If you didn’t go to Catholic School growing up or wear a uniform to school, this won’t make sense to you. If you did, I’m about to unlock a memory you didn’t know you had.
There were days in grade-school and high school, usually in the winter, when I would come home from school and not change out of my uniform. I would keep it on, to watch TV, do homework, eat dinner with the family, and even play video games. There was something uplifting about those days. They almost made me feel accomplished.
I had a couple of those days last week. I wore my teacher’s uniform (button down and khakis) for about 14 hours, from 7:00am to 9:00pm because there just wasn’t enough time to shower and change. Just like when I was a kid, I felt productive, accomplished, and even encouraged.
I went to bed tired but relieved that the next day was Friday.
I never understood why teachers complained. How hard could it be, getting summers off?
Add up all the hours teachers work in a year and it’s equal, if not more, than a typical 9 to 5. Teachers just work 10 hour days every day, and on the weekends. You could average it to 12 hours each work day, easily. And this doesn’t even include planning and preparing in the summer.
50 weeks of work each year x 40 hours per week = 2,000 hours of work each year
180 days of work each year x 12 hour per day = 2,160 hours of work each year
The next time somebody says, “Yeah but teachers have it easy because they have off in the summer,” you have my permission to remove yourself from that conversation before your only option is to resort to violence.