How Much is a School Teacher Worth?

Sometimes I think we are a strange people. There are probably more people talking this week about Tiger Woods' new Nike commercial than talk all month about school teachers. It makes me wonder where our priorities lie.

I think school teachers are the most under-appreciated professionals that exist today. Some teachers I met during my school years had a profound influence on me, and most of them were doing their jobs with limited resources and often in poor school facilities.

How many people spend as much time with your child as a school teacher? If you stop and count the number of waking hours each day that your child is in school as opposed to home, you soon realize that your child's teacher has the potential to be a big part of your child's life.

Teachers not only spend time and money in preparing for their chosen profession, but most I've known have continued their education and spend countless hours preparing themselves for their students. A friend teacher once told me she was assigned to teach science in her first few years at a junior high school. Since she had never been a big science buff, she said she spent as much time studying as her students because she needed to keep one step ahead of them.

Since our children as our most valuable and precious resource, why do we pay school teachers such low salaries compared to other professions? Now, granted, I realize that doctors saving lives every day are highly valuable professionals, but aren't teachers doing the same thing, just in a different way. A valuable teacher reaching out to a child during a critical time can often make the difference in choices that the child will make later. Who do we want helping our children make these tough decisions, a concerned teacher or a role model athlete or worse?

Teachers give the child the tools they will need later in life to make them productive adults. They not only teach them basics such as reading, math and history, but they teach them interactive social skills and self-discipline. The school teacher and the parents work hand-in-hand so that when he or she becomes an adult, they will be an asset to this world. How much you figure that's worth?