Why do people think we get paid so much?

I hear, “you get paid so much to just babysit for a few hours a day.”<br>I hear, “I mean, you get summers and holidays off. You make up for it that way.”<br><br>No. We don’t. <br><br>We make a pretty damned good hourly wage. We work a crap ton of hours. We sometimes take home less than $2,000 a month when we have student loans, car loans, bills, and we have to pay for health insurance on our own. <br><br>I get summers and holidays off but I also am forced to get a second job in the summer. I have to work all summer and usually have about a week off before the next school year starts. <br><br>I don’t know about other states, but in Florida, the minimum student teaching hours are 90 hours. That’s obviously very close to what we will do in our classroom. We do this without pay while paying tuition. Many have student loans as well. <br><br>It does not pay what people think it does. Also, with the economy and the cost of living the way it is, we sure as hell don’t get paid enough.