Fluid-Wrongdoer6120 t1_jby5e50 wrote on March 12, 2023 at 5:04 PM

Reply to comment by redditmbathrowaway in How can we attract more people into the teaching profession? by jekomo

You seriously think it's a simple marketing problem? Like people/potential teachers aren't aware of the fact that you get a few extra months off as teachers?

It's basic supply and demand. It doesn't matter what YOU think is a fair wage for a teacher. If people aren't signing up, they obviously don't think it pays well enough.

redditmbathrowaway t1_jbyz61h wrote on March 12, 2023 at 8:29 PM

"A few extra months?" Haha, ok.

That's an insane value prop for a lot of people. Again, most Americans get 10-15 days off per year.

I'm proposing we highlight the freedom and flexibility teaching offers. Want to teach during the year and then fuck off to Indonesia for the summer? Go for it.

Want to spend your summers writing that novel you've always wanted to write? Go for it.

Want to tutor on the side and bring in extra income instead? Your decision.

Not a lot of jobs offer that level of flexibility or freedom. Easy to imagine a social media campaign that showcases this.

But the solution isn't to raise wages on an already comparable overpaid and underworked class of government employees (in comparison to their government employee peers).

Fluid-Wrongdoer6120 t1_jbz77ux wrote on March 12, 2023 at 9:27 PM

They already know about the summers off, trust me. Your campaign would be wasted money.

And again, you seem to think basic economics of supply and demand don't apply because YOU consider teachers to already be overpaid. My father likes to rail against the campaign to raise minimum wage, because he thinks "the dumb burger flippers" don't DESERVE $15 an hour. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse when I have to remind him that it doesn't matter a damn lick what he thinks their talents "deserve." The fact that restaurants can't get enough people to come work for them for $10/hr, by default, means they're worth more than that simply by laws of supply and demand. I'd make the same argument for teachers.