Some teachers may get a duty free lunch

[scooterbug44]

I did not say I begrudged them a regular lunch period or thought they should work without any breaks - I just questioned how big of an issue it actually was.

Nowhere did I say I hated teachers or thought they lived a luxurious life, just that the "breaks" they got were on par with or better than many other jobs. My school had a 27 minute lunch break - noone starved.

 

[30ashopper]

I don't think it was posted that teachers have so rough, I think the question was do you think this is fair. Just saying, but that is just my opinion to your above post. Just saying. Jeez

I think it may be a symptom of a larger problem. If school administration and educators can't work together to solve silly little problems like this, how are they going to work together to solve all the real problems our education system faces? I guess it?s just depressing to me that time must be spent mediating such trivial issues.

 

[lms47]

I adored teaching and feel I made a contribution to many of my students' lives. Many of them contact me today to keep me posted about their failures and successes. I wasn't complaining, just stating facts. In my retirement, I have worked in the rental mangement business part-time and it amazed me how every morning the big topic of the day was "Where are we going to lunch today"? Also, I could have run a classroom for several months on the waste I have seen in offices.

 

[30ashopper]

I adored teaching and feel I made a contribution to many of my students' lives. Many of them contact me today to keep me posted about their failures and successes. I wasn't complaining, just stating facts. In my retirement, I have worked in the rental mangement business part-time and it amazed me how every morning the big topic of the day was "Where are we going to lunch today"? Also, I could have run a classroom for several months on the waste I have seen in offices.

Sounds like you should start your own rental company and put the rest of them out of business using the skills you learned as a teacher.

 

[Bob Wells]

I think it may be a symptom of a larger problem. If school administration and educators can't work together to solve silly little problems like this, how are they going to work together to solve all the real problems our education system faces? I guess it?s just depressing to me that time must be spent mediating such trivial issues.

It is not a small or silly little problem, because if it was it would have been dealt with. I would venture to guess that if the Union proposed a solution that would have affected the budget, ie hire a lunch room monitor, so that the teacher could have had a lunch, or maybe proposed a administration staff member spend time in the lunch room that may have just unacceptable to those who would be called upon to provide the oversight. In my experience this is a small issue that should have or could have been dealt with, but if one party or the other is not satisfied with the results it gets kicked up the chain.

 

[GoodWitch58]

I don't think it was posted that teachers have so rough, I think the question was do you think this is fair. Just saying, but that is just my opinion to your above post. Just saying. Jeez

thank you, Bob. Again, much is being read into a post that I made. Thank you for reading it as it was...

Shopper, I am really surprised at how condescending you have been in this thread...not your usual style...

Anyone who knows anything about management and productivity knows that a break for lunch and a break from the work is essential -- in fact, it is the law for most businesses.

To call this "silly" is to continue to trivalize a profession that suffers from just that-- society not valuing the contributions made by our teachers, especially our elementary school teachers. That attitude needs to change if our society is to evolve and continue to progress.

 

[scooterbug44]

I don't think them wanting a break is silly.

The fact that the people educating our kids can't find a simple way to solve this problem if it's a priority for them is silly.

Here's a few easy ways to do it:

1) Lengthen the school day by the few minutes it takes to "escort" kids to and from the lunchroom or whatever is needed so they can get 30 minutes (I think the current school day is ridiculously short and we could easily add an hour to accommodate longer breaks and another class period).

2) Have non-teaching staff monitor kids at lunchtime (aides, cafeteria workers, security personnel, asst principal, principal, student teachers)

3) Have teachers who have a planning period directly before or after the lunch period split monitoring duties

4) Rotate monitoring duties so that noone goes without a 30 minute lunch more than 1x a week

5) Use community volunteers to monitor lunches and bus arrivals/departures (Senior Citizens are great at this, especially ex-military)

6) Free lunches for teachers who eat in the cafeteria (some of my teachers ate school lunch - they had their own table where they ate with other teachers, but their presence made nearby kids behave)

 

[Teresa]

I think it may be a symptom of a larger problem. If school administration and educators can't work together to solve silly little problems like this, how are they going to work together to solve all the real problems our education system faces? I guess it?s just depressing to me that time must be spent mediating such trivial issues.

I totally agree.
Surely teachers need a small break occasionally, but is lunch time the time for it? Lunch should be part of the curriculum, imo. Lunch is a time for students to socialize, nourish the body (with only healthy foods allowed at school), use proper manners, wash hands, clean up after self, etc. Shouldn't a teacher and/or assistant be involved in lunch period? Wouldn't a well organized teacher have the ability to arrange a short break when needed?

The only reason I can see this as being a problem in the public schools today is the massive, institutional-style settings. Perhaps additional staff is needed at lunch - but I don't see why a teacher needs a "union-negotiated" break for lunch during the school day. Teachers are on duty and are teaching constantly during the hours of school - even lunch time is a teaching opportunity.

The school day is exhausting, no doubt! I have done it professionally and as a volunteer in our school. I don't know about unions or how they work, but the professional teachers I know and admire get a break if they need it, when they need it - its team work within the school. But, typically there are no real breaks - they are on duty and TEACHING from the time the kids arrive until afternoon carpool. It is what they are there for.

Now, I would totally be all for unions negotiating higher pay, less paperwork requirements, teaching assistants for all teachers/classrooms, and fewer hours spent working after that long, exhausting day!!!

I'm not against a "break" for teachers - it could be very useful, no doubt. But, I can't find the energy to be too enthusiastic about a lunch break - there are so many other, seemingly more important ways to support the profession of teaching.

 

[MrMentalFitness]

My roomy's a teacher.

He doesn't get home for a few hours AFTER the school day is over, and the guy's mentally drained when he finally gets in.

The stories he tells me about the babysitting, parenting, and parole-officer roles he has to play all day are stunning, especially considering the pressure he has to deal with to ensure these kids perform in spite of the challenges they bring into the classroom with them - bad parenting done by touchy parents who refuse to accept their own responsibility as to their own child's nature, behavior, and performance; negative societal influences, mental laziness, rampant weakness of attention, addiction to entertainment, etc. etc.

Then there's the ADMINISTRATIVE POLITICS on top of that as the system constantly interferes with his process and then blocks his ability to hold students to a higher standard of both performance and behavior.

Anybody who thinks teachers have easy jobs have no clue what it is to actually carry out the job on a day to day basis.

 

[GoodWitch58]

A poem I read today:


"Low Pay Piecework

The fifth-grade teacher and her followers--
Five classes, twenty-eight in each, all hers:
One hundred-and-forty different characters."

Written by Robert Pinsky, whose "Selected Poems" will be published next month. Published today in the NY Times.