More to it than class time

I am a retired high school teacher and need to reply to the March 3 letter of Brett Delegard. He extrapolates an hourly rate for teachers to arrive at a $72,000 annual salary for teachers. That is flawed.

Any teacher who only spends in-class hours at his or her job should leave the profession. Hours are spent developing curriculum, grading student work, attending in-school and district meetings, extracurricular duties and one-on-one meetings with students. Curriculum has to show alignment with local, state and federal outcomes, which involves additional hours. Summer vacation is a time to develop curriculum and plan for the year. Continuing education is also a requirement to keep certification current. Many students come from environments not conducive to learning and require special attention.

Therefore, the $72,000, which would be lovely, is inaccurate.

No one goes into teaching with the expectation of a high salary. I loved teaching, even though some days seemed to be very stressful. The joy of seeing a student grasp a learned skill or idea is amazing and is what keeps many teachers from bailing out of the profession.

I wish every person who thinks teaching is an easy task could run a class for a day.

Judy Lamont

Colbert