I don’t hear many of them marching every year because they think they are underpaid. The majority of teachers I know think they are fairly compensated.
Teachers are “elevated” because of the work they do — particularly in a society that claims to value children and education. It’s an unbelievably difficult and exhausting job, with a tremendous amount of responsibility and liability.
Teachers are “always on” during the workday, and you’ll see very few people who perform in front of an audience/interact with people on a constant basis work the daily hours that teachers do. When I was teaching, we had a half-hour break for lunch, and a 15-20 minute break for recess (which was usually spent with students or preparing for another lesson, etc.). That was it. It’s difficult to convey how draining it can be when you are talking/interacting **non-stop** throughout the day.
Teachers also have to carefully balance the needs of three different groups of people who, all too often, have opposing goals and desires — the administrators, the parents, and the students. Some parents think you give too much homework, while others think you give too little; some think you’re too strict, while others think you’re too lenient; some want more art, others want more academic instruction…on and on it goes.
I won’t even get into the severe discipline problems teachers have to deal with (especially public school teachers — private schools get rid of these kids, if they were ever accepted to begin with). The reason private schools **appear** to do better is because they don’t have severe discipline problems, and many private schools require a minimum I.Q./test score to get in. Public schools have to deal with all the kids nobody else is willing to deal with, and that makes a HUGE difference.
As for bad teachers being protected by the unions; yes, it does happen, but I’ve personally seen teachers being disciplined and even fired if they didn’t perform. It’s not that uncommon, as a matter of fact.
