My Rant.....

originally my rant today was going to be about the wait.....but I'm putting that post aside for another day because this one deserves to be heard.

I am so mad. Our children go to school for 6ish hours a day- 5 days a week and one teacher provides them an education- she loves our kids, she nurtures them, and she fills their brains with tons and tons of good things (I know this because my son gives me a play by play of each waking moment in the classroom!)

So here it is the week before teacher appreciation week at our school and our teacher says please, I have plenty- if you must do something please help me donate to the orphanage I volunteer at in the summer. As the room mom it is my responsibility to rally the other parents together and organize this- which I do as it is close to my heart too.

3 people folks....that is all.....3 people donated. Well, 4 if you count me. These are not struggling families- these are very comfortable, nice car driving, expensive house owning families......and I'm not even asking for a set amount.....it was left open to donate what you could.......

One of the moms is the "team mom" for our sons soccer team- she is collecting for the end of year coaches gift- great coach- I'd love to donate- she somehow thinks that the coach should get more than HER SONS TEACHER......"she after all, gets paid"......so I took it upon my very angry self to educate her on just how much she does for our children- how much of her own money gets spent on our children- how she is often found in the classroom on Saturday and vacations preparing things for our children- do you think she got it........no.

I LOVE TEACHERS. I think that they should be paid one of the highest salaries in our country- I do not care what a district pays- it is NOT enough. I've seen a day in the life of a teacher- and it is hard- it is exhausting- I'm not saying it isn't without its rewards....but each and every reward is earned and earned the hard way.

If I hear the argument one more time about how teachers only work half a year I think I may go crazy- that is how many days our children go to school- not how many days a teacher works. They are in there before we drop our kids off, they are there after we pick them up- they are there on weekends, vacations and all of the mandated teacher in service days. Most are even contracted to work a certain number of hours over the summer.

So that is my rant. These very comfortable people will not or have forgotten to donated to the teacher appreciation gift- one that she is using to help less fortunate children.......amazing.