The Cartoon...The Critique

From a reader on a recent cartoon featuring Lauderdale School Board member Chad Holden:

One has to assume this cartoon was produced by a Lauderdale County teacher. Is this person really, REALLY, complaining about teaching SIX WHOLE HOURS in a day?!?!? Let's be honest, no one would suggest that teaching is a "cushy" job, but with a work contract of 180 or so days per year, averaging 6 hours of teaching per day comes to about 1080 hours per year. And at an average starting salary of $36,000 or so, that works out to about $33 an hour. Pretty nice deal, especially when you get summers and Christmas off, too.

It is difficult to have much sympathy for some teacher whining about the hours of their work day, when you open the Times Daily almost weekly and read about jobs being cut, people laid off, and companies closing their doors. Maybe this individual should just be thankful they still have a job to go to. I'm quite certain a lot of those in the area who have been let go recently would give their right arm just to have 6 hours of work to do a day...

*****

We disagree slightly with the premise of only six hours. Teachers have to create plans...and they're ever changing. As for the six hours v. four hours, we feel the cartoonist was comparing apples and oranges.

A rural school system will never equate with a metropolitan system which caters to mainly upper class students. Also, having a school board member who is also a teacher is much preferable to having one who's...say...a plumber or a/c person...who's going to jail.

Shoalanda