Education

I was ruminating on the subject of the teaching profession last night.  Not sure why, perhaps because I had seen some AAS teachers on a Sunday taking the Metro, where they would then have to walk for forty-five minutes to the school because there were things they wanted to have ready for the students on Monday.  Anyway, I was thinking of the bad reputation education has and the low esteem with which it is held as a profession in the USA.  Then I realized that most everyone in the USA only knows about the profession from the articles it reads in the papers, which are mostly negative and not about the teachers, but about the unions that represent the teachers.

I started my education career as a sixth grade teacher in Connecticut, no training, just plopped into a class because they needed a replacement teacher in January and I had a BA degree.  The teachers I met there ranged from totally engaged to totally not caring.  I never saw a teacher on a weekend because the school was closed and you couldn’t get in even if you wanted to.  There was never a teacher around before 8:15; school started at 8:45 and they were all gone seconds after the last bus would depart at 3:15.  This was a union school and you worked to the rule, which was a seven-hour day, 181 days a year, period!

There was an article in the New York Times about teachers in New York who have been removed from their teaching assignments, as in fired, but due to union rules and regulations they are free to appeal for up to three years, all the time being paid full salaries.  One woman was interviewed and she makes $100,000 for sitting in an office with NO responsibility for six hours and fifty minutes (the official work day for teachers), every weekday and she has been doing this for two years!   No wonder the profession isn’t celebrated, at least in New York.

Cindy’s mom was a teacher and Cindy was a teacher and in Minnesota, that meant something in the community.  Here in Moscow, it means something to the AAS community.  Elementary teachers are usually given lovely gifts by the parents of the children they teach, tickets to the Bolshoi, gift baskets, wine and cheese, etc.  They know that these young teachers are working ten hour days, and go in on weekends to make sure they are providing the best materials and presentations they can to the kids. I don’t know what the pay scale is but I doubt that any of the really experienced teachers are making any more than  $45,000 and most are making much less.  Everyone always says, “gee it must be great to have two months off every year” and for some it is great, but most have to spend at least a month of the summer attending colleges and universities at their own expense in order to maintain their teaching credential and to upgrade their teaching skills.  It isn’t all suntan lotion and parties, I can assure you. 

I managed to get in a ninety-minute walk today between loads of laundry.  The temperature is about 28 degrees and there is a freezing fog, which gave everything a ghostly pall but it looked good and the walking was grand.  With the sky so low, there was a lot of exhaust in the air so I tried to take back streets and alleyways to avoid walking along the main drags.  I walked past a factory that must make valuable things since a very high wall capped with razor wire surrounds it and every truck and car coming out was being inspected to make sure it wasn’t carrying away anything it shouldn’t be.

Russian politics are getting very interesting.  Last week Putin put on a show for visiting Hollywood starts and sang his version of Blueberry Hill ala Fats Domino. Not to be outdone, Medvedev sent a gushy Twitter message regarding his attendance last night at an Elton John concert.  Meanwhile two of the Russian ‘Spies’ who were swapped for some sap last July have secured big jobs as advisors to a bank and to a large oil company, yet neither of them have any experience in either profession.  So it should come as no surprise that all of status conscious Moscow can now talk about is the fact that Madonna is going to open, not one, but two über-luxury gyms called “Hard Candy Fitness.”  It will cost you $25,000 a year to join; not counting the designer workout clothes you’ll have to wear for entry!

Cindy should be home soon so I’ll let her add something and I’ll sign off until tomorrow.  Ciao, Cindy and Wm

From CC: today they celebrated Santa Lucia Day at school and it was really cool.  All of the Swedish students (33 of them) were dressed in traditional Swedish garb – white dresses with silver wreaths on their heads for the girls and brown outfits with pointed hats for the boys.  Father Christmas was there too and the littlest boy was all dressed in red.  The processed into the auditorium in the dark with Santa Lucia wearing her crown of lighted candles and all the other kids carrying a lighted candle, all the while singing the traditional Santa Lucia song, and once on stage they sang several Swedish carols.  Made me proud to be a Swede!  (Well, a partial Swede)