People Don't Respect Teachers

No matter what most people say to your face, if you are a teacher, they have little respect for what you do. Don’t try to tell me otherwise. Most look at you and wonder why you couldn’t get a real job. A colleague, who used to work in the public schools, explained to me one day why the teachers unions want all school board members to be professional people. He said that a teacher’s salary is not that much compared to a doctor or lawyer, but postal workers and clerks think we get paid too much. I have news for him; doctors and lawyers don’t respect us either.
I do outside tutoring, and I often get calls from people who want to hire me to help their sons or daughters improve their grades. Invariably they want to know how much I charge for a tutoring session, and many react with shock when I tell them that I charge $60/hour to come to their home and work with their child. Many say they want to think about it, but never call back. Others can’t contain their utter surprise. I have heard, on several occasions from the opposite side of the phone something like, “You’re just a teacher! How can you charge so much?” I love the “You’re just a teacher” comment; it really tells you who they are. There are many people who value the help enough to pay my asking price, and I generally have a full load of students within the first few weeks of any school year. I try to limit myself to no more than six outside tutoring students at any time, but have had as many as 10 per week. I regularly turn people down when I don’t get the feeling they have the respect for me that I feel I’ve earned—I never have any open appointments for their kids. One especially obnoxious woman rejected my price initially, but called back a few days later and said she would pay, but she wasn’t going to like it—her voice dripping with disrespect. Apparently it’s not easy finding a calculus tutor. I told her that I had an appointment open when she called the first time, but that had been taken since, so I could not help her son.
I was very fortunate when I first began tutoring outside of school; I was introduced to a woman who needed to hire a tutor for her son. She was a member of the school board for a local high school district. My work with her two sons was so successful that she recommended me to several friends who inquired about my work. Through her help and recommendations I was able to build a significant private tutoring practice among the members of a rather wealthy community. I still advertise my services with the guidance departments of local high schools, but most of the students I tutor now have been recommended by some other family or are the brother or sister of a former student.
Tutoring has done more for me than the extra money it provides my family; it has helped me become a better classroom teacher. I have become better able to sense problems my students are having and devise alternate explanations and examples that will help them understand. Working one-on-one with struggling students has given me new insights into the way students learn, and the reasons they don’t. It is, in itself, a methods class with practical applications.