The Myth of 3 Months Off

Thoughts on Teachers getting 3 months off a year…

By Cynthia Nagel

Take the “average” employee  and

take 52 weeks in the year x 5 day = 260 days worked

minus 3 weeks vacation = 245 days

minus 5 holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, President’s Day whatever.

=240 days worked by this average employee

I think I calculated that fairly.

Take the teacher now

190 days though only paid 185 now thanks to furlough, (we still show up) and reduced prep days before school.

Most of us work summer school jobs because we can’t afford not to, they average 16-25 days, but we’ll just add 16.

=206 days

We have to acquire 180 hours to recertify every six years so that averages about 30 hours per year so add 4 days

=210 days

Now since we are pretty busy during the day, most of us grade papers at home and so I will conservatively estimate that at 2.5 hours per week (I know fellow teachers, stop laughing. I am trying to play this in an extremely fair manner) that comes out to 90 hours per year, so we will add in 11 days.

=221 days

We also show up for the chili cook off, the carnival,  take kids to science camp for three days, in addition to the reading night at school we planned for your family and the Fine arts festival to showcase your children’s incredible talents. Let’s add three days for that.

=224 days

Hmmm, that’s about a 16 day difference between us. Let’s call that the 3 week vacation I will get but won’t be paid for and call it even. We won’t talk about the time yet spent planning lessons, writing parents e-mails, or going to your kids’ soccer games.

3 months off – the myth is busted!