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Not a Part-Time Job

By Jane Ching Fung

"It’s a part-time job! Their job is done at 2:30 in the afternoon and they don’t work summers ... Oh please, my mom was a teacher and I was shopping with her at 3:00." —Fox Business panelist, as shown on The Daily Show, 2/28/11

Everyone thinks they know what it takes to be a teacher. Nearly all Americans have had first-hand experience being in a classroom for many years—as students. But teaching is so much more than what the public sees (or thinks they see).

Our time with students may officially end at 3 p.m., but...