Families & the Community

Shouldn’t ‘Nation Builders’ Make More Money?

By Anthony Rebora — January 27, 2011 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Responding to the State of the Union address, Mr. McNamar of the Daily Grind thinks that if the president really wants to elevate the teaching profession, he needs to put his money—or somebody’s money—where his mouth is:

I'm not looking to be on the cover of Forbes magazine or sitting next to Oprah ... But I wouldn't mind being reasonably compensated. Let me be clear, I don't complain about teacher salaries often, but my paltry $45,000 after 8 years of nation building compared to the $65,000 a friend makes for managing a restaurant (he does a great job, I will admit) just doesn't add up. ...

On a separate point, he’s also not so sure that Americans today, outside the likes of Tiger Mom Amy Chua, really have it in them to push students hard enough to make a difference in the country’s competitiveness.

[W]e as a nation are not willing to do what is necessary. Some of us are. People like Amy Chua are willing to give their child a chance to succeed. But after a trip to the supermarket this afternoon, it was painfully obvious that not everyone buys into the same version of success.

Not really sure what that supermarket reference is about, though. One shudders to think ...

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.