Recently, Dr. Lashley mentioned an article he read that discussed the fact that teachers are having to work second and third jobs to bring in enough wages to survive. As Dr. Lashley talked about the article he read, my mind started to wander as I thought of all the jobs I’ve held, ever since graduating from IUP with my undergraduate degree in education of persons with hearing loss.
As I mentioned in another blog posting, I was instilled with a hard work ethic growing up, through being a newspaper carrier for 10 years, babysitting, and doing chores and errands for the elderly in my neighborhood. However, in the back of my head, as I grew up, I think I always thought that once I was a grown up and in the “real world”, I would make the big bucks and not have to work multiple jobs. Boy, was I wrong!!
I worked my way through college, while going to school full time, at Subway and as a companion for the Visiting Nurses Association. Then, once I received my degree, I left Pennsylvania behind to teach at the beach in Delaware. Since I had graduated in December, I was fortunate to find a full time teaching job for the remainder of the school year. By the time school let out for the summer, I had a summer job lined up, working at a toy store/educational supply store. I also taught summer school for Delaware School for the Deaf. Little did I know that these two side jobs would be the first of many in my 8 year teaching career.
Once I returned to Pennsylvania, the school loans kicked in from IUP, so I started working at another educational supply teacher store in addition to teaching full time. I also babysat in my spare time. As if that weren’t enough to keep me busy, I enrolled in my Master’s Program at Kutztown University. So, in a typical day, I would commute from Harrisburg to York (45 minutes) to teach at various schools all day (drive all around York County and Adams County), travel the commute from York to Kutztown University (1.5 hours), go to class, then drive the 1 hour and 45 minutes home to Harrisburg. On the nights I didn’t have class, I would work at the teacher store or babysit. As I wrapped up my Master’s program in a little under 2 years, I decided I needed a retail job that gave me more hours than I was getting at the teacher store to help pay with new student bills so I applied to work at Hallmark. I transitioned from working at the teacher store to Hallmark and began working a LOT more hours after school and on weekends. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I also helped out with inventory at a local grocery store a few times a year, began taking on homebound visits in several districts I worked for, took on a cheer coach position at a local high school, and tutored after school as well.
I worked at Hallmark for almost a year before a babysitting opportunity opened up that I could not turn down…so I began to babysit for a terrific family in Lemoyne a few nights a week after teaching in York (30 minute drive). I did this for 2 years even after I relocated from Harrisburg to York. Looking back, it’s sad to realize that even with a Master’s Degree, I still had to work multiple jobs in addition to the full time teaching job I had to try to pay off student loans, my car payment, and other bills.
It was frustrating to see other friends in my age bracket get promotions and raises in their respective careers as I continued to remain at the same level. It was even more so to see that some of these peers were advancing with the undergraduate degrees while I had my Master's. In addition, while my friends got to go on cruises and take fun vacations, I was only able to afford quick beach getaways or day trips, if able to do anything at all. In addition, I always had an IEP to write, schoolwork to do progress monitoring on, or lessons to plan during my “free” time while others did not have to bring their work home with them. There were many times that I had schoolwork with me, while at other jobs, that I would work on when I had a break or when there weren’t many customers.
Just on Friday morning, this came up again….since I am back in school as a full time student and have given up my full time teaching job, I’m back at the bottom trying to scrape my way to the top or at least to survive bills from month to month. To combat the lack of insurance benefits and the fact that I’m now making less than half of what I made when I was teaching, I’m babysitting on the side when I’m not in school, doing research, or working my assistantship on campus. This makes for little sleep and even less time to get work done that is always needing to get done….but when I realized that I needed to obtain some form of additional income, I chose to go with a babysitting agency rather than going back to Subway or into some other form of retail work since I would still have some flexibility. Let’s face it, I’m also probably never going to escape from working with children in some form or capacity either! ;)
So anyhow, this semester, Fridays are the only days that I’m not on campus so I tend to babysit on those days. When working on Friday morning, one of my “regulars” mentioned offhandedly while we were chatting that her husband made a comment that went something like this, “I don’t know how all these students can babysit on Fridays all the time. Don’t they have class?” Yes, I wish that I didn’t have to work this side job and could put my time and energy into school without having to worry about bills/finances but the fact of the matter is, while in the teaching profession or education field, that will always be a reality….and while I would rather not be in class from 4pm til 10pm on Monday nights, at least that leaves Friday free that I can try to earn some supplemental income. I guess what I wish I could say to those who say teachers get the summers off and that we are “done” with school by 3 or 4pm or that we just play with kids all day……I would say please don’t be so quick to judge. There is so much more that goes into what teachers do day in and day out…all the planning, preparation, problem solving, caring, disciplining, teaching, and everything else I haven’t mentioned are what make teachers great at what they do. We all know that we don’t enter this profession for the monetary reward but our rewards are so much more than that when we see a child have a lightbulb or “aha” moment or when a child knows that someone cares about him or her and and wants him or her to be all he or she can be. So I hope those teachers who have to work multiple jobs don’t get discouraged and leave the profession…I hope they hold onto their passion and keep teaching with vigor…even if they might be a little bit tired from working late the night before at their side job…
In closing, I couldn't help but think of this song as I wrote this blog....just for the title...! ;-)
References
Donna Summer: She Works Hard for the Money. (2006). In Youtube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TKQcWEXSKU
Teachers, Facing Low Salaries, Moonlight in Second Jobs. (2011). In Huff Post Education: The Internet Newspaper: News Blogs Video Community. Retrieved fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/11/teachers-facing-low-salar_n_1088367.html
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