Sure, teachers get a lot of time off, Carl Bosch writes, but it’s all well deserved.
Teachers and students have all just returned from a long holiday vacation. Outfitted with new clothes and notebooks, the youngsters appear to be ready to get down to the work of learning. Better yet, there seems to be a re-awakened spirit, a bit more jump in the step and a renewed vigor, and now I’m speaking about the teachers.
I’m not trying to take the role of an apologist for the vacations that teachers receive. Of course, that’s one of the major knocks against us, both individually and collectively: “Hell, you’ve got all summer off!” We hear that refrain often enough. And that’s true. But we need it and deserve it, and so do the kids.
If done right, there’s an emotional tone to teaching that is taxing beyond belief. A teacher is often called to be an educated entertainer, trying to meet the demands of an audience that is eager or disinterested, attentive or half asleep, skilled or lacking, brilliant or less so. It takes an alert energy that is slowly drained by the end of the day, the week, the month, the marking period. One needs to keep his wits about him, be personable, demanding yet supportive, comforting and direct—all at the same time. Throw in the fact that each pupil in your care has their own set of personal situations, problems, and difficulties, and you have a professional that needs to be part priest, part mentor, part diplomat, part general.
Weekends are wonderful but it’s like charging your phone for teachers. It’s a short-term solution, and it only lasts a brief moment. A little fun, a little family, some schoolwork, and you’re back at it on Monday. But week-long vacations, whether at the holidays to close the year, a winter break, or a spring vacation, actually allow teachers to step away for awhile. Days roll out, and teachers don’t even have books, lesson plans, students, or schedules pass through their minds. It’s an elixir that heals. Summer is that to the max.
Sometimes my friends will ask me to go away for a vacation in October or May. I ask them if they’re a little crazy. I’m a teacher. One thing about our vacations: we don’t get to choose when they are. Never. Again, I’m not saying that we need more, and I’m well aware that there are other incredibly stressful and demanding jobs, but don’t doubt that those vacations are necessary balms to tired souls and psyches. I’m sure we could add a couple more weeks of school and still have an extended break during July and August. I also suppose in some future decade we’ll be going to school even more than the average 180 days throughout the U.S. It’s possible we’ll end up like Korea and Japan with over 220 days in school per year. But just remember that those countries send their students and professionals to the U.S. both for advanced study and to find the heart of creativity, something woefully lacking under their systems.
So don’t be too jealous of a teacher’s time off throughout the year. We’re all just back from vacation and ready to work through the long winter ahead with your sons and daughters. If you think it’s easy and teachers don’t have the express need to shut the batteries off, gear down, and get away sometimes … go run a classroom yourself, then come back and see me.
Let’s see if you’ll be hoping for a snow day.
10,043 days down, 112 left.
—Photo bennylin0724/Flickr
Thank you for this post. I have been searching the web for reasons NOT to teach… I currently am in HR(for a school system), love it, but something is missing and quite frankly, its getting boring. I have 5 boys, and am drawn to education. I teach our boys youth group at church and enjoy the planning, the research, the time with the kids… so I am considering a career change. Due to my prior Air Force career, and science background I have with that degree, I am qualified for a program here that IF I am selected, they put… Read more »
A teacher’s salary is not negotiated on a 12 month basis. Their contract is for 9 months not 12. Some districts choose to stretch that 9 month salary over 12 months so that the teacher has a paycheck bimonthly and also making a teacher not eligible for unemployment, even though according to their contract, they are unemployed. That being said, in my district, our last paycheck for the school year is at the end of the fiscal year, usually the end of June. It is no more than any of my other paydays. The next paycheck I get is not… Read more »
Yeah, it’s called a SALARY! Your salary is for an entire year, not just nine months. If a teacher can’t understand that, maybe they shouldn’t be a teacher.
Are you kidding me? You actually think you’re “laid off” in the summer? What flavor Kool-Aid are you drinking? Teachers get paid a yearly salary. Some take it in 9 months, others in 12 months. You actually do have summers off…period!! I don’t care one way or the other if you only work one day per week. Not my business. Just don’t try to sell me that you’re all so worn out after a day at school and that you need these vacations to recharge your batteries. That’s BS and you know it. If you can’t manage your money properly… Read more »
What you forgot to mention was that the vacations are not PAID vacations, at least not where I teach. I don’t get paid for the time I’m not working, so my vacations are times that I’m not bringing in money. You could say teachers have summers off. But, the bills are still due in the summer. The mortgage has to be paid, or the landlord still demands rent. You could just as easily say teachers are out of work during the summer. I’m essentially laid off for three months and then rehired in the fall. That’s the reality, but it… Read more »
I would always answer those who complained about my teacher vacations etc with :”if it’s so good why don’t you become a teacher”???
Now I know why my pic wouldn’t come up. I misspelled my name above.
Even during the holidays, many of us are tweaking syllabi for the spring semester. And those weekends? I just as often spend them slogging through a stack of 5- to 10-page essays that need grading as “recharging.” Throw in the inevitable committee work and a little advising, and you cam begin to see why the long vacations are necessary.
Nice article!
If one is a college professor, these aren’t really vacations. I’ve managed to turn out quite a number of articles and a couple of books since 1997, when I got my first tenure-track job.