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Originally Posted by grando1.0
I agree with 99% of what uke says but this is an area I definitely do not.
I know tons of teachers (and nurses) - and a huge majority of them only get into it because: a. it's easy; b. it's a guaranteed job and pension, and c. they get to stay in their podunk small town and have their house and 2.4 kids and husband they like but don't love. The "won't somebody please think of the children" group is few and far between.
I'm thoroughly convinced that if they significantly increased the wage of teachers that these individuals would be on social assistance because the actual "smart" people would take their jobs in a heartbeat.
Sure. But a few points. Firstly, the vast majority of jobs, people are doing it for fundamentally selfish reasons. Your an insurance broker or whatever the **** because of similar wife/kids/house/city/life/ etc reasons. It's only because it is a big public sector union that this is even discussed and people decide to **** on the motivations of teachers in ways they don't **** on the motivations of any other number of "easy" jobs.
Secondly, it's not that glamorous. Or particularly easy. You still need a bachelors plus some type of program typically. You are often stuck in a absolutely shitty sub situation for years after university. The pay never gets good. Very hard to move up. Lots of people drop out in the first five years. Unpaid overtime. Etc etc. My guess is that the people who THINK it will be an easy job with a great pension are the people who end up attritioning ou.
Thirdly, of the different types of jobs people do, sure each gets a distribution of altruistic and selfish means. But because teachers spend all day every day with kids, I tend to think they actually develop empathy and want whats best for them. Like when they bargain for special needs money, I don't think that this is primarily a purely selfish "i want my class to be easier" type of thing, I think they genuinely are exposed to special needs students in ways the average person is not and see why that is needed, hence why they bargain for that not just compensation increases.
YOur last paragraph is perfect.