Small Strokes Big Oaks

It’s the first day back at school today. Two days of teacher institute, then a full week of classes right off the bat.

Except, according to friends and family who work year-round, I’m not supposed to talk about this. Well, I can talk about it, as long as I don’t complain about it. Because some people who have “real jobs” and “real responsibilities” all year don’t even get close to that much vacation and we should really appreciate the time we have off and stop complaining.

I hear this stuff every year. Every August, someone comments about how nice it must be not to have a “real job,” or to not have to work for years and years just to earn a few weeks of vacation. All I have to do is answer the inevitable “When do you start?” question and someone from across the room has to yell: “Hey! No complaining from you! Some of us have to work year-round!”

Except I wasn’t complaining. I was just stating that we start school on August 16. If you had bothered to talk to me even a little bit, you would know that I actually hate the second half of summer vacation; I believe that 6 weeks is more than enough R&R time and, around the first week of July, I’m itching to get back into the routine, the intellectual stimulation, and the excuse to get out of the house every day the school year provides for me. This has been true for me every year, even this year when half of June was taken up moving out of our apartment and into our new house. Even with all of that going on, 6 weeks was more than enough. Heck, 4 weeks would have been plenty. Even after 2 weeks at winter break, I’m ready to start again.

That’s just my personal opinion, though, and I know a lot of people who whine a little bit about having to set their alarm clocks again. Seriously, though, pretty much everyone whines at least a little bit when they have to get up for work after even a few days of not doing so. Maybe I should tell people not to complain on Monday when they go back to work, considering they didn’t have to do any grading or lesson planning over the weekends and they should be grateful for the fact that they can leave their work at work.

Saying teachers should be grateful for their summer breaks is like saying that teachers don’t work as hard as the rest of society because they have summers off. That’s an interesting trope that rears its ugly head in the media, especially around this time of year. Allow me to catalogue just a few of the things I – and most teachers – do/face during the time between vacations:

• I take work home. Every night and every weekend. Last year, I tried not to do this, but that really just translated into 10-12 hour work days because I’d stay late or get in early to get stuff done.
• With the work I take home, I easily work 60-hour work weeks. Sometimes, if I’ve had a lot of meetings or parent phone calls during my prep hour or before/after school, I’m working 80-hour work weeks.
• I have students who hate me, and aren’t afraid to tell me so every day. It’s enough to make me question my self-worth, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.
• I have to answer to a lot of people: students, parents, administrators, other teachers. On any given day, I have to make sure I’m on good terms with as many, if not more, people as my students have teachers.
• I have to take classes and keep track of my credentials in order to keep my certificate active and up-to-date. That is all outside of school hours.
• Fortunately, this is not the case for me, but many teachers are not paid even close to enough to own a home and raise a family, even amidst this recession. Between taking on extra-curricular activities and working summer and second jobs, many teachers don’t get any kind of break at all. Ever. And, oh yea, I also had a summer job that I continue throughout the school year to help make sure we can actually take vacations on our time off.
• Have you seen the news about school shootings? Check out this timeline if you need a reminder of how often this actually does happen. On top of that, we teachers have to deal with fights, bullies, and other violence, as well, not to mention sick, heartbroken, and hungry kids.
• I have to learn about a new set of 120+ kids every year. Every year is a starting over in a way.

I’m not asking for more pay or more time off. Of course, if you ask me to deal with all of this for longer than the 9.5 months out of the year we are in school, I’d ask to be paid for the extra time I put in, but that’s neither here nor there. I reap more benefits in my job than a paycheck or insurance package or vacation time can account for. I get to see kids grow and change; I get to make their brains hurt; I get to laugh, every single day. I get to see them overcome some of the most difficult challenges of their young lives and come out the other side better people. I get to get them to think. It’s because of all this and more that I go back to teaching every year, every day.

But I work so hard during the school year that I truly believe I’ve earned my summer vacation. If you add up all the hours of a 9-5 job and a teaching job, I bet they come pretty close. I’m not complaining about going back but, if I did, I think I’ve earned a little bit of that, too.

Photo Credit: -Marlith-