Rose is Rose by Don Wimmer and Pat Brady for September 04, 2011

No, it’s just what everybody expects teachers to be, and the best ones try to be!

My wife manages all of them!

..exposing every weakness, however carefully hidden by the kids.

And underpaid.

I’m thinking you never had a good teacher then, TJ.I tried to be all of those things, and I believe that I was, more than once.Orion

I had some wonderful teachers who fit that description perfectly!!!

That would describe all the Marist Fathers and Christian Brothers that taught me. Great Men of incredible integrity, true inspirations.

When a teacher ceases to be any one of those, he should quit – I did, 6 years ago, after 10 years in the role…

Teachers in my district are highly paid for only 270 days of work. But they still whine and complain about how “hard” it is. Please…if you don’t like the job, get another if you can find one.

Yeah, crabby, no one should ever complain about the challenges and/or shortcomings of thier job. They, instead, should get on the internet and complain about teachers whining about thier jobs…

This made my heart smile! I’m a student, and I see teachers struggle every day with students who are unwilling to learn, but I have many teachers who are all of the above

Right now most teachers are just paid to teach for standardized testing. “Fill the circle…fill the circle..”

Teachers ARE underpaid. Those summers aren’t all spent sleeping in and going on vacation. I have a ton of friends who are teachers and every single one of them get summer jobs because their salary is so low. Many parents expect teachers to be all of those things, and teachers strive to be them. For the hundreds of kids who don’t have a solid role model in their life, teachers are those things. Teachers ARE paid crap now and all these budget cuts in the educational system are detrimental. off soapbox Love the strip today!

It’s especially funny if your name just happens to be Ms. Harris.

According to the republicans also an overpaid union thug.

My 1st grade teacher started teaching in the 1920s – little one room schools. She loved teaching, she loved children. She believed no child was bad, just a little unruly and energetic. I had her a year or 2 before she retired. Mrs Bailey was wonderful. My 2nd grade teacher was the opposite. A drinker who seemed to hate teaching and believed the strap was a teaching aide.

I’ve had great teachers, and I’ve had bad teachers. My mom was a teacher. Currently, I’m a substitute teacher, but I was a teacher. Teachers are expected to be all those things, plus provide babysitting. Even when teachers don’t need to work summers (because they have a spouse who typically earns 2 to 3x what they earn), they have to take courses to keep their certification. Most school districts will pay a portion of the tuition, but most of the tuition still comes out of teacher’s salaries. I have a Master’s and will probably end up taking enough courses to qualify (in hours, anyway) to earn a Ph.D., but even if I had a Ph.D., I’d still have to take courses in the summer. Add to that to classroom sizes of 25+ (if you don’t think that’s a lot, you try keeping 25 people of any age focused and on task when they don’t necessarily want to be there!), parents who expect you to focus only on their child, and budgets that are constantly being cut, plus the two to three hours of work that has to be done outside of school hours and I say it’s a miracle we can convince anyone to become a teacher. Especially when there are people like Trapper John and Crabbyrino who are ready to tell teachers that they don’t really work.

AMEN MISSY!

btw tower, you said “Actually most teachers are none of those”. Most? You mean 51% or is it greater than that? Just what is the percentage of teachers who don’t measure up to the list? And what are you using to measure them? Please, show your work!

I’ve had good teachers and I’ve also had teachers who weren’t as good, too; when I was in high school, my health teacher was also the head football coach, and he had the NERVE to tell me that asthma wasn’t real! What a jerk.

@TrapperJohn – I’m so sorry you never had me for a teacher. I’m sure you would have been a challenge! Perhaps no teacher you knew was ever all of those things because you were not able to open your eyes to what you were being offered in the classroom. It seems you may still have your eyes closed. Speak to any of my students; either those I taught in the inner-city while surrounded by crack houses or those I taught in the beautiful suburbs. Open your eyes, Trapper. It is not too late to learn.

As a teacher, I resent that comment. A teacher is all those things. In addition we do this for only 1/14 of the pay we deserve, and receive almost no appreciation for it (as your comment illustrates). Yet we do it anyway. If you still don’t think teachers are underappreciated and underpaid, I invite you to try to corral a class of 20+ rowdy kids and teach them reading, writing and arithmetic.

They probably would be less prison wardens if the kids came to school looking for what is depicted in this strip, and less for prison. The student mindset makes almost all of the difference. That and parental involvement in the children’s lives, which nowadays is minimal to none

I know a brilliant woman, my daughter, who does all of these things as a mother — and also home schools, for secular, not religious reasons – the schools don’t work well with gifted and talented kids, and hers are, for sure.

Teachers are awesome, at least those that teach and not preach. Teaching is hard work and I appreciated each of my teachers. Of course I went to school in the 50’s and 60’s when you didn’t have politics, sex indoctrination and bigots all over the place. Our teachers taught us academically and let the parents do their job.