I grew up in a Western Chicago suburb hailed for its school system, and administration in that area was certainly paid like it. Despite being paid among the highest salaries for educators in the state, they had a strike during my middle school tenure for better pay. I remember feeling unsympathetic for most of my teachers at the time. You see I was a bit of a class clown in those days, which some teachers could deal with and others couldn't. Those that could handle my adolescent class interruptions were few, but I always appreciated those who did.
It is for that reason that a comedy sketch by the duo of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele struck a cord with me this week. The popular Comedy Central show "Key & Peele" took their self-described "provocative and irreverent" outlook on life and applied it to the realm of education this week in a sketch they called "Teaching Center."
The sketch is a spot-on mimic of ESPN's flagship program "Sports Center" from the graphics and ticker on the bottom of the screen down to the anchor dialogue. Beyond the flash and humorous take on a society that flips the pay scale and media attention of the sports and education spheres is a point, however. That point is that education in our country is becoming incredibly undervalued, and it is starting to show in our world rankings.
The most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study in 2012 found that America fell from 24th in 2009 to 29th in their analysis of 65 global education systems. The study looks at the reading, math and science "literacy" among 15-year-old students. In the same three-year span, American students fell from 19th to 22nd in science, as well as a shocking drop of 10th to 20th in reading.
Money is not the end-all solution, but it certainly helps. According to Pay Scale, which provides real-time market-enabled compensation data for a variety of professions, middle school teachers are paid on average $43,656 a year.
Meanwhile, professional athletes are making on average:
1) $5.15 million in the NBA.
2) $3.2 million in the MLB.
3) $2.4 million in the NHL.
4) $1.9 million in the NFL
*Figures obtained from Forbes.
It is important to remember that professional athlete salaries come from multi-billion dollar private businesses, and not tax dollars like teacher salaries. The point to be made here however is that we as a society do not value teachers to the same extent that we do professional athletes.
This sketch opened my eyes to a fact I was privileged enough not to experience the sad reality of as a child. That fact is that in a society that glorifies athletes but not educators, the wrong message is sent to the marginalized communities in our nation.
The only way out of a tough community becomes pursuing athletics instead of studies in communities where below-average investments are made in education. An $87 million contract for a guy who passed his way out of a Super Bowl win becomes more appealing than helping children pass through high school for relatively meager pay. Knowing how to read Cover-2 becomes more important than studying for Algebra 2.
Is the answer shifting media attention and salaries over to teachers to the extent "Teaching Center" depicted? Of course not (although I really like the concept of the teacher-draft for low-performing schools, but I digress). However, short-changing our education and underpaying those who inspire America's youth to pursue their talents should not continue.
Who was your favorite teacher in middle school/high school and why? Leave a comment below about your favorite teacher and anything you would like to do or have done to thank them for the influence they had on you.
