Teacher absences: Are they excessive and do they hurt students?

Hello Maureen. I have not missed a day of teaching in almost five years and have accrued close to 1200 hours of sick leave. I arrive an hour before required time and leave an hour after the day has ended. So basically, a consequence for being absent yet never once in five years a simple pat on the back for being there day in and day out. It is the only profession where one cannot wake up on the wrong side of the bed and just turn off the alarm clock and get a few more hours’ sleep. Please stop picking on teachers. It is easy and fuin to do when no longer in the classroom.

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I have to agree somewhat with Adam. Teachers miss days because they are stressed, tired, or have sick children and there is no one to stay at home with the kids. They also miss days because of trainings or other professional development. The administrators of schools are partly responsible for allowing too many distractions take teachers away from the classroom. They also allow too many assessments to eat up powerful and important instructional time. I do agree teachers take too much time off, but that is because, in part, they are not supported in the ways they need to be right now. They need a great deal of support for their instruction and other factors that go into teaching these days. Low-income schools are not supported; they are trashed in the media and therefore become places that high-impact students or teachers or administrators do not want to be around. It is a vicious cycle. There are many dedicated teachers out there, but I must say this year I have seen more stress-related illnesses taking their toll upon many that were relatively healthy. Teacher stress also takes its toll on students, who get sicker and for longer periods of time. Overall, I think our schools are trying but they are test driven into illness.

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This article literally sickens me! I spend up to 14 hours a day at school doing all that is required and beyond and now I can’t even take off if I get sick?! What is this?!! We are already underpaid and not respected. I work so hard and bust my you know what every single day. I don’t get to have a bad day. Every day I have to have my game face on 100%. Teachers work around gazillions of germs each and every day, and now we are being made into villains for taking off sick?? Would it make you feel better if we all came to work sick and infected the entire staff and student body?? Seriously this attack on teachers has got to stop. No wonder Georgia is always at the bottom of the education barrel. The way these people here treat their teachers would deter most sane people away from the profession all together. The parents don’t honor education and take the initiative for their own children and the population as a whole has a very negative attitude towards educators. Keep on attacking teachers and putting us down. Keep on with the budget cuts that lower our pay that was already on a destitute level. See where it gets you. You guessed it …with more and more talented educators leaving the field and Georgia continuing to drop to the bottom!!

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In addition, in most professions (other than health, education, and money-handling), people are not exposed day after day to the viral and bacterial load teachers have to deal with. So many sick kids who should be home! I blamed working parents for it before, but now with so many not working, I blame laziness and NCLB for having these sick kids at school making others sick. As a journalist, how many times in your job have you been vomited on?

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Way to go Bonnie, you nailed it on the head!!!! Most people have no idea of what it is really like in the classroom and there is little to no support for teachers in this test driven society! Just like in any profession, if someone is abusing the attendance policy, then “man up” and address it. Quit trying to take down the whole lot.

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FYI-Many of the missed days are for “required” training. Often the math and science departments will have a system wide work shop on the same day. Great planning-huh! If you have two subs each section for an entire system you might as well lock the doors as little if any learning is going to take place that day.

We should however monitor those who choose to abuse sick leave.

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As a teacher I had perfect attendance. I had over 800 hours of sick leave time. The reward for a years perfect attendance… 40 hours of bonus time that could only be used after I used my 800 hours. Why would you reward someone with something they clearly don’t use. I went to my cousins wedding which fell on a holiday weekend and was docked a days pay for missing a day either before or after a holiday. This docked day was recalculated before summer and lowered my summer pays. One day cost way more than I get paid a day and of course human resources had a formula that should why. With swine flu they tell us to stay home if we are sick but then we get scolded for being absent. My solution, I will now come to school sick get every kid sick and make it so the parent has to stay home.

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Hate to break the news to you, but these days teachers are afraid to miss days due to illness and/or sick kids for fear that it will be used against them at their review time. Schools are cutting back on teacher training days also, again due to the economy.

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I agree wholeheartedly, Maureen. Let’s keep teachers in the classroom. The legislators and admins can start with the “furlough days” in which almost every teacher gives up pay and works anyway. After repaying us for several of those this year and promising to never do it again, we’ll promise to take less of our fairly earned leave. Deal?

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I am a Cobb County School teacher. Mary Finlayson’s research was not properly completed. As a student, she should have researched how many of those days were due to training. Our teachers take four days for curriculum planning during the year. This year I was hit with the flu for four days with a doctors note. Yes, we have teachers who abuse the system. We do have one teacher who is out twice a month and schedules doctors appts during the day. It is up to administration to talk with those people who are absent. Cobb County should stop allowing curriculum planning during the day! People do not realize that teachers planning periods are utilized by administration, we DO NOT have teacher work days, we have to correct all our papers after hours, and report cards and progress reports are done after hours. Our pay way cut this year and our benefits went up. Mary should have done a better job with her research to show most absences are due to training!

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What about a study that shows what furlough days does to teacher morale…and how underpaying them may be linked to student performance…and a study about how totally crappy parents who don’t play any part in raising their kids affects student’s learning? Come on and wake up! The system is broken! Focusing on things like this will do nothing but create a punitive work environment. “Create teacher incentives for good attendance?” You know that will NOT be the case…it will be, “How can we punish these teachers for missing?” I think it’s time for teacher’s to strike…then do a study on that, why don’t you?

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Southern Gal – because they are unionized…please see comments from WOW!. WOW! you need to go and find a job, because teaching is NOT your calling.

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Hey, catlady…..u forgot to mention that if a teacher were to wear a mask to fight off the germs (like health professionals) and/or gloves (like many people dealing with $), they would be ostracized for infringing on rights of the kids. The administrators and parents would be extremely offended if Ms. Catlady came to class with a mask and rubber gloves, but obviously you better come in and help the sick kids who come to school regardless!

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I was written up and the letter placed in my personnel file when my sub chose to ignore my very detailed lesson plans and even sent a kid TO HER HOME to bring back movies. Those plans were detailed down to exactly what each student was expected to work on, complete, and turn in and what specific lab chore was to be completed by each at the end of class. Because I knew who the sub was to be and because lab cleanup was a daily part of class, AND because I had clearly explained my expectations to each of my classes, I thought I could take my vocational club students to a state conference and return to no surprises. Wrong. My lab was wrecked and, in spite of my being 200 miles away in Atlanta for the conference, I was held accountable. My uber-detailed lesson plans with the subs handwritten notes of “we had such fun” and “your students are delightful,” were pretty much dismissed when I was called on the carpet.

Folks, we instructors have no control over how a sub fills in for us, no matter why we are out of our classes. Given that kind of disdain by administrators, is it any wonder some might take a “mental health” day?

And just fyi, I’ve accumulated several years worth of sick leave days but will realize nothing from them because I’m half-way through my 36th year. I have always arrived at school by 6:30 a.m. and typically leave around 4:00 p.m. or later. I even spent 3 hours this past Friday in my lab preparing for my students and our countywide evaluation teams’ visits.

My career. My choice.

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Last year my daughter’s teacher was out the day after Labor Day, and missed several days afterwards. We received a letter 2 weeks later informing us of a permanent sub. The original teacher came back in October. The kids had to stay in for recess a few times, because the class was not meeting their skills requirement. I visited the class a few times and noticed that there was always a different teacher. It got to the point that my daughter did not know who was teaching her class. In November we received another letter informing us of another permanent sub. Her school has a policy of getting a permanent sub. after 10 days of consecutive absences. I called the school requesting that my daughter be transferred to a class with a teacher that stays and was told that my kid just had to deal with it. Finally they decided to split the class up after Thanksgiving. My daughter did not start learning new material until February of that year. Her reading skills also started to decline. However, she started kindergarten able to read on a 1st grade level, which helped her because there was no one there to teach class. It is great that she comes from a nice stable home with 2 college degreed parents and a mom with a flexible schedule. Not every kid in her class had this luxury. However, her school expects kindergarteners to do word problems and a meet other skill requirements. It’s hard to imagine how the kids meet these requirements when there is no one there to teach them.

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Someone mentioned sick days not getting carried over in the “business world” of work. From what I have seen employees also get paid for those unused days, I have about 80 days (I have lost over 60 when I transferred districts a couple of years ago) and I will use them to retire early if I make it that long. If I don’t make it to retirement, I will simply lose all those days.

I would bet that if someone did another study on missed days in other professions/jobs they would have similar findings on the days missed (Mondays, fridays, around or on holidays)…so why just go after teachers?

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I tried to be dedicated this year. I came to school sick. Now look at me. A month later, I relapsed again and spent this entire Thanksgiving break in bed with a high fever. I’ll be up tomorrow to face the kids and still weak. But do I hear a thanks? I’ll stand before the kids and try to teach and they will whip out the cell phones, turn their backs, and little do they know how sick I feel, but God forbid I call in and risk losing my job and let’s pray my own child doesn’t catch this bug!

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flipper, you obviously do not know what you are talking about! Teachers are in class continuing to learn during summer vacation and/or programs for recertification as well as improving class room skills. They work on plans during all breaks and deal with uninformed and ill-mannered parents EVERY WHERE they go. They deal with admin. that is out of touch and do not care. It is a 12 month a year job that is thankless and unpaid, that is why I will not return to secondary or middle education.

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My daughter’s math teacher, in 8th grade, was out sick at least 3 or 4 days a month. I felt sorry for her, because I knew she was truly sick. However, I knew it would come back to hunt my daughter, who is a “B” to “A-” student in math. There were so many topics that were not covered in detail, that is being pushed into the light. She’s in Algebra this year and the math teacher is always saying they should have covered the current topics in 8th grade. I’m just thankful that he is an excellent math teacher and has the patience to recover things my daughter missed in 8th grade.

I’m happy to say that this year has been great and we haven’t had a problem with excessive absentees of any of her highschool teachers. My daughter is taking both Physics and Chemistry this school year and if these teachers are absent, she would be screwed.

Also, I’ve been sick and had an operation just last week, so I do understand that being sick is not something we can control. But, we need subs who can at least teach the subjects they are covering.

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JacksMom – We’re not paid during our breaks – our salary (based on 10 months employment) is split into 12 payments in order to make it easier for us to budget. For me, teaching is a calling, but I don’t think it’s unfair of me to expect society to pay me fairly for it. After all, society benefits greatly from having an educated populace. I also have noticed that as the stress upon teachers grows, absences grow – stress has been shown to increase illness. My stress comes from higher health costs, furlough days (lowering my salary), and no retirement or social security paid (for this year). Basically, I have taken a huge pay cut, am expected to “do more with less”, and now am expected to improve my attendance. In my entire career, I have missed many more days for professional learning than I have for being sick. Perhaps school systems should look at a new model for professional learning in order to keep teachers in the classroom.

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G. parent: That teacher may have cancer, heart disease, etc. They may have had a dying parent or child. You just don’t say. No school system will give long term leave without proper consideration. I was one out for three weeks with flu and complications then one at a time both my kids had chicken pox. My husband used up most of his vacation time taking care of me. I was too sick to move and ended up in the hospital. I also took my six weeks when I had my children. When I retired I had two additonal years of sick time added to my pay.
Be careful judging teachers. They have families, get sick, and have to move just like others. All they have to use are personnal leave, 3 days, or sick days. Not everything can be done in the summer.

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In 2007, I told my administration that I did not want to attend any more trainings. During the 2006-2007 school year, I missed 26 days due to trainings.Because I was head of the leadership team, I had to attend a lot of training. I was only out two days for sick leave–so you do the math. I have over 100 days of sick leave and if I were to go to another school district, I would lose 55 of those days–is that fair..This may be a reason that teachers use their sick leave.It does not matter how many studies you do, you cannot make teachers come to work if they do not want to come.

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Part of the Pack – Do you think that the lack of respect is because children are so undervalued in our society – and consequently those who work with children, as well as their work, is undervalued? Or could it be because work that earns or produces money is valued in our society, and teachers do neither – consequently, teaching is not respected?

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I understand now why our profession is so widely criticized. We whine too much oppose to addressing the issue. The issue is about teacher abseteeism. The other issue is should districts track this information. I have no sympathy for fellow teachers that are missing work for no good reason. In my opinion, I think districts should track this information. I am not worried because I do not miss a lot of days of work.

Address the issues- educators!- it may be helpful to the profession.

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I’ve been teaching for 23 years. For the first 15 or so years, I was seldom out unless I had a stomach thing going on, couldn’t speak due to laryngitis, had a fever higher than 102, or had a death in the immediate family. I lost all sorts of days in the beginning because they wouldn’t allow teachers to accumulate over a certain amount of days.

I admit that I’ve taken off more days since No Child Left Behind became law. Why? Because the stress is killing me. Administrators have gotten more spineless and parents have become more demanding. And the kids? Well, to be honest, many of them have become less capable because the curriculum has been dumbed down to the point to where they can’t even do the basics any more. And teachers aren’t encouraged to go beyond that because it could affect AYP.

In the last 8 years, I’ve gone on blood pressure pills as well as an anti depressant. (Neither of which runs in my family and I am physically fit otherwise.) Last year, I actually had an anxiety attack during class and my doctor said, “Either take a few days off or I’ll put you in the hospital and force you to do so.” I took a few days off and some parents complained. Apparently, there are some who would rather a teacher drop dead in the classroom instead of being absent. Stress is eating me alive. Lately, I’ve actually thought about retiring early at 25 years rather than 30 years because I really am tired of jeapardizing my health for this job that I used to love.

Want to really do a study, Maureen? Do a study on teacher absences since No Child Left Behind came along. You’d be amazed at the difference.

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The permanent absences of parents are far more detrimental to student learning than the infrequent absences of teachers.

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As a very happy teacher for 8 years I was stunned when 2 teens walked into my room/trailer and began fighting. One had the equivalent of a cafeteria knife. I am 5 ft tall and weigh 115 lbs. These guys were 180 lbs+. They were returned to my room and 1 didn’t even belong there. After confronting the admin assis. I was told my main job was to make sure the kids were not smoking pot out behind the trailers. All those years of training, college, Masters degree, 8 different certifications and it came down to making sure no one was smoking and selling pot next to my trailer. I quit and have not taught in the public schools for 3 yrs although I retain a HQ teaching status due to my excessive certifications and training hrs. Ha! Sick leave! When’s the last time you had a knife fight in your cubicle?

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I am sick and tired of the system blaming teachers!!!!! What’s needed is parental involvement!!!!! Some things kids should know how to do before they start school, like ABCs and 123s… Then you have parents that send kids to school for babysitting services—no involvement in education after the school day!!! Teachers are now expected to be parents, teachers, counselors, etc… Just look at the difference between public schools, charter and private schools and you will OVERWHELMINGLY find that the key to greater success in charter and private schools is PARENT INVOLVEMENT and TEACHER CONTROL (not the administration). Do the REAL RESEARCH!!!!! Don’t look for someone to blame for broken SYSTEMS!! And don’t get it wrong, I am not a teacher because I don’t have time for the lack of parental and administration support!

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I began teaching after graduating from college, and I’m not completing my doctoral degree in Psychology. I am in my late 20’s, and I see where the problem lies. The problems arise when teachers continue to work in school systems and school buildings where they are not happy. Research shows that teachers are less likely to get sick and stress where they are in an environment that makes them happy. Primary positive reinforcement may include pay, teacher support, and recognition. At this point, teachers know that students are not going to be angels…BUT thats why teaching is a calling and not just a job. I transferred to a new school this year due to promotion, but I have been more stressed this year more than any other year in the profession. My administrator is great, but the problem lies with teacher absenteeism. My coworkers abuse the system, and the teachers that are present everyday suffer, because they “have to lend an extra hand.” One teacher has been absent for 15 days already, and it is always excuse after excuse. Why is it that he always complain about things not going right, and the students not learning, when he is the one that is absent? This is a problem, and I think that tracking teacher absences and why is a great start to controlling this issue.

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I would say take a survey of the substitute teachers with open ended questions and see what you get. They, truly, will tell the story. I am not a teacher anymore; I am a data driven mummy led by incompetent people who are also led by incompetence from the top of the order. When this country understands that teachers cannot be “everything to all”, things will take a turn. For now, I am a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, nurse, social worker, custodian, coach, RTI specialist, SPED specialist, interdisiplinary guru, behavior monitor, babysitter, bookkeeper, hall monitor, bathroom monitor, bus monitor, lunchroom monitor, before school facilitator, after school facilitator, and oh, yes….now Friday Academy until 6 pm infringing upon my private time as a private citizen…….are you tired and confused yet?

The biggest gripe from teachers is that they are tired of doing everything half-assed. There is so much to do and so many titles to perform. No one title is ever performed to the best of my ability because there is so much to do. So, when you get overachievers (teachers) time and time again pushed into the corner because there is no time to do the job well…..the result will be taking days off to regroup and refresh. I do not speak that it is right or wrong…..I speak for all educators and ask that you let us teach the curriculum and hire additional staff to do all the other jobs I perform on a daily basis.

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My child’s wonderful teacher took a surprising leave of absence in middle of the term. Now my child has some hideous Wicked Witch of the Teaching West, resurrected from some old teacher dead zone for this personal crisis of someone else’s, as a substitute teacher. For months. Kid’s grades are suddenly dropping for the fist time ever. Not good.

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They should have drug test for teachers. I know a girl who teaches 5th grade and she smokes weed every day. I can’t believe she can do that and teach kids.

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Non-story on this one Maureen. You are reaching.

Teachers get sick, have sick kids, are on jury duty, wakeup with a hangover and miss work just like the general populace.

If you want to really stir up the pot, ask how many kids are sent to school sick because mommy doesn’t have day care and doesn’t want to be absent from her job.

Now that is a real story with legs.

JHN

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“The problem isn’t teachers calling in sick, it’s that the school systems give the teachers 30+ sick days every year!!!! I am litterally falling over laughing at these teachers thinking they are something special for accumulating 2 years of “sick” days. Come to the real world teacher honey, 5 sick days a year (if you’re lucky!) and they don’t carry forward. And then to require a doctors note if you are “sick” for 2 days or more.”

Who said they got 30+ sick days a year??? I get 10 HOURS a month for each of the 10 months of my contract. That’s 100 HOURS a year. Nowhere near 30 days. For those of you in the business world, don’t just talk about your sick days. Include all of the vacation days you get as well. (I know some people don’t, but lots of people do.)

BTW, I’m one of those teachers who used a ton of sick days one year. I had a baby and took the minimum six weeks (two of which were Christmas break, so my kids only had a sub for a little over 3 weeks). Then my baby was diagnosed with a birth defect that needed surgery to correct it. I had to take a day or so a month off to visit the neurosurgeon. Then, my grandfather died in May, so I took two days to go home for his funeral. That year, I was out a total of 20 or so days. But guess what, life happens. People get sick, kids get sick, parents get sick. Plus, add in all of the meetings and conferences, plus SST meetings, IEP eligibility meetings, and professional development, and you have teachers out of the classroom all the time. Trust me, as a teacher, it’s as frustrating to me as it is to parents. I know my kids aren’t getting the best when there’s a sub, but sometimes, things are just out of my control.

BTW, I scheduled my son’s surgery over Spring Break so as not to miss more time.

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In addition, to answer your question Maureen, yes, teachers absences can hurt students, and they can be excessive. What would be a better question is why they happen. Are the absences because of the teacher or because of the school system? That would tell me if teacher attendance should be included in NCLB or not.

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Teachers would be out less if people would stop sending their sick children to school; or better yet pick them up when they are called to. A lot of parents refuse to come get their kids if the school calls these days. How sad………..

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When I worked in the private sector, I got paid maternity leave – and it wasn’t based on years of employment, either.

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In the private sector, maternity leave is only paid through sick, vacation days and short term disability insurance, do teachers not have these benefits?

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I missed 4 days this year from teaching. The next time I get swine flu would you rather I taught and shared it with your children?

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When I worked in the private sector, hourly workers did not have sick leave, but salaried workers did, and that is probably still the case in that particular industry, but I can’t say for certain.

@philosopher, teachers don’t get vacation days. They are paid for 190 days of employment (less this year with furlough days). There is the “joke” that smart teachers schedule their pregnancies so they’ll deliver in early June, but nature doesn’t always cooperate with that. Sick days can be used for maternity leave, depending upon how many you have built up. As someone already commented, pregnant teachers have to use some of their sick days for the monthly & then weekly obstetrician appts, because most doctors won’t schedule late in the day and schools won’t let you use “comp time” since the students’ schedule isn’t variable. Short term disability may be an option in some counties but (at least when I was worried about it) wasn’t an option where I worked.

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I taught for five years at the secondary level, and rarely took off for being sick. Anyone who has taught a day knows that it is way more of a headache to be absent from school (some substitutes are totally incompetent) than go to school sick. However, I am a single female so I could do this. Most of my colleagues took off to take care of loved ones, or in one case the fabulous English teacher next door to me (one of the best in the school) took off periodically as ordered by her doctor to keep her blood pressure low. As some mentioned, the stress of teaching can be overwhelming.

Georgia doesn’t have unions – stop spreading those lies. But GA is frequently ranked in lower 48th in anything related to education. In this “right to work state,” who is to blame now? Subject of another thread.

@irisheyes, teachers probably have 30+ days of sick leave because in many states maternity can only be taken as part of sick leave. Personally it has always disgusted me that having a child is equivalent to being sick, but that is an indication of our morals in this country. After all, the people that spend the most time with our children are constantly berated and get paid the least while those who produce imaginary products that help no one are billionaires and exalted by society. . . but that also is the subject of thread.

seriously, teaching is a very difficult profession and in general the public is completely ignorant to what happens in schools. Yes it is rewarding, but teachers are not robots, despite adminstration’s best efforts to make them so. Teachers get sick, move, and OMG even have family members who choose to die, get married, or graduate in months other than the summer. Those on the post who are overly concerned with how many days teachers take off should volunteer at their child’s or neighborhood school. That will do way more towards improving education than anything else.

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@Germy…No one here is saying teachers shoud go to work while running fevers or while truly too sick to work…the complaints are about unwarranted absences.
Also, for the record, some good infection control practices would really help you guys out. Teaching kids NOT to sneeze into their hands would be a huge deterrent to you catching illnesses but I see teachers doing it all the time. Bathrooms with hands-free facilities would make tremendous strides into keeping all of you well-(get involved in the building and renovation processes). Handsanitizer available as the kids walk out of the bathrooms is simple and cheap and smart! Put your school nurse to work!…a school nurse who educates and reinforces would be a really big help. Schools are germ heavens and education could make all the difference.
As for bladder and kidney infections…you teachers are not the only ones at risk..With 3 to 5 minutes between classes, a girl cannot get to the bathroom and her locker. Sometimes my daughter goes 9 hours a day without a bathroom break. Her teachers attitude is, “well, we can’t go, either”. Wonderful!!!

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Previous bloggers have addressed the workshops & the “feel-good” sessions of – and I love this comment – days out for attending a professional outing on the “cure du jour,” so I ask this question: is Secretary Duncan REALLY looking at this sub-category of days out, or just making a blanket generalization teacher absences?! If they look CLOSER at teacher absences, I (along with other former/current teachers) would INSIST they remove these days from the analysis! Having noted some remarks about Cobb County’s habit of sending educators to workshops touting the “cure du jour,” I’d also like to address the 2-3 days teachers MAY be out, on average, for dealing with administrative beat-downs (figurative and literal). Yes, knowing about such dictators as Bynum (both, for that matter) as well as other admins. who treat their position as a medieval kingdom where THEIR rule matters, & how THEIR interpretation of how he/she (some of both genders of this type still abound in that district) applies the rules is, of course, THE best way to do it. One educator with whom I talk regularly scheduled a sick day on a Friday one week just after an admin. COMBINED two written behavior referrals on a student in this person’s class into ONE for the purpose (of course, it wasn’t stated this way) of making sure DOUBLE the out-of-school-suspension time was only counted once. Forget the fact this was a “repeat offender” behavior – the two completely different infractions were treated as one! While this may make logistical sense to those not familiar with the workings of any school where behaviorally-challenged students are more prevalent than in other squeaky-clean suburban schools (or in any school, PERIOD), doing this for a “repeater” who gives others (teachers AND students) more problems than any one, normal, school should have to handle is similar to taking a harpoon & gouging the wobbly bubble of teacher morale and synergistic relationships with administrators! If what I’d discussed with this friend is as prevalent as other bloggers’ have noted in replies to other articles, then no wonder some schools deal with higher teacher absence than others! What COULD make a difference here?! Sound administrators who address it with realistic, insightful approaches (and NOT the superficial “touchy-feely”, “let’s hold hands and sing a song together” wastes of time!; yes, THOSE types are in Cobb as well!) to make their site’s environment more enjoyable to the staff as a whole.

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Enuff about how stressful teaching is. Stress is a minimum wage at a Walmart with no health care. Stress is having two jobs because the factory closed and now you’re deliving pizza at night and cleaning houses in day day. Stress is watching your company layoff two-thirds of the employees and cut your pay by half. I show up every day not knowing if the doors to my compnay are going to be locked and an out of business sign posted. No sick time for me. If I’m sick, I am docked my pay.
Please, no more about how stressful teaching is. You have no idea what the rest of the country is dealing with. You sound like a bunch of whiners.

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Maureen….unless something has changed that I am not aware of, if you get personal days and sick leave then you should be able to take them at your own discretion. My wife is a teacher and she goes in even when she feels sick but if she needs to take a day then she takes a day. Why don’t you write a story about what the real problem is?

The real problem is that we live in a society who expects the government to do everything for them. You don’t have to feed your kid breakfast or lunch because the schools will do it. There is daycare before and after school and all the parents have to do is pick their kid up at some point and take them home and help them with there homework and put them to bed and some of them can’t even do that.

English, Math, and other scores will go up when moms and dads will take time to read to their kids and be involved in there lives. So get over all these fluffy stories about teacher abscences and people bringing Bibles to kids. Maybe you should take a personal day and give us all a break.

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Hmmm….I work in the private sector (NYSE symbol T) and my company does not, nor ever had in the 29 years I have been with them, sick days. Don’t know what that is. Every absence, unless it is covered by FMLA, is a summarized absence and the employee is subject to disciplinary action no matter who that employee is; because of that, abuse of sick time is minimal. We can use vacation days when we are sick so our attendance doesn’t suffer; inthat respect, teachers should be thanking their lucky stars that they DO have sick days. Having said that, I believe the root cause of the problem is that teacher’s vacation time is dictated by the school calendar and there is NO room for the type of flexibility that I have of using a vacation day when sick. Also, in EVERY profession there are people who abuse sick time. Those are the people who need to be addressed by disciplinary action, up to termination as we do in my company, no matter what sector, public or private.

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When I left teaching, I never wanted to miss school unless it was absolutely necessary. One morning when I had the stomach flu, I drove to school to make sure that my sub plans were available before driving myself to the emergency clinic. I think that most teachers, in their heart of hearts, would do the same. When I left teaching, I had more than 500 hours of sick time, for which I received nothing.

All this talk about teachers abusing the system strikes me as incredibly one-sided. Please remember that Georgia broke contracts with teachers this year. Teachers agreed to work for a certain sum, and Sonny and the rest of the moron republicans broke the deal. They don’t care about education of children at all, so that leaves teachers in the unfortunate position of needing to get their attention.

I encourage all teachers to take enough sick days this year to make up for the loss of income through Purdue’s so-called furloughs (of course, he would never dare to call a pay cut a pay cut). If every teacher would take enough sick days to make back more than twice than the pay cut, it would get the attention of the tobacco-chewing rednecks that run this state. I have encouraged every teacher I know to take this tactic, and several are doing so. I know that it is passive-aggressive, but teachers in Georgia have few alternatives.

If the State wants to pay less, then the State should get less. This whole idea of more for less comes from the plantation mentality that good-old-boys like Sonny Purdue think is the way things ought to be run down here in Dixie. I wonder how much the loathsome and despicable Ashley Widener would whine if teachers cost her more money than her stupid ideas cost teachers.

Get uppity, teachers! Make them pay.

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Maureen, why do my posts only post 50% of the time?! Ugh!

@You want stress?????, while I am sorry for your situation, I have a question. Are you working at Walmart because you lost a job? There are many out there forced to take positions due to down-sizing, company closings, etc. None of that changes the fact that teaching is a quite difficult job. I’ve worked in a job without benefits. It’s tough. But this job is also tough. We miss days for a plethora of reasons. Do some abuse it, yes. But I rarely see that happen. Most of the time it’s ridiculous training sessions and meetings that pull us out of the classroom. Really, how much training is really necessary? Instead of putting the blame on teachers, why not question those that are in charge? They make all the decisions.

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Gee you work at walmart and don’t have health benefits, got 2 jobs-delivering pizzas & cleaning (what about that walmart gig?), and your factory laid off a bunch of folks. Gee, how many jobs did you say you have? Is it really just your complete lack of math skills that is causing all your problems. Maybe you budget your money that way too?

How many college degrees do you have? Every teacher I know has AT LEAST one! DO you wonder why people without college degrees OR those in low skilled professions (walmart, factories, etc…) are out of work more? It may be because they are easier to replace, lots of unskilled (and even some very highly skilled) folks currently looking for work. If you are trying to support a family on a minimum wage job (or 2) that could be done by a high school student maybe your poor choices in life are really to blame. And you should stop whining for causing your own problems.

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@you want stress????
I am sorry for what you are going through or what someone is going through in your family. I do not think you can one up some one’s hard time. I will not try.

What you are going through do help me put in perspective the stress on my job. At least I have a job and I am thankful for that.

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What a joke? What system gives 30+ days a year? I need to be there. In both systems I have worked for, it was 10 hours a month for the months we worked — that adds up to about 100 hours or roughly 12,5 days per year. Oh, and where do I get paid for my vacations and holidays? Again, I must be in the wrong system. I’m paid for 190 days worth of work, and that pay is divided over 12 months, so the weeks off in summer are unpaid. Christmas break is unpaid. Spring Break is unpaid. Thanksgiving Break is unpaid. Presidents Day is unpaid. Columbus Day is unpaid. Heck, when I worked in retail prior to becoming an educator, I received 8 hours of holiday pay for 6 holidays a year, 3 weeks paid vacation, half day sick/personal time per month which accrued, but was bought back from me in November for anything over 48 hours.

Sick of paying…. That’s what you get when you hire veterinarians, MDs, Builders, Developers to run school systems — i.e. electing them to the school board. No other field has the oversight by people who have no clue what is required of the profession. Let educators be in charge and I think you would see a huge improvement in the moral and output of the PUBLIC schools.

As far as absences are concerned, since that is the point of this particular thread, my principal has said it best, come to work. I go to work unless I cannot. I broke my foot a few weeks ago and my students told me I should stay home. Why? They have EOCT in 2 weeks. Sure, I could stay home, keep off the foot, take disability pay, but when all is said and done, do administrators look at a substitute when EOCT scores come back? Of course not. In the mean time, I’m on my crutches as much as possible doing what I can to make sure my students are prepared for their test.

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You want stress, I can understand the layoffs, I have people in my family that have suffered. Georgia teachers, so far, have been spared, but in other states, teachers are getting laid off in the thousands, over 10,000 in California, 3,000-5,000 in Washington, just to name two. The problem is that there aren’t fewer children that need to be taught despite the number of teachers let go. This means there is additional stress on those left, which does result in health issues and more frequent absences. Something has got to give.

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Maureen: mine, also.

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Teachers are so over worked and under paid. I do agree that teachers are having to take more time. A lot of this stems from the increase in work load along with all of these infectious diseases. We also have to remember that teachers have children as well. One other thing, we might be tired from having to supplement our income from being furloughed.

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I agree with everything Adam said.

Teachers work more hours than most. We often get to work either early or stay late. I would say in a given week I probably work about 6-10 extra hours a week because honestly planning time is not enough to get everything done. This also includes not only my academic role, but the multitude of sporting events, art events, after school programs, etc…that I WANT to go to so I can support my students. You all would be surprised at how many parents do not always make it to these events because of their own money or stress issues or sometimes the worst: they don’t want to show up. There are so many of us who turn into the driveway after six and seven just so we can show studens we are there for them.

As far as the DAYS: a lot take maybe five days a year and that is when we are very ill or we just need that personal day because of stress/anxiety.

As far as money: we are getting an average of 100-600 dollars taken out of our paycheck for fulough (some systems have been taking out this money for a few months).

Workers in every day jobs get usually two weeks of paid vacation. Why are we picking on teachers AGAIN???

I will challenge ANYONE to come teach for two weeks and see if you can handle the stress the admin and kids can put on a person. It can take months for you to establish a great working relationship with students…this does not happen overnight. Trust takes time and so does learning. You have to be willing to work together. I know that not every teacher does this, but most of us do. We love our job. This is a tough career and until you actually live it and breathe it, I would be carefull in your judgements.

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@Philosopher: As a teacher, I welcome support and aid from parents, and I encourage it, but there’s a fine line sometimes that parents fail to see: they want to be the teacher: and so, they interfere with the teacher’s grading and methods. I have personally had to draw a line–diplomatically of course; harsher if need be. Either way, I know that parents will appeal to administrators that I had the audacity to do so; I’m not dismissing absenteeism among teachers, it’s there, but when I look at the daily picture of deteriorating respect and increasing self-entitlement among students and parents and a watchdog mentality among a few of them, then is it any wonder that the stress results in absenteeism possibly or downright resignation of a career?

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Many of the people spewing this “suck it up and deal, at least you have a job” nonsense would not teach a day in their lives if they could help it.

I have an acquaintance who was once in the corporate sector but now teaches. He says he has never worked this hard in his entire life, and he was once the “minimum wage worker who held two jobs just to pay the bills” before landing his corporate gig. He yearns for the opportunity to get back into the private sector because of how he and his fellow educators are treated. Imagine that. As cut throat as the corporate world can be, here we have someone who’d rather do that than teach. Do more for less with minimal pay, why is this acceptable?? Because we tell one another to “suck it up and deal.” And who does this benefit at the end of the day?

I take my hat off to the people who have been called to teach. I can’t imagine the stress you deal with on a day-to-day basis in the name of seeing kids succeed, ESPECIALLY those of you in high-need, at-risk schools. Kudos to you, many people would not WANT your jobs, as evidenced by my acquaintance, unless it was tough times like these where they had no other choice. Kudos to you and if you choose to take a few “mental health” days so what. I get more riled up at these lame ducks in office who take vacations when they please, and have fishing holes at my expense.

To those who think teachers should shut up and deal, how about you apply that same logic: shut up and deal with whatever you’re “dealing” with and leave the teachers alone. Until you have walked a day in their shoes, which most of you would not, kill it.

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Hey where’s my previous post?

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Schools need to adopt the same basic policies as “standard” businesses employ.

Teachers already have the shortest work year of anyone. Most cases about 190 days. Workers with 4 wks vacation and 9 holidays work approx. 230 days.

Teahers are like the rest, they do need sick days. We all get sick. I would think 5-7 would be plenty. Eliminate “sick” day carry over. If you are sick take it. If not, work. Or just give all teachers 7 “vacation days” to be use as one sees fit. No carry over.

Increase reirement age to 35 years of 62. Thats normal and fair. We can not continue to retire teachers at age 52 and pay them for the next 35 years.

Teaching is a tough job but no more tough than many others. We just need some parity.

(For the record) I taught for 4 years from 1981- 1985, 7-8 grade science.

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To Jack Mums and every other idiot on here, spend ONE week in the classroom! Teachers bust their behinds EVERYDAY, weekends included! We are there before sunlight and often there after dusk! I’ve even had students on the weekend, have gone to the homes to tutor, and whatever it takes to see a child succeed! I’m not the only one, many teachers are making themselves physically and mentally sick, just doing whatever to bring children up. That’s what the public don’t see. These so called breaks you speak of Jack Mum, are just regular work days for many teachers. The summers are often used to attend trainings and conferences. Teachers are some of the most underpaid professionals, outside of police officer, the military, and firemen! They are disrespected by the school administration, parents, and the community. WE are expected to pay for supplies and anything our children need more often than not. WE are expected to do EVERYTHING for our students and one again the parent is not expected to do anything. Do you know the average teacher will spend no less than $400 dollars a year of his/her already insignificant pay check to take care of the students? Let’s talk about being sick. You have no clue how many times teachers get up and are dog sick, but they march in that classroom with their game face on! Now we have some sorry person stating we spend too much time out of the classroom. Well, cut back on the so called professional training which occur several days during a MONTH! I despise being taken out of my classroom for a half put-together training because someone has decided to waste hundreds, even thousands of dollars, just to say they had a training! I challenge anyone who seem to think this is an easy job, go into the classroom, volunteer to sub, do something! Most of us are here because we want to contribute to the success of children. We certainly don’t get paid enough, are respected enough, nor are we ever considered to do enough. However, if our children know what we are doing to help them, it’s enough to get up another day and ignore the trash from people who DON’T HAVE A CLUE!

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I’m not a professional educator, but was a student for over 16+ years and can only be thankful for all my teachers. They were much better teachers than I was a student, but we both were only trying to make the best of “It” (my education) and the teachers always made “It” possible. Our teachers are much better educators when the environments of the homes and schools support learning situations. Don’t always blame the messenger for education failures since effective learning requires receptive students to be taught and a good learned teacher to motivate the receptive students to desire the information being taught. Learning is a two way process – a provider and a receiver.
I’ve found that is also true is working situations – employees must have the desire to be taught new needed methods and skills to effectively perform new and/or different tasks correctly in the working environments. Our successes or failures are usually determined by how well we are the messengers and/or the receivers.
Don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ – clean-up the malignant teacher problems and keep the reasonable sick days available for all teachers as we do in most other occupations.
If you can read this thank a teacher – and our military for the freedom to read it in English. Thanks to all our teachers and members of our military (past & present) for a job “well done” and keep us educated and free. “God Bless America”

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Teacherman. ” As a teacher, I welcome support and aid from parents, and I encourage it, but there’s a fine line sometimes that parents fail to see: they want to be the teacher: and so, they interfere with the teacher’s grading and methods.” Hogwash!!!!!!! No wonder respect for teachers is going down the tubes…what arrogant, spoiled rotten, self-centered crap!!! Still couldn’t dig up a whole-hearted thank you or admission that parents have anything positive to offer. We don’t do all these things to be the teacher, *&%!- we do them to HELP YOU DO YOUR JOB AND TO MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER!

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My comment on the original issue…

Crack down on the teachers who abuse the system, and give the rest of us credit for being with our students as much as possible. I know teachers who schedule elective surgeries during the school year and take a day off to go Christmas shopping. They’re the small number of teachers that give the rest of us a bad name. Granted we have busy summers, but that is the only reasonable time to take care of most of our personal business.

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@Philosopher: I must have struck a chord and a dissonant one at that; you’ve proven my case; one thing more I failed to mention and I’ll let you have the last word to appease your sense of cornering the market on truth and bettering teachers’ lives:: there have been cases of parents actually doing their son or daughter’s homework, oh wait did I say that?

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This whole story is pure 100% BULL! In reading the article, authored by our National Education leadership, one is led to understand that teachers, unlike the rest of the world, cannot get sick. With esteemed leadership like this in Washington, there is but one warning to both current and future parents and teachers: BE AFRAID!

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Here it is we are talking about excessive teacher absences, which might the case among some teachers, while Hawaii recently cut its school year by 17 days. Some metro Atlanta school systems have already cut their school year by 3 days and more cuts are said to be on the way. These cuts were administered while some school systems are sitting on very healthy financial reserves. Where is the concern for the students? Add the numbers of instruction days that are lost due to unnecessary school system mandated tests and we get an even grimmer picture. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Education Finance stated that inequitable and inadequate distribution of educational resources is one of the greatest injustices in the American public education system. Other research on student achievement point to many factors that impact student achievement such as the current school calendar with its long summer vacation; high student mobility; lack of adequate investment in improving the quality of teaching; etc. I can’t help but think Finlayson study might be self serving but I would need to take a closer look at the research design. The 2009 study cited above concluded that the way to positively impact student outcomes is by investing in improving the quality of teaching and leadership. A 2002 article published in the Catalyst for Change called for year round education (YRE) as a way of improving student achievement. YRE promotes more meaningful breaks for teachers which may reduce the reported excessive absences among some teachers. It also provides more opportunities for frequent remediation for students. Let’s have an honest discussion about student achievement.

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Philospher, Unfortunately you are under the impression that every or even most parents are as supportive as you are. I teach in a very poor school system. My parents simply do not have the money to provide, in many cases paper, much less tissues. I provide both and it is not for my health, but because it is the RIGHT thing to do. I do not have a grade mother, my parents either work jobs where they can’t come, or simply do not a the resources to take on such a job. I have many kids who don’t get a bath and carry lice, so do I hug them-YES they are children and need affection. When they are sick do I still try and show them this yes! If I am sick I am usually there, and I have never just taken a day off. I know that a sub cannot provide what I do. I can’t write a script that allows for the training I have worked very hard to receive. It’s sad to me that so many people don’t understand teachers have so many sick days because they ARE there so much. I get one sick day for every month I work. It takes a great deal of time to accumulate 30 days. I worked for 19 years in the private sector and I understand how many of you feel, but until you’ve been in a school teaching you really don’t understand. The sad thing to me is that I do truly care about every kid who passes through my door and others that I just get to know in passing, and yet my profession is attacked and generalized daily. I love what I do, and who I do it for. Even though we are a poor district between 59-63% of students living in poverty our students still average 87% meeting or exceding stadards on CRCT. Just realize not everyone is taking advantage of the system, but some of us are working very hard every day to make life better for kids.

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Maybe its time to pay teachers what they’re worth or expect them to be worth what they’re paid. For those who are a little slow…if teachers continue to be treated like crap (I had a different word but figured it would be caught in “filterland”) then the only teachers that will be left will be the crap. BTW, anyone getting paid to do something is a “professional”, so the BS statements about “teachers should just be professionals” as they are getting dumped on is stupid. You can’t expect people to work their butt off while you treat them like dirt and cut their pay at the same time!

You can tell how a company treats its employees by how the employees treat their customers/guests…

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This blog is about teachers getting sick, maybe…or about teachers abusing the system. What I see is a bunch of folks suffering from burn out. When you no longer care about the people you serve (those spoiled brat kids) or respect the people who employ you (the taxpayers..yes, the “bad”parents) and administrators, then you would be a lot healthier doing something else.

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@Philosopher, at our school we don’t have an active PTA, we’re not allowed to ask parents or students to provide classroom supplies, and “parents never contribute, never came in to copy or staple or read to kids, or bring goodies, or help with parties, or dances, or plays, or games, or landscaping or painting, or fall festivals” so far as I know. It might be because we’re a high school. They would chaperone on field trips, but they aren’t allowed to ride the buses with us anymore because of insurance concerns.

All the same, I don’t think I’m as resentful toward parents as you seem to be toward teachers. Did a particular teacher make you really mad, or do you just think we’re all sorry people?

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@Teacherman: Apology accepted. Please hear me out as a parent who cares.
I have never done my child’s homework. She is a straight A over-achiever, never late on an assignment, never rude and never disrespectful. I work 40 plus hours a week and do what I can (we do not have a lot) to help my kid’s teachers have it easier. I volunteer my time and supplies as I can. I know a lot more parents like myself than ones who do not care. Many of them aren’t as educated, or as able to support their kids academically, but they try. It is awful to read blog after blog and hear NOTHING that tells me you guys have ANY respect for parents and their efforts or problems. Many parents get up before dawn, work themselves to the bone and don’t get home until ‘way after dark. Sometimes there’s nothing left for them to give their kids except their love. Often they don’t know HOW to help their kids with homework. Many of the parents I talk to have absolutely no ability to help the kids because of the computer skills they must have now. It’s tough out here for parents, too, you know, and there ARE more good parents than bad…it’s a fact. And just like you, if a child is sick…a parents suffers with the dilemma of “do you take off work and risk losing a job in these jobless times..or do you just pray and send them on”? How disheartening it feels to send my child to school thinking I am sending her to spend the day with people who hate their jobs…and that my efforts to help at school are thought of as attempts to undermine or take over. Sadly, I feel pretty foolish having thought my efforts were just helpful.

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I agree that “When a teacher is absent, school doesn’t have to be free day. Learning can still take place.”

Seems to me that a teacher would prefer to have a sub who has a college degree rather than just a high school diploma. But our county sub-assignment computer program does not have a place to list the qualifications of the substitute teachers. Sub jobs are generally entered into the program and assigned first-come, first-served. I do believe that teachers can specify a sub if they have lined one up. But they have to have the desire (and concern) to do so.
Some of us can follow lesson plans pretty well

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@Equal: you just failed reading comprehension. The first sentence of my post states: I work forty plus hours a week. I never said a thing about teachers taking excessive time off…where did you get that? I have 2 degrees by the way, and I’ve been in the classroom. I am also a critical care nurse and am perfectly experienced in going 12 hours without a break of any kind at all! If you read it again…this is a plea to teachers to stop bashing parents and think of their issues as well…in additon to, like you, not exclusive of…get that?. To offer an understanding that all parents are not bad. Nice that you can get your kids a tutor…I have friends who can barely get food on the table, much less, afford a tutor. AH, HELL, I don’t know why I am bothering. It is no wonder so many parents home school and are clamoring for charter schools. This is pitiful!

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For the record, most teachers get 1.25 sick days per working month. I think it works out to 12.5 days per year. I agree with the theory that the average of missed days is so high because of maternity leave. Many teachers in Georgia are female and young. There has a been a transition in the age of the workforce as baby boomers have retired. I have had two children in the past 4 years and not had to take any leave without pay or short term disability. I started saving my sick days from the first year I started teaching. I know how the system works, we do not get maternity leave. We only get paid for the number of sick days we have. If we run out of days, it is leave without pay or disability if one has that kind of coverage. Also, if a teacher transfers systems, s/he is only allowed to take a certain number of sick days to the new system or if they leave, they can cash them in for a whole $30 a day. I our system last year, a lot of teachers last year that did not get contracts started using up all those days at the end of the year because $30 (probably less after taxes) just wasn’t work it, but using the time to look for a new job was worth it.

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@ROBERT LILL, you stated, “We can not continue to retire teachers at age 52 and pay them for the next 35 years.”

Please! We have to work 30 years! IF you started right out of college, then yes, you can retire at 52. I didn’t. If you taught you’d understand that the 30 year requirement needs to be changed. 25 years is long enough. This is an extremely high burn out job. Please come to my inner city, low income school and do some volunteering. If you make it to noon lunch is on me lol!

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Philosopher, I have parents who don’t see their children except on the weekend, because said parents are working evening shift at minimum wage jobs to put food on the table. They’ll be happy to speak with their children about their behavior and classwork when they see them.

I have parents who can’t afford computers and internet, and don’t understand why our school board bought books-on-CD instead of hard copies for the students to take home during the last textbook adoption. I don’t understand it either, but apparently our central office folks think everyone has a computer now. We teachers know better, but no one listens to us.

Teachers know that some of the parents of our students are concerned parents who would go to the ends of the earth to help their chidren succeed, and some of the parents of our students are doing all they can to put food on the table, some are substance abusers, some are single parents who are more concerned about their social lives than anything else, some of our students are being raised by siblings who aren’t much older than they are, and some of the parents are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and so the students are worried about their parents or being cared for by other family members now. Some of our students have parents who weren’t very successful in school and play out their bad feelings for the teachers they had 15-20 years ago on those of us who are teaching their children now.

Some parents will give you their home, cell, and work numbers, as well as 2-3 email addresses, while some parents either don’t have or won’t give you a single viable way to contact them.

Just as there are good teachers and bad teachers, and the bad teachers seem to get all the publicity, there are good parents and bad parents, and the bad parents often have the children who will keep the classroom disrupted and make learning difficult or impossible for everyone else.

I’m sure you’re not one of the “bad” parents, and most of us aren’t the “bad” teachers, but just as you and your nurse friends I’m sure vent about patients and their families, teachers vent about students and parents. It’s the way it is.

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Amazing that “back in the day” kindergarten lasted for 3 hours a day and was optional, and our first grade was also a half day. Yet we learned.

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Philosopher, sorry, I typed too much and the blog monster ate my reply to you.

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@RJ & Robert Lill – the good news is, if Robert Lill makes it til lunchtime, RJ will buy lunch.

The bad news is, lunch will be in the school cafeteria, and Robert will have a maximum of 20 minutes to eat the lunch and use the bathroom….

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Boy, I am so glad I retired from teaching at the end of May of this year before the furloughs began. I was already tired of the constant teacher-bashing by those who wouldn’t/couldn’t last 1 month in the classroom. Teaching is one of the few professions in which non-certified persons try to tell the professionals how to do their jobs. I was fed up with the professional learning days, extended faculty meetings, the over-bearing administrators, spending my money for supplies, and summers spent in classes, un-cooperative parents etc. I took very few sick leave days until the last 2 years on the job when complications from my diabetes occurred. To further complicate things I was later diagnosed with lupus and a blood disorder. I was already on medications for high blood pressure and clinical depression. The mandatory doctor appointments caused me to miss parts of days. I tried scheduling these appointments after school, whenever possible, or in such a way that I would not cause my students to miss excessive amounts of instructional time. I was at school everyday. I would schedule my appointments so that I could be on the job until 3:00 P.M. most of the time, but there were some days I’d leave at 1:00 P.M. The times varied based on the scheduled appointments with the four doctors I was seeing. I remained as dedicated to my students as I had ever been, but I also had to look after my own health.

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Please don’t make blanket generalizations about teachers. Most of the teacher’s I work with would rather be in class than to have to make detailed lesson plans that our subs may or may not follow. I’ve been with my school system for 10 years. I have never called in sick for a “mental health” day as some teachers call it. Any time I have been absent, I have left detailed lesson plans for the subs to follow, even when my father died unexpectedly last year. Most of the time, my fellow teachers are absent because their children are sick and need to stay home from school. I don’t see the fathers of these children sharing in this aspect of child-rearing. Why? They can’t miss work! Teachers are human beings.We get sick as well, thanks to the fact that many parents send their children to school with fevers, vomiting, and diarrhea. Our sick days and personal days are part of our benefits package. Why shouldn’t we take advantage of those benefits? I don’t believe anyone should abuse the system, but we should have the right to use the benefits of our employment.

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Once again, Maureen has written an article that slaps teachers. Apparently, in “Maureen World,” teachers need to be superhumans with no bodily functions to take care of, who have infinite patience, and who are willing to throw their own families and priviate lives to the curb to do this “calling” that offers few benefits, a reduction in pay, and little respect.

This seems to be par for the course with her. And she wonders why teachers get so defensive.

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I only get 12 days a year–not 30 and I didn’t start accruing any until my kids were grown. I also missed days WITHOUT PAY so I could care for my kids. I usually went to school when I was sick.

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Jim….

Teachers do not have a negotiating table. At least, none that I’ve ever learned about after 23 years of teaching in Georgia. And while we do have a nice benefits package, the price of that has gone up at least 10% for the past 3 years while we’ve received little raise in pay or, in the case of this year, an outright pay cut with more to come.

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Sorry Folks but the whiners don’t get any sympathy from me. Those of you who are bi***ing about Sonny and the Republicans doing this to you need to have a reality check.
1. The Dems would have done it too. By law, Georgia must have a balanced budget and, right now, we are bleeding red ink.
2. At least you still have a job and your pay loss is minimal. Yes, you lost 3 days of work/pay. My husband and the rest of the workers from his company don’t work on Fridays any more nor do they get paid for those days. I believe this is a good bit more than your 3 days!
3. As for your working at the pleasure of the principal and other admins, Georgia is a right-to-work state (which I consider to be much better than a union state) and pretty much everyone is subject to the same conditions that you are, in that regard, so get over it!

I respect dedicated teachers and I realize that your job is not easy but there are too many teachers, especially on this blog, who seem to immediately start with the “poor pitiful me” response.
My boys go to school fed (always)and rested (most of the time). They know that their parents frown upon misbehavior and there will be consequences for bad choices. But, kids will be kids. They are not automatons. Funny how the teachers that my children admire as “good teachers” (who are not necessarily the easy teachers!) are able to elicit good behavior and learning despite the antics of your normal teenager!
For those of you who are the “good teachers”, we deeply appreciate your time and effort!

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Unfortunately, relatives don’t plan family occasions around my school schedule, nor do doctors/dentists keep their offices open to suit my schedule. I can’t get to the latest appt at my drs office (which is 4:00) unless I leave school early– and that’s if there’s a late appt available. My work day is not over until 4:30. The least amount of time I can take is a 1/2. Unfortunately, I have had some health issues and require a dr visit at least every four months.

If I have to see the dr and I have to take time off from work, I schedule my appts for Friday and enjoy the rest of my time off.

Also, family weddings and religious occasions don’t always fall conveniently during summer vacations. So if I want to attend a wedding, then I do have to use my personal days. Family illness and aging parent issues don’t conveniently fall during summer holidays.

I almost always take work with me– lesson plans and papers to grade go with me to work on either on the plane or in the car. I’ve also graded papers in the hair salon and in dr’s waiting rooms.

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Teachers are exhausted and demoralised. With classes at or near 40 students we are taxed beyond reason. From conversations on campus my estimate is that 20% (though perhaps more) of my colleagues are ready to accept a career outside teaching tomorrow. That says to me we are being asked to do too much but not allowed to recuperate from the unending demands.

I take time off precisely because if I don’t my quality of instruction begins to deteriorate.

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Great topic for me today – I am home again with my son who AGAIN! I had to get him at school today because he got sick. I hate being out because it’s much harder for me to be out than it is to be at school. I don’t miss school when I am sick – I have gone to work with a fever as high as 102 before. I save my days for my boys when they get sick, which seems to be a lot this year.

Another interesting side note: this year, in an effort to save money on HVAC, the county office regulates the temperature of our classrooms. I have a thermostat and an HVAC unit in my room, but the air won’t come on until the room temp reaches 78 degrees. As you can imagine, with high school students who take PE, my room gets a bit stagnant before the air will turn on at 78 degrees. I have had a high number of student absences this year as well. I attribute that to the lack of air circulation in their classrooms – which is why I think my son keeps getting sick as well.

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Why am I not surprised the federal government is after the teachers. WQhy don’t you “bail” us out with some money?I’ve taught 22 years,. The only time I have missed school is when I had the flu, or was sent to a “mandated” teachers conference, or meeting/training during school hours. Instead of going after the teachers why not the parents/society/ the government who all talk a good line then do nothing to change the environment of the the low income families? Does the government know what goes on in the homes that arrive at our school doors? No! Let me enlighten you Mr. Duncan, child abuse, mental, emotional,physical & hunger like noone could believe in AMERICAN! Children from broken homes,not enough food, no correct shelter, no proper clothing for the weather conditions, drugs, rape, gang activity. An that’s just the start. So before you go after the teachers why don’t you “actually” make an effort to find out and change the poverty in this country. We are the wealthest nation in the world and our children don’t have enough of anything they should be entitled too as American citizens. Stop pointing fingers like a two year old and take a good hard look at what the real problem is!It’s not all the teachers like myself who try to do a good job in sub-standard conditions, pouring our hearts out every day.

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I think a better conclusion to draw from this research is that teachers are important in the classroom. Not teachers are horrible for taking sick days. Some parents and most of the press treat us like babysitters, not educators. I am glad to see a study that shows that teachers are needed for students to learn. (On a side note: did this study talk about the effects of administrators being absent or out of the building for meetings? That is much more common than teachers)
Jacks Mum: teachers are not paid over breaks. Our pay is prorated to cover summer months so that we will have money to pay our bills while we are not working. Some teachers opt out of the prorate system and just save a little each month to cover summer expenses. I wish I was paid for my summer break! That would be awesome…

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and “What a Joke,”
where do you get your numbers? I get 7 sick days and 3 personal days a year, not 30+. Also I get 2 month off in the summer, which is not paid vacation. Please see other post above. I also get about 30 days unpaid through out the year in holiday…Christmas…break, spring break, ect. Unless you are counting weekends, I’m not sure where your 4.5 months comes from.

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Hey GL how do you figure teachers get 21-25 days off during the year? In the last 2 years I have taken 2 personal days off and about 8 sick days (my dad was dying and I had to leave town for a week last year). So you need to rework your math, chief. BTW, must be nice to pick which 3 days you guys took your furlough days on…we didnt get that luxury. And I notice that the administration always seems to have plenty of time for lunch, sometimes even enough time to go in town to pick it up.

Sorry if my distaste for administrators is showing, but I honestly feel admin is a major part of the problem with education today!

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Working at an underachieving school is incredibly taxing and stressful. Teachers at other schools in my district work half as much and achieve the same results. Tell you what – let’s trade positions and see how you feel after a year.

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I totally second teacher/parent’ post @ 4:04! Especially the PS – although I could add to that that many teachers have worked private sector jobs – for many of us this is a second career. Far fewer folks in the “real world” have been teachers…that whole cliche about walking a mile in someone’s moccasins rings true in this situation – as does the old adage about the grass being greener on the other side. Every job has its pros and cons, and if you’re not happy with yours, you can go do something else – that goes for ALL of us, teachers and non-teachers alike.

I’ll also add that much of what folks perceive to be teacher whining, I see as explaining truths, defending accusations, and clarifying misconceptions – of which there is an abundance on this blog and others (and that’s what gets folks riled up, too). I’d like to see seeing some apple to apple comparisons – let’s look at the PTO policies of professional level, salaried employees and compare that to teachers – as someone noted, you don’t need a college diploma to work as a cashier at Wal-mart.

For the poster who said teachers always bash parents – I have often gone on record saying I have lots of great parents. Unfortunately, I have always had some who made my life more difficult, and if you had to be truly honest with yourself, do you think everyone you have ever come in contact with in a parenting capacity does a great job? After reading blogs about crying babies on planes and crazy children in restaurants, I think I know the answer to that!

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What Finlayson does not mention is the number of absences related to the administrators. Teachers everywhere (and especially in parts of Cobb) get sick and tired of their principals! Many principals in the more challenged parts of the district encourage grade changing to appease parents, unreasonable compliance, and falsification or embellishment of high stakes tests. The time off creates balance. Many of their prinicpals are overbearing and bullish. A connection should be made between higher absences and administrators… Wonder where that trail will lead.

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As a teacher, I have long since figured out that you should not share with others your reason for being absent. Co-workers are just that. Sure, we have some that we are close to and being together for long hours tends to make many of us loose lipped. Keep your business to yourself and no one gets to critique your reason for being out. It is no one elses business! Mental health days? Whatever you want it coded for with payroll. Sick days, personal days etc. YOUR BUSINESS. Don’t share your information. If you need/want to be out, do it. It is not my place to tell you if you are sick, stressed or whatever. If taking a day off helps to calm the burn that comes with the job or you have a sick child take the time off. If YOU EARNED IT, who am I to manage it? Rest assured, if a teacher exceeds the time off that she/he has earned, there will be NO PAY. Funny how most teachers do not exceed their earned time off.

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NO one is mentioning that parents continue to “excuse” their kids for every time they are out sleeping late, having long lunches and leaving early for “family issues” or Dr. appts. I have students out 10-15 times in ONE SEMESTER! Because they are “excused” absences I have to create make up work or tests that are equal to the learning they missed in class!!! This is time consuming and takes away the time I could be preparing for the students who are there!

Teaching is also the only profession I know that requires us to re-license at a financial cost to us and many of these opportunities we must take are available during the working day. In most careers once you have earned your “stars” you get to keep them and only need to go back to re credit or certify if you want to advance, not to keep your job. Also, we are exposed to very same germs that all the kids are – so multiply that by each kid out for being “sick” – so, are we supposed to come in sick or lose pay for being out??? “WOW” is right, we are blamed for every problem in education when it is the system that needs to be fixed. Often people are promoted into administration with less than 5 years of teaching experience simply because they are “in” with someone – and it is usually the ones not good in the classroom looking to get out of it – they are then NOT held responsible for the academic success of the school, when it really should be them – just like in sports……it’s the coach that gets fired!

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This turned out to be a very interesting discussion.

@philosopher: You are quite right to point out that most parents, the vast majority of parents, are hard-working people who love their children and want them to be educated. I cannot tell you how many times I worked with such parents, and they frequently made my life a joy. Much can be accomplished when good parents and good teachers work together for the benefit of students.

But, alas, there is also the other side. The truly difficult parents are few in number, but each encounter with one of them is memorable. For teachers, the problem quickly becomes that you do not know whom you are dealing with in any encounter. What happens in practice is that many teachers simply dread any parent contact at all because the unpleasant contacts are so extremely disturbing.

You also should consider the lack of support from administrators. I decided to leave teaching in the middle of a parent conference in which I had to sit silently and be berated by a parent whose child was just basically a pain-in-the-butt, and dishonest on top of that. What we should have been talking about was how we could get help for the kid so that he does not develop into a full-blown sociopath, and what we were talking about was my deficiencies in meeting their dear child’s needs. I was told that I had it in for their child, that I was overreacting to plagiarism, and that it was all my fault. When I pointed out that his academic record suggested that he had simply been passed along year after year, that was further evidence that I had it in for their boy. The administrator in attendance did nothing to disabuse the parents of their ideas, and I left teaching. It was a painful decision, and I miss the classroom almost every day.

Please consider that teachers have good reasons for what they say, though you may not think so. Many teachers are literally victims of abusive parents and administrators, and I hope that we will begin to discuss that topic openly in the future. I can tell from reading your posts that you are one of the good parents.

Soccermom: Boy, do you illustrate what is rotten about the suburbs. First, I challenge you to rethink your ideas about who is responsible for the poor state of education in Georgia. You claim that the Dems would have done the same as the repukes, but I simply cannot imagine that Zell Miller or Roy Barnes would have looked to cutting education as a first resort, as Sonny done. Please also get your facts straight before spewing forth more of your ignorant vitriol. If you would do some research, you would quickly learn that the Dems in the state legislature last year wanted to go after uncollected tax revenue to boost funding for education; furloughs would not have been necessary if competent people were running the show. Want to guess who refused to collect delinquent taxes last year?

Kathy Cox has been a miserable failure by any measure, and education in Georgia is basically stagnant in spite of her so-called GPS. Again, you would do well to do some research to see what profs at UGA said about the GPS before it was implemented. Like you, Ms. Cox simply assumes that she always knows better than people in a position actually to know something, so nothing positive has happened in all these years. Kathy Cox is an idiot. I once had to sit through one of her stupid speeches at Northview, and it was embarrassing to think that this person was leading the charge in Georgia.

Further, if you would do research on, say, Ashley Widener (look up Widener Associates on the net), you would find that she is a right-wing ideologue who truly wants to destroy public education. So, Ms. Soccermom, there is every reason to bash repukes.

Why don’t you stick to talking on your cell phone while driving around in your SUV? Better, why don’t you shut up until you have something intelligent to say?

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Nearly 200 whiney ass blog comments from teachers while they were being paid??

Talk to the hand folks cause i ain’t listening.

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Were days we spend out of the classroom but with students included? Substitutes are employed when teachers accompany students on trips for academic, club, & athletic events many of which extend far beyond the teacher work day.

How were days counted when substitutes were employed while you attended required meetings with parents & students (IEP meetings or tribunals)?

I echo the difficulty in finding a sub for a half day when you try to schedule a dr appointment early in the day or late in the afternoon to minimize your loss of class time.

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You know what? we work so damn hard that we deserve our days off. Heck it’s hard for ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM teachers (and ONLY US) to be off anyway. Hey, you don’t want us to take our days, don’t give them to us.

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Yes, I am constantly amazed at the number and frequency of substitutes in my building, and wonder, as you do, how quality teaching is going to happen in that situation.

Then, I also see special education teachers running around, chasing their tails, trying to keep up with students they don’t have in class, and also keeping up with the volume of special ed paperwork that can burn up an entire conference period and still not get done.

I personally try to use time at home in the evenings to complete the myriad of special ed forms that we have, IEPs, BIPs, tracking forms, rosters, projections, all manner of personality and psychological evaluations on students, testing, interviews, more testing, and the list goes on.

Even though I burn up at least 10 hours per week of my own time in the evenings and weekends in order to keep up with the volume of special ed paperwork, it still grows! I do this work at home just so I can focus on students in the classroom……then I get hit-up to sign up for MANDATORY training (and hire my own sub!!!), or I have to attend ARD meetings, disciplinary hearings, and all other manner of meetings that occur during my classtime. I often have to sit for up to 20 minutes waiting for diagnosticians, counselors, special ed directors and other so-called professionals who do not have responsibility for teaching and learning to arrive!!!!!

Look around in our schools sometime, I estimate that less than 50% of our personnel in our schools are actually classroom teachers. We have added so many clerks and paper-pushers and yet the volume of paperwork for teachers is not going down….it’s going up!!!! I keep running into our counselors and clerks all going en-masse to the coffee machine on break together. Teachers don’t get breaks.

So to sum up my rant, I will say that on the surface, it appears that there are a lot of teacher absences, it appears to me that there are a lot of reasons that teachers are spending so much time out of the classroom, and even when we are in the classroom, the phone never stops ringing, emails keep popping up (I use my laptop and projector for instruction…..who has time to send emails in class?) and all manner of clerks and aids pop their heads in to disturb MY students during MY classtime!

Folks, I am WAAYY past frustrated….I’m furious now.

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