T
hink of every teacher
you’ve ever had. Consider
each of them, both your
favorites and the ones you wish
you could forget. Ponder all of
the little moments that make up
your childhood education, all
the way up through high school,
from the disappointed talks after
the substitute teacher left a bad
note to the oddly strict bathroom
pass rules.
Now think of the first time you
heard a teacher swear. The first
time a teacher spoke to you like
an adult. The times that you saw
your teachers outside of school,
maybe at the grocery store, and
you were unsure of whether or
not to say hello. Times when
your teachers broke through the
mold of “teacher” we’ve created
in our minds. When that younger
version of yourself was shocked
into realizing that teachers are
people — people with dreams,
lives and limits, just like any
other person.
Teachers have a monumental
responsibility: shaping America’s
youth. At a minimum, they
must be able to maintain a
clean and orderly classroom;
create
comprehensive
multimedia lesson plans; provide
individualized
interactive
learning; assess student progress
and
regularly
communicate
that progress to students and
parents; collaborate with school
faculty and pay close attention to
students’ behavior and emotional
well-being.
Expectations
for
teachers even go beyond the
classroom — because education is
viewed as a mechanism for social
mobility, teachers are considered
the
vanguard
for
America’s
struggle to reduce inequality.
That’s quite a comprehensive
list. With such burdensome tasks,
it would make sense for teachers
to be treated with respect and
given proper compensation and
benefits, right? Apparently not!
During the 2015-2016 school
year, about one-third of new
teachers and 18% of regular, full-
time public school teachers had
to work second jobs, just to make
ends meet. One in five teachers
in the United States have a
second job, which magnifies
the educator’s relative burden
compared to other occupations.
The situation for teachers
is only getting worse. Average
teacher
pay
(when
adjusted
for
inflation)
has
declined
throughout
the
last
decade.
According
to
the
National
Education
Association,
the
average
(nominal)
salary
of
American teachers in 2021-2022
was about $66,000. In 2013
dollars, however, that’s only
$54,225 — about $2,000 less
than the average salary in 2013.
Compared to other professions
with the same level of education,
teachers’ wages were 23.5% less
in 2021, a wage penalty that
increased from 18.7% in 2017.
Simply put, there are high
expectations and low wages for
teachers. Most people already
know
that.
That’s
because
headlines
in
recent
years
showcase our teachers’ fight for
fair benefits and wages. Last
week in Los Angeles, employees
from support staff to teachers
of the second-largest school
district in the country were on
strike, demanding higher wages.
Teachers in San Rafael, Calif.,
just authorized a strike after
negotiating with the San Rafael
City Schools since November.
Earlier this month, teachers in
Woodburn, Ore., threatened to
strike, pointing out the many
resignations in the district in the
last few years.
Even
those
that
are
not
formally considered educators
have felt these burdens. Here
at the University of Michigan,
with the Graduate Employees’
Organization currently on strike
for the second time in three years,
we know about strikes impeding
education all too well. They, too,
are demanding higher wages.
These instructors,
at the University
for
their
own
education
rather
than
teaching
as
a
profession,
face
similar
challenges of being
undervalued
for
their labor.
Another
consequence
of
the
high-stress
and
low-paying
conditions
set
for
teachers
is
the
profession’s
worsening
retention rate. The
turnover rate for
teachers reached a
new high this year,
which
has
been
attributed
mostly
to the pandemic.
According
to
a
survey
by
the
RAND
Corporation,
one
in
four
teachers
considered leaving
their jobs during
the 2020-21 school
year, even if they
didn’t actually go
through with it.
There is reportedly
more
job-related
stress for school
staff,
specifically
principals in this
survey, who are people of Color,
identify as female and are in
high-poverty areas.
Obviously, this is bad for
American
education.
How
we
treat
our
teachers
has
consequences:
The
U.S.
education system lags behind
other countries in terms of
academic
achievement.
And
when teachers are paid more,
students do better. The work of
teachers is crucial for society as a
whole, but it is more so impactful
at the individual level. The first
part of this article asked you to
think about your past teachers;
whether good or bad, those
memories are vivid, proving
the importance of the role that
teachers play in our lives.
However, their impact on the
nation shouldn’t be the reason
that teachers should get equitable
pay and benefits. They should get
those things simply because they
are people. We shouldn’t need
to argue for teachers’ jobs to
have greater importance or need
to point out how the declining
retention rate and frequency
of labor strikes further harm
education.
Instead
of
viewing
the
millions of teachers in the U.S.
solely as their occupation, we
should be seeing them first as
people with human limits and
rights to a safe, healthy working
environment.
With
44%
of
schools
reporting
that
they
don’t have the capabilities to
provide mental health services
to students in need, teachers
are forced to take on a larger
role to compensate for that
lack of care. These burdens
are already taking their toll on
teachers, with 79% of teachers
reporting experiencing work-
related anxiousness and one in
10 teachers being prescribed
antidepressant
medication
to combat job pressures. The
mental health of teachers is
deteriorating, to the point that
people are either leaving or
never joining the profession at
all.
Placing
the
burdensome
weight
of
America’s
entire
education, social work and social
justice system onto teachers and
expecting them to do it with
little support, and even less
compensation, cannot continue.
It has become quite obvious that
teachers are willing to do what
it takes to get the respect they
deserve. Until there’s a change
in the treatment of teachers,
these strikes and bad retention
rates are just going to continue.
Then it’s the students paying the
cost at the end of it all.
Opinion
Teachers are more than just their occupation
Wednesday, April 12, 2023 — 9
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
JAMIE MURRAY
Opinion Columnist
O
n March 23, the World
Athletics
Council,
which runs the World
Athletics
Championships
and
other sporting events, decided to
ban transgender women athletes
from competing in any of their
events if they have gone through
any stages of male puberty. While
this didn’t exactly come as a
shock to anybody, given that the
Council proposed this back in
January, it was still an unpleasant
reminder of just how transphobic
the sports world can often be.
So, let’s talk about trans
athletes — particularly trans
women, as trans men were not
included in the WAC’s ruling
— because there are pervasive
misconceptions that contribute
to the mass hysteria over trans
people playing sports.
First, some basic definitions. A
trans person is anyone who does
not identify with the sex they
were assigned at birth. Trans is a
broad category that encompasses
trans men and women, as well
as non-binary and gender non-
conforming people. A trans man
is someone who was assigned
female at birth and transitioned
to a man. A trans woman is
someone who was assigned male
at birth and transitioned to a
woman. I’m going to use trans
people to refer to primarily trans
men and women throughout the
piece, but nonbinary and gender
non-conforming people are very
much a part of that community,
and they are affected by this
ruling as well.
Just to be very clear: Gender
is not biological. Neither is
sex. There are so many gene
combinations that can cause
someone to present as male or
female that are not XX and XY.
Genitals may not match up with
someone’s external appearance,
especially for intersex people. The
World Athletics Council’s order
hurts intersex individuals just
as much as it hurts trans women
because it prevents anyone who
has gone through male puberty
at all from participating — this
applies to intersex people if their
parents chose the male gender for
them.
The process of transitioning
varies wildly by person. Not all
trans people choose to medically
transition, but many do. For
these two genders, this involves
hormone replacement therapy
— trans men take testosterone
and trans women take estrogen.
Trans
women
may
undergo
breast
augmentation
while
trans men may undergo double
mastectomies
(commonly
called top surgery), and both
may undergo bottom surgery
to change their genitals. Any
medical
solution
may
also
require
extensive
mental
health analysis, referrals from
doctors and certainly money. It
is not something that someone
undergoes just because they felt
like trying out another gender for
the day.
So, trans women in sports:
What’s the big deal? Short answer:
There isn’t one. The only people
making a big deal out of this are
sore losers and transphobes.
The long answer is exactly
the same: There isn’t a problem,
except for the ones society
creates. There is a belief, for
example, that trans women are
beginning to dominate women’s
sports and win all of the awards.
There is another, even dumber
idea, that men would claim to be
trans women and change in the
girls’ locker rooms so they could
see boobs.
Absolutely zero trans people
are transitioning so that they
can win sports events. However,
there are trans people who
happen to play sports, and the
best thing we can do is allow
them to compete in the categories
of their identity. Unfortunately,
many organizations do not allow
that because of rules about
testosterone and assigned gender.
One
of
the
most
famous
examples of a trans person in
sports is Lia Thomas, a swimmer
at the University of Pennsylvania.
She gained media attention in 2021
when she became one of the most
successful transfeminine athletes
in college sports, dominating
her competitions and becoming
the first trans woman to win an
NCAA Division I championship.
She came out during her junior
year and began HRT for her
gender dysphoria. NCAA rules at
the time stated that trans female
athletes “may not compete on a
women’s team until completing
one calendar year of testosterone
suppression treatment.” Those
rules have since been updated to
be more inclusive.
After Thomas had completed
that requirement and deferred
her eligibility a year due to
COVID-19, she began to swim
on the women’s team in 2021,
dominating
competitions
and
drawing
massive
amounts
of
hatred
from
right-wing
news sources and many of her
teammates
and
opponents.
Many opponents cited that her
‘biology,’ such as her height and
bone density, gave her unfair
advantages, and backed this up
with some scientific studies that
supposedly show that advantage.
However, Dr. Joshua D. Safer,
co-author
of
the
Endocrine
Society’s guidelines for treating
trans people, stated, “A person’s
genetic make-up and internal and
external reproductive anatomy
are not useful indicators of
athletic performance,” and most
medical experts agree.
Sometimes,
when
looking
at how dominant Thomas was
throughout her final season, it
might be easy to believe that the
transphobes are correct and that
Thomas is simply too dominant to
be allowed to swim with women.
But, she was previously one of
the best swimmers on the Penn
men’s team, and she was not even
ranked No. 1 in the country in
collegiate women’s swimming
during her final season. If she was
so good on the men’s team, what
advantage would she have gained
by transitioning? Maybe she’s just
a good swimmer.
But transphobes don’t want to
hear that. One of the girls that
Thomas beat is still on Fox News
whining about her loss nearly
a year after the race. She and
those who agree with her simply
cannot accept that someone who
is trans might be good at sports.
And, while they are comfortable
speaking their hatred, they are
often empowered by the shield
of anonymity, as is evident in
this quote from a teammate of
Thomas’ who didn’t want her to
swim on the team: “I’m not about
to be labeled as transphobic.”
Trans people in sports: A non-issue
MADISON AUCHINCLOSS
Opinion Contributor
Design by Kim Ly
Let’s take care
of each other.
The well-being
of our community
means everything.
Do you or someone you know — faculty, staff or student
— need extra support? Connect with tools and
resources at U-M that can help you thrive —
from wellness classes and apps to useful information
and counseling options.
Helping Leaders Feel Their Best:
wellbeing.umich.edu
Read more at MichiganDaily.com