Maybe adults should have told me to play more instead of studying; Then maybe I would be the rich man I was "trained" to be.
If you've read my blogs in the past, you've no doubt noticed that I tend to go off on tangents from time to time, as my train of thought tends to get momentarily derailed. This time I would like to start off with a digression in hopes to debunk the idea that the best always win-I promise to only address this issue once. I say, "Congratulations to all of you Giants' fans, you lucked your way back to a championship." The avid Giants' fan replies, "Luck? Are you kidding me? How could it be luck? You're just bitter that your team didn't make it." After a brief yawn I quickly reply, "Unless your team practiced an overtime fumble by a rookie returner for the entire week before its playoff game against my 49ers, those "g-men" (notice the lower case) were simply lucky. If you can at least admit that to yourself as a fan and step into the real world with the rest of us, I will actually congratulate you and promise only to talk about you behind your back. There, I feel like that about wraps up that digression.
While some boast of a hometown championship and others bitterly hope for a similar outcome in the year to come, I sit and think of the money swilling around the Super "Bowl". Considering the amount of jerseys that were purchased, the championship t-shirts and hats, the tickets themselves, the commercial slots, the pizzas ordered, even the amount of beer sold in the bars for the game. Maybe it's the tax return season; I know when I get my tax return I feel rich enough to take a pretty woman shopping on Rodeo drive just so I can spend "an obscene amount of money"-yes, sadly that is a movie I have memorized...Vivian was hot! Whatever the case is, money flows in droves, right into the NFL bank account. As I look at my own bank account, I start to wonder, "where did I go wrong?"
Now, as a product of a prestigious prep school in California, and a very competitive, liberal-arts-undergrad program in Ohio, I would consider myself a valuable. I say this not to ignore my boyish good looks, outstanding physique - be jealous people- and my winning personality, but to show why the reaon behind my financial confusion. In laymen's terms, "Where's my money, man?" In addition to all of my aforementioned excellence, I work on the front line in the education field. Indeed, I am working with my collegues to prepare children, our future, and our most precious cargo/product, for tomorrow. Yet again, my money's shorter than a game of mouse limbo - I have no idea why that image popped in my head- and doesn't seem to be getting any taller. As rude as it is to discuss our salaries, I know my boys in the police and fire departments aren't experiencing a surplus on any one of their checks either. Let's consider these numbers (note: numbers are accurate not precise):
Average Teacher's Salary 42,000
Average New York Police Officer's Salary 46,000
Average Office Adminstrator's Salary 40,000
Average Registered Nurse's Salary 67,000
Average Lawyer's Salary 109,000
Average CEO's Salary 211,000
United States President's Salary 400,000
Average NFL Player's Salary 1.1 million
Average MLB Player's Salary 3 million
Average NBA Player's Salary 4.9 million
If you're not a professional athlete, this list may be a bit alarming...ok who am I kidding we're all looking at our lives and trying to find the bright side in the middle of a financial eclipse. Truth of the matter is, however, we've been lied too. As children we were told to stay in school and follow our educational leaders as they would lead us to the promise land. Hell, as a teacher myself I encourage children to have a back up plan and to at least be educated, if they're nothing else. After seeing these numbers, however, I think I'm going to start bringing in instructional sports videos and tossing my lesson plan out the damn window. Let's just have every class in the park, and offer extra credit for trick shots and intricate sports plays. Damn the books and booklets, let's burn them to keep us warm during winter practices outside on the field, as we re-enact historical game winning plays in our new and improved history class appropriately entitiled "The Winners". I may sound crazy, and of course my hyperbolic tone is meant to exaggerate what I'm feeling, but there is something seriously wrong with the way money is being distributed. Call me a dare devil, but I think that this list would look a lot different if the money we earned was a direct reflection of the hard work we put into our fields. I know I know, I just got a little crazy and now my credibility is in question as I look like a lunatic suggesting something so outlandish, but I can't help but wonder if we considered our favorite athletes when we were criticizing the 1 percent-relax I supported the Occupy movement. Did we exclude atheletes because we have faces to go with those inflated salaries? Or did we actually believe their ability to entertain us, day in and day out, was more important than the work we ourselves put in daily?
I will continue to wonder these things as I push the children I teach and the children I'm raising every day. I will never tell a child that anything is more valuable than his education, for experience coupled with knowledge is an invaluable possession. But please believe I will be out there during recess modeling some kicking, throwing, and running...it's only right.
P.S. Who know saying the best don't always win applied to the Giants and the highest paid Americans?
Ok so this is my second time trying to comment because my lovely phone...anyway, this has been a convo at my dinner table for years on end. My mother has been a teacher for 30 plus years and has always struggled to make ends meet. 3 kids, husband that has passed, mortgage so on so forth. I to this day do not know how she has managed. The first 20 yrs were spent at a catholic school, no 401k, no retirement plan, squat. Now she has been in a public school for 10 plus years and she still has to calculate how much longer she will need to teach to be able to retire and actually benefit from all of her hardwork. It truly amazes me that society has put such an emphasise on athletes, not saying that it is not a worthy lifestyle choice, obviously many are talented, like the giants haha, but it is really sad to see that people do not want the people that take care of your children, teachers, firefighters, police officers and such, to benefit from the hardwork that they put in with each day. Many people say that teaching is easy, yes summers off and holidays and vacations, but the amount of stress and bullcrap that those teachers put up with on a day to day basis I would never be able to handle. My moms day starts at 7am and doesn't end until 7pm. She is,in reality, only paid for the hours school is in session, 8 to 3pm, but she stays after everyday to help her kids with labwork, homework, studying, that's not part of her pay. She does it because those kids need her help. Yes she chooses to do it but what would those parents say if she didn't stay everyday and they started failing. Teachers, the good ones, because let's be honest, we've all had ones that do half ass jobs, go above and beyond the expectations to make sure that each child is learning and excelling in not only their studies, but in life. It really urkes me that they make such horrible salaries. It should change, but it won't.its unfortunate that there, in my eyes will never be a change because the senate makes ridiculous money, why would they take away from their pockets to help others? Ugh this topic hits too close to home and makes me angry. I'm not saying that athletes are not talented and children shouldn't strive for those goals, but what about the kids that don't have those talents? They'll be making minumum wage trying to pay off school loans that will have them in debt for most of their life.( story ofmy life and I have a degree in psychology) its very sad. obviously you are right in saying that you should continue to encourage education to the highest level they can achieve, but also encourage a backup plan, especially with the way the economy has been. I hope and pray the generations to come can make it out on their own in this cold world because it is extremely rough out their already.
ReplyDeleteWhen we rank professions by the dollars they generate, I believe we do a disservice to all professions. This is always apples and oranges, there is only what the market will bear. I bet you can't find anyone who will come out and say "You know what, I make enough money". Entertainment dollars are generated in a totally different way than say government workers dollars. Pro athletes make a great deal of money because fans can't get enough. The money we spend on the whole experience is multiplied by millions of fans and this great pot of cash, along with TV money, is divided and given to players in the way of contracts. Teaching will always be more important than any sport and teachers who want to teach because they can't see themselves doing anything else are the ones I want holding that line. I don't want teachers to make "athlete money". Would there be better teachers if they were paid more? I don't think many teachers say "I'm teaching to get rich". There are many professions that will pay a lot more. Not all teachers or all of any profession take what they do seriously, for some it is just a paycheck. Going through school we all remember the teachers we thought did a great job and the ones who we thought didn't, it wasn't always related to the job they did but how they seemed to really care about giving of themselves. The ones who went well beyond what was expected. We learned very important life lessons from these teachers and I could never put a dollar amount on how much they did. To all out there who teach, keep on doing what your doing, the results do matter in the end.
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