Is anyone advising their girls to be teachers?

amother

↑ Coffee

Sun, Jan 05 2025, 9:54 pm

Max’s out means

10 years of service in
Masters degree
Including Chasdei Lev
Also means for the past 10 years you may have been married with kids earning 65k. So you maybe bought a tiny house, maybe have lots of debt, tuition to pay, student loans to pay Zero dollars in the bank , and a bar mitzvah to make soon.
Teachers are poor, no other way to cut it. It’s comical to pretend otherwise.

Starting salary can be 60k

amother

↑ Lilac

Sun, Jan 05 2025, 9:58 pm

[quote="amother Impatiens"]

amother Lilac wrote:

lots of people would love to make 100k working 10 months a year and having lots of vacation days plus personal days.
I’m pretty sure where I live schools require teachers to have degrees.

It is true teachers work more but so do other professions. I think personally teachers come out better than other jobs, like pediatricians.

Comparing any teaching position to that of a pediatrician makes no sense - Doctor or MBA or CPA or other high level profession is in a completely different category.

And using pediatricians as an example of the medical field is also not a great one since pediatricians are among the lowest paid doctors. So the question would be whether someone should become a pediatrician versus another kind of practice Smile

Someone who has the ability and drive to become a doctor, lawyer, CPA or MBA is probably not even considering becoming a teacher - especially a poorly paid one in a frum school which doesn't even require a degree - at least based on what is being posted about qualifications or lack thereof at many frum schools.

amother

Wine

Sun, Jan 05 2025, 10:18 pm

amother Impatiens wrote:

Why not? Where I live the frum schools give benefits-chasdei lev, pay towards seminary or college if you’re going for a degree and working in the school, match pension after a certain number of years, tuition break, etc so it’s not bad. If my girls wanted to teach I’d encourage them, if they switch careers so be it. There are many dead end jobs out there, I don’t think teaching or working in a school is one of them.

I'm teaching for many many years. Started off making $20k after all these yrs plus inflation only went up to $25k.
No Chasdei Levi in my large OOT community. We never got a tuition break due to my job, even though sent my kids to the same school I taught in, and they def would not pay towards a degree! Only benefit = a small pension plan.

Teaching takes a huge toll, yes it's very rewarding, but it can also be emotionally draining, with demands growing by the year for differentiated learning, constant modification, endless communication with parents, endless grading... All that time is likely double the hours I'm paid for. It's not easy. Most of my salary goes to day care / babysitters for my little ones.

Taking off a longer maternity leave if I need it or taking off when my kids are sick is highly discouraged, and messes up students, plus I need to still spend hours on lesson plans even for days I'm not being paid for... Even when I'm sick I can't just take off. Need to find a sub, communicate with sub, send in detailed lesson plan, follow up afterwards...

The summers and Yomim Tovim off are huge, that's one real advantage super grateful for. And obviously the Ruchnius benefit, using talents to be Mechanech the next generation etc. etc.

amother

↑ Denim

Sun, Jan 05 2025, 11:41 pm

amother Coffee wrote:

Chasdei lev is a $2,000 package of groceries for pesach if your school is part of it , Sukkos is less

It’s amazing
But it’s in no way humongous enough to make up for the low salaries teachers make….

Considered a licensed teacher has earned her degree and may have student loans the argument that other professions pay less is a bit ridiculous. If a secretary requires no schooling , no loans ect it’s not comparable. Compare a teachers with a masters to a profession with a masters and then discuss salary and benefits

As a teacher who loves teaching, my answer is still a big fat no, there is no reason for me to encourage my kids to be poor

So I think the question is - low salary compared to what? Teaching is family friendly and there can be perks such as tuition paid, which to me is huge. I'm in a professional field, and while the salary is good, it's really not practical for a mother of a large family, and I did not work while my children were little.

A lot of teachers either move on to something else when they need more money, or go up the ladder (better school/pay, etc) and if my dd has her heart set on teaching I would not discourage her.

amother

Pearl

Mon, Jan 06 2025, 12:21 am

amother SandyBrown wrote:

Lol, why do you think all morahs and teachers get chasdei lev!!!???
Most do not.
Very few schools pay into it for female staff, and there are specific requirements.

THIS, THIS, THIS!!!

I've worked in four schools, none offer it to their morahs. One tried but said they had to chip in so much, they'd only be able to do it for one teacher per class and it got sticky and the whole idea was nixed. The other misconception that drives me crazy is the one where people think I'm doing it for free tuition-in the school I currently work in, only two staff members send their kids there and they get a price break, certainly not free tuition. I would never be able to work in my own kids schools, some sort of separation is healthy and I feel this would be encroaching on their school experience, if that makes sense. Obviously people have to work where it works for them but if I have an option to work in a school that my kids don't go to and I do, then I'd take it.

amother

Ginger

Mon, Jan 06 2025, 2:02 am

Perhaps OP didn't mean her question the way it sounded, but other than in the yeshivish sector, it is possible for the wife to go into teaching and afford a frum lifestyle because the husband works as well.

I don't know how it will play out, because my daughter who is a born teacher is only 10 years old and could decide on a hundred different careers between now and when it matters. My older daughter is very science minded, more math and physics than biology, so she has some very interesting choices ahead of her. We keep joking that she's going to be so cutting edge that her career hasn't even been invented yet.