Jim

Interesting that you bring up that subject. And again, my experience is limited to what it is - but the teachers where I volunteer have noticed a shift in the past 10 years. For instance - the mean seems to have shifted regarding the ability to write a coherent 5 page paper in middle school. Sure there were always the tails of the bell curve, but ITO the bell has moved. Today the kids can write a decent paragraph or several - but being able to string together a few big thoughts into a stepwise progression of an essay seems more challenging for them. Maybe Ivan has insights over his tenure.

Everyone has I preference I suppose - I've met plenty of youngsters in the local hills or climbing in Europe and S.A. that I'd give a thumbs up to. Then again, they seemed more interested in actually doing things than reporting about it. To each their own.

I'd say this is one of the largest frustrations for teachers - the constantly moving guidelines. But despite these hurdles the teachers are doing remarkable work - IMO.

Yawn. Having a spouse as a teacher and volunteering about 8 hrs a week in the school with parents, aids, and other volunteers I'd say I have some level of insight into what exactly goes on day-to-day in school. Hack away at the pension and 403b contributions - it is what it is dude. Now - your angry insights into what teachers do every day comes from what exactly. Oh yea - the Foxy channel.

Maybe, or maybe not. Another apparent requirement of today's climber is to post, or it never happened. Frankly, the me, me, me, look at me is a bit tiresome. Oh, and you can see more of me on this link to my blog, my Facebook, twitter, or my Instagram postings. I used to post climbing odds and ends but rarely do now - am I really providing any useful information - who the hell care about some 60 year old guy getting up another moderate Cascade route. I enjoy seeing the put-ups by folks like Freih or Ivan's occasional aid routes (never gonna do that!). But most of the blah, blah, blah, look at what I did this weekend is what it is. Judging someone via their trip posts? Sigh.

After work, home at 6pm, staying up until 1am, driving, lectures, library time, driving, reading, writing, and getting back up for work at 6am--like those of us in the private sector do. Like I did. Again, why do teachers think they are above the rest of us? It's truly an insulated world they have created for themselves. because those times you mentioned are times they are preparing for the next day and grading yesterdays homework. I think FW just likes spinning out these fantasies. The reality - during the walkout yesterday my teacher spouse spent it grading - 10 hrs worth. In school at 7:10 as usual, will not leave until about 8:00 with after school meetings. More of the same

Yea. Another straw dog. Some loser clown who taught for a while who thought the job meant slacking. Good ridence- was likely pushed. Who would go into such a profession and do that? Be bored outbof their skull and bore the kids. Lame, but I'm sure you can get Fox to make it a lead. And somehow you managed to not include my reply - nice editing

This is total bullshit, Jim. You admitted your wife entered the teaching system after coming over from another career. Do you really expect your wife would receive a full pension for slightly more than half tenure? As you know, pensions typically follow a geometric curve that heavily favors the later years. It is safe to assume this too was part of your wife's calculus when she changed careers. Why complain about it now? Will she collect a pension from her former career? Again, if so, your complaint is even more disingenuous. Dude chill. This isn't a complaint. We're happy as larks. You set up the strawmen, we knock 'em down. Maybe you would find more life fulfillment with a new career...............maybe teaching? I'm seeing a pattern here. 1.) Lie about wife's salary and pension. 2.) Lie about the lies. 3.) Use the words "Dude" and "chill" repeatedly to minimize the blush factor. Actually looked into teaching a while back. It turns out that surrounding myself with 2.9 and under folks who push the play button on a VCR five or six times a day was a fantasy I just could not abide. Maybe getting chosen last in kickball all the time just soured you in general. I dunno. The vast majority of teachers I know care about their kids and their responsibilities. Your roundhouse angry generalizations indicate a distinct lack of any experience with teachers. Volunteer for a school year and then tell us about the slackers.

there's a reason conservatives ain't so common amongst teach-tards - the knee-jerk "spare the rod" mantra just don't translate well into public policy at 745 in the a.m. ................while facing young 'ins with only coffee in your system. I make the sign of the cross whenever a teacher's name is mentioned

This is total bullshit, Jim. You admitted your wife entered the teaching system after coming over from another career. Do you really expect your wife would receive a full pension for slightly more than half tenure? As you know, pensions typically follow a geometric curve that heavily favors the later years. It is safe to assume this too was part of your wife's calculus when she changed careers. Why complain about it now? Will she collect a pension from her former career? Again, if so, your complaint is even more disingenuous. Dude chill. This isn't a complaint. We're happy as larks. You set up the strawmen, we knock 'em down. Maybe you would find more life fulfillment with a new career...............maybe teaching?

Actually, they are both true. The larger figure includes 403b contributions(self funded) the lower is the pension alone. Dude. No one here as far as I've read, is claiming poverty - but rather responding assertions that teachers are lazy, over-paid, cushy job suckers on the public teat. But please, carry on.

Wow. I don't know what planet where this is occurring. Earlier I gave my best estimate of what my spouse works as a teacher - and it's generally the same for when she was in private science work - its just that it's crammed into 10.5 months instead of 12. 10 weeks off? More like 5 in the summer and really, breaks during the year are spent playing catch up on grading (like today's "strike" day). Did someone say pension? Oh yea - that's lucrative. If she makes it to 20 years then it will be a whopping $225 a month, and don't forget to reduce your SS benefits accordingly. Yea, it's a cush job.

You could make a valid assertion that Obama wasn't quite ready for primetime given his short stint in the Congress. And he made some rooking mistakes in politics and IMO, letting the banks get a free ride by enlisting the likes of Summers for advice. But- he certainly did not waste our blood and treasure to the extent that the Idiot did. We are still paying for his foreign policy blunders - the destabilization of the Middle East, the rise of ISIS, a flood of refugees - all because of some cheery version of the domino theory that the fall of Iraq would cause a wave of Jeffersonian Democracy to break out among these tribal societies. Stunning.

Well, that's setting a pretty low bar - at least he's not a truther. While you don't have to be smart academically, you have to be a quick study and be able to sift through the mounds of information coming your way, weight the advice of staff, and make sound decisions. After 911 I thought, maybe, that Bush was in a position of history and that he would quickly grow to meet the demands of his stature. Boy was I wrong. Instead, he fell into the neocon reactionary group and here we are. Biggest foreign policy blunder in the last 75 years.

The wackos are in charge: Last week, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, headed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), approved a bill that would slash at least $300 million from NASA's Earth-science budget. NASA, for its part, responded to the impending doom with howls of protest. Charles Bolden, the administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former NASA astronaut, issued a statement saying: And from the Republican folks in charge: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas): "Contrary to the claims of those who want to strictly regulate carbon dioxide emissions and increase the cost of energy for all Americans, there is a great amount of uncertainty associated with climate science." Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin): "I think that the science is inconclusive on this." Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama): "I'm approaching the issue with a healthy degree of skepticism. If the evidence is there to prove it, then so be it." Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky): "I would challenge [President Obama] to show us the linkage -- the undeniable linkage -- between droughts and the change of weather, and some kind of human activity." Really – you can’t make this shit up!! Maybe it’s time for another snowball theater routine.

Reel it in dude. No one said anything approaching that. You need to catch up with the conversation. My advice - scroll upwards.

Skoolled! 8D

Reel it in dude. No one said anything approaching that.

Though my spouse and her teacher colleagues don't seem to care much about the union one way or another, they've seen some shitty administrators who get a bug up their butt about some teacher, and without union protection they could just be let go. Add on the increasing emphasis of test scores in evaluations despite the roulette of who you get in the class, family background, number of Ausberger kids, ESL kids, and just general capability - and I could see why a union helps. The opposite side is true as well - there's a small minority that should just move on out of the field as they are lousy teachers.

To answer the first question - I based in on what she generally puts in, which is 11-12 hrs every day during the week, and ignore the times when it is more, and count the minimum of 8 hrs put in every weekend - again, that's minimum not average. I never made the argument that teachers are underpaid - my statement is that trying to make the case that they are over paid given the hours they put in is bullshit. Sure, she could make twice the money working in her field - but that's not the point. She's a great science teacher and cares that her kids learn, she is not alone, and deserves every cent she earns.

Oh. As I thought. Merely a linguistics exercise without any relationship to furthering an idea. Kinda like the nuns making me diagram a sentence.

And the point of this word play parlor-puzzle is what exactly?

Teacher's should make as much or less than the average hourly salary of a heavy equipment operator. This will keep qualified candidates from joining the field of education and allow them the opportunity to become heavy equipment operators, or join professions that actually matter and improve society, like professional sports. Curious minds want to know, so I crunched these numbers for my spouse last year. I made very conservative assumptions - only putting her down for an average of 60 hrs a week (believe me it's likely more like 70), 3 weeks of break where she takes off one but merely puts in 35 hrs each of the other two (which is a low estimate), 6 weeks off in summer but works 30 hr/wk for 4 of those meeting with teachers, developing/refining lessons (doesn't get out of school after kids leave till last week in June has to be back at school officially week before kids arrive). And it comes out to a whopping $24.85/hr. As she said when she went from geology consulting to teaching - pay cut in half and hours doubled. But she loves it. Regarding a Masters - yes you get a pay bump - but I don't know if they differentiate between a degree that is your teaching field vs. the Masters in Education, which is a softball. Both of us being in the sciences we went through a rigorous MS program - entrance orals, field work, stats, thesis, defense - which took about 3 yrs - an average for sciences. When she went back for a teaching certificate it was a year long program but if she had stayed an additional 3 months (over the summer) she could have earned a Masters in Education! That's an interesting contrast.

Good for you. I think. Personally I would be bored out of my skull just "pushing play on the DVD". The teachers I know are quite a bit more engaged, really care about their kids, want them to learn, and they develop curriculum that is challenging and engaging - and keeps their on minds working. To each their own.

Ian seems a pretty bright guy - I'm glad we have folks like him teaching our youngins' ---BTW the legislature didn't throw out 601 and 602 - it was the State Supreme Court that said it was unconstitutional to require a supermajority for simple procedural votes. Get it straight man!