A letter writer says teachers have it easy; a Teacher of The Year responds

[Moral Compass]

46. Whenever I hear this argument I can only sneer in contempt

Barry Parker, like so many right wing troll toads, is an ignorant asshole. Being an asshole seems to be the primary distinguishing characteristic of today's right wing. These are not conservatives but bomb throwing radicals smugly confident in their right to be...assholes. Trump is the culmination of what is not an ideology, but a belief that they have a fundamental right to be abusive assholes.

But I digress...

I have had many jobs. I was a senior systems engineer to some of the top vendors in the computing/networking/storage/software space. I was well compensated in those years. I then moved over into sales and hit it just perfect in the late 90's and made ridiculous money during the Internet boom. I was at a very senior level in the companies I worked for back then and had enormous sales quotas that I never failed to succeed. The pressure was intense and the hours were sometimes endless. I often worked 80-100 hours per week when developing my global accounts. I was once threatened with hospitalization when I developed pneumonia and failed to noticeably improve for over a month because I simply refused to stay home and rest.

I was in the big leagues and every year the challenges kept getting bigger--not to mention the political battles that ultimately drove me out of three companies.

Sounds horrible right? I never had summers off. I never worked an eight hour day. I should be sneering at teachers too you might think.

Fast forward to 2008. The tech industry pancaked in 2004 due to 9/11 in 2001. The Internet bubble had popped back in 2000. I'd gotten edged out and laid off so many times that in 2004 I went into business myself. The business failed. Actually, you might say I failed.

By 2007, I was essentially unemployable because I'd managed with one bad decision after another to destroy what had been a gold plated resume. I was on 3 antidepressant and was taking a powerful benzodiazepene to allow me to sleep.

The insurance company I'd gone to work for selling Medicare Advantage policies was shutdown by CMS (Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services) and I ended up going to work for another firm who would send you out on 5-6 calls per day. Gas was almost $5 and one morning I suddenly woke up at 3 am and realized that I was spending more money than I was making.

Unemployed again. We'd already been forced into bankruptcy. My wife was working for a small charter school (later shut down by TEA) and I needed a job. I'm fluent in Spanish and Spanish was one of my major for my BA. My wife asked me if I thought I could teach Spanish. In spite of my emotional and mental state--I still had the blithe confidence that I could do anything. Besides, how hard could it be?

Well, it could be very, very hard indeed.

Teaching was the hardest job I ever took on. The hours for a new teacher average 70-80. The sense of pressure that I personally felt was so intense that on at least 4 occasions I couldn't make myself go to work. I once drove all the way to the school and almost passed out on the way there and then the panic attack I was having got worse while I was in the parking lot. I did pass out while sitting in my car hyperventilating. I went in and told the administrator I just couldn't that day.

I never, ever felt that kind of pressure while selling. Oh, and I was making the least amount of money I'd made to working a full time job since being an assistant manager with Kinney Shoes in the late 70's.

Teaching is hard and teachers should be honored and paid much, much more. That we don't pay our teachers well is an index into our nation, our culture, and our society. That fuck sticks like Barry Parker feel free to denigrate teachers shows that, as a society, we almost certainly lost as a people.

The assholes are in power right now. Their ignorance, simple stupidity, and thoughtless arrogance while in power probably cannot be recovered from. But while we circle the drain we need to fight back against the assholes like Barry Parker.

Treat the assholes with contempt. They certainly will feel free to treat you with contempt.

(Sorry for the wordiness. As, you might have figured out I taught that one year and went back to sales. I couldn't take the heat so I left the kitchen)