This sounds to me like absolute hell.
If you were a teacher, you had no place to call your own. You lived out of a suitcase. You couldn't acquire any possessions. You were dependent on the parents of your students. You were on stage every moment. You had no real privacy. You couldn't be yourself. And you never knew what kind of housing you'd have. In one place, you might have your own room. In another, you might be crashing on a narrow sofa in your hosts' bedroom (as Laura Ingalls did in LITTLE TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE). Of course, you had no family life. You couldn't get married. Where would your spouse live? And forget having kids.
This happened because teachers weren't (aren't) respected. They weren't doing worthy work, and didn't deserve a salary that afforded them a decent place to live. Teaching was something a young woman did for extra extra money until she got married, whereupon she was expected to quit.
Apparently, we're living in Colonial America again. Schools in California are losing teachers fast for the simple reason that the teachers can't afford to live in or near the town where they teach: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/02/teacher-housing-california-bay-area/
The school's solution? Beg school families to take the teachers in. Anyone have a spare room to rent so a teacher can live there?
I know the district is desperate for a solution, but I find this hugely insulting. I can't imagine, as a veteran professional, being asked to live like a college student scraping through school. Downsize to a single room in someone else's house? Really? And what do they do about teachers with spouses? Children? Or even pets? What if the teacher has an actual social life and wants to have visitors?
A running refrain from the Republican party is, "You can't solve our education problems by throwing money at them." This is a complete lie handed out as an excuse for why they vote down school funding increases. You can solve almost every single education problem by throwing money at it. More money to pay teachers a competitive salary--and hire more of them. More money for physical infrastructure. More money for ... well, everything will improve it beyond measure.
Tell me how you can solve the California problem of teacher housing problems WITHOUT throwing money at it. I'm waiting with bated breath.
Meanwhile, I nod at the teachers fleeing this situation. They--and I--refuse to live in Colonial America.
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This sounds to me like absolute hell.
If you were a teacher, you had no place to call your own. You lived out of a suitcase. You couldn't acquire any possessions. You were dependent on the parents of your students. You were on stage every moment. You had no real privacy. You couldn't be yourself. And you never knew what kind of housing you'd have. In one place, you might have your own room. In another, you might be crashing on a narrow sofa in your hosts' bedroom (as Laura Ingalls did in LITTLE TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE). Of course, you had no family life. You couldn't get married. Where would your spouse live? And forget having kids.
This happened because teachers weren't (aren't) respected. They weren't doing worthy work, and didn't deserve a salary that afforded them a decent place to live. Teaching was something a young woman did for extra extra money until she got married, whereupon she was expected to quit.
Apparently, we're living in Colonial America again. Schools in California are losing teachers fast for the simple reason that the teachers can't afford to live in or near the town where they teach: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/02/teacher-housing-california-bay-area/
The school's solution? Beg school families to take the teachers in. Anyone have a spare room to rent so a teacher can live there?
I know the district is desperate for a solution, but I find this hugely insulting. I can't imagine, as a veteran professional, being asked to live like a college student scraping through school. Downsize to a single room in someone else's house? Really? And what do they do about teachers with spouses? Children? Or even pets? What if the teacher has an actual social life and wants to have visitors?
A running refrain from the Republican party is, "You can't solve our education problems by throwing money at them." This is a complete lie handed out as an excuse for why they vote down school funding increases. You can solve almost every single education problem by throwing money at it. More money to pay teachers a competitive salary--and hire more of them. More money for physical infrastructure. More money for ... well, everything will improve it beyond measure.
Tell me how you can solve the California problem of teacher housing problems WITHOUT throwing money at it. I'm waiting with bated breath.
Meanwhile, I nod at the teachers fleeing this situation. They--and I--refuse to live in Colonial America.
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