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except for the fact that summer is 10 weeks long and they work about 3 weeks before school starts and 3 weeks after it ends yielding 1 month, just like i said. I was talking about summer.
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<p>Again, like I said, I encourage you to actually go and read a teacher's contract some time, and specifically look for the number of days they are contracted to work per year. You should note that they are expected to work substantially fewer days than the average person is. Whether those days happen to crop up during the summer or some other time doesn't matter, the bottom line is that they work substantially fewer days than the average person does. </p>
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Except that they are horrendously underpaid for the really hard job they do.... in other countries teachers make bank while doctors and lawyers get okay salaries. Our priorities are ridiculous.
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<p>On the other hand, you also realize the flip side of the coin - the teaching profession here is open to those college graduates who, to be perfectly honest, aren't that good. Let's face it. In this country, the valedictorian from Harvard probably wants to become a doctor or a lawyer more than he/she wants to become a teacher. Now, yes, there are some teachers that are brilliant, but on the other hand, I think we all know other teachers who were just plain mediocre as students. Contrast that to what happens in those other countries you mention. In those other countries, you can become a teacher only if you graduate from the very best schools, and at the very top of your class. I know in Hong Kong, for example, you basically have to be an academic star to become a teacher. If you're not a star, you have no chance of getting hired.</p>
<p>So the point is that the free market adjusts. In other countries, teachers are paid like superstars, and so they end up getting superstars to work as teachers. In this country, teachers don't get paid like stars (although, in my opinion, are still paid fairly well for the perks they get), and as a result, you don't really get many superstars to come work as teachers. To a large extent, you end up with those people who , quite frankly, couldn't get a better job doing something else. Now, again, I'm not saying that all teachers are like that, but the truth is, a lot are. The fact is, a lot (not all, but a lot) of teachers really are teachers because they weren't good enough to get something better. </p>
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What would it takes to be a classics prof? Wouldn't it be harder to get grants and do original research than in the sciences, where the field is constantly expanding?
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<p>Obviously it would take an advanced degree, almost certainly a doctorate. But not only that. You would then have to fight for a tenure-track opening and hope you get it. Then you would have to actually win tenure, a multi-year ordeal. You might end up having to become an adjunct lecturer for awhile, making a pittance. </p>
<p>Obviously it is much harder to get grants and do original research in a field like Classics where the money is tight. Hence, you have to seriously think about whether you really want to go down this road or not. It's a tough road, no doubt about it. You do it because you truly have a burning desire to be a classics academic, not because you think you're really going to make a lot of money doing it.</p>