By Jaime Vergara
For Variety

THE nation observes Teachers Appreciation Week this week. Tuesday, May 8, is National Teachers Day. Teachers’ talk across the country this week is on whether they are receiving professional pay, or not.
The myth that teachers get paid well is exactly that, a myth. Compared with other professions with similar academic preparation time, teachers lag behind in the salary department. Further, in terms of the time spent, teaching is still expected to mirror the religious vocation that it was when schools were established for religious instructions. Of our time, we are expected to be more than generous; of our resources, we are a bona fide charity organization; of our resourcefulness, we are professional mendicants!
A legislative official was in one of our school meetings this week, and made the suggestive query, “Aren’t teachers paid so-and-so much?” The implication was that teachers’ salaries lean towards the well-off end of the scale. With just a shade of unintended curtness, the principal quickly disengaged the official of the notion.
The fact is, in addition to a relatively low pay scale, full fledge teachers at my school spend a straight 7-hours every day supervising students without a break. A blatant violation of labor laws but the vocated teacher takes it in strike. Even at recess, teachers take turn monitoring the playground and the hallways. Teachers eat with their students at lunchtime; they take turns monitoring students’ food intake and supervising playground games. The hour after school lets out is supposed to be prep time. Three out of the five days, however, invariably is spent in teachers’ meetings of one form or another. Time spent preparing lessons often cuts deeply into personal and family time.
Unless one has the patience of a Job to wait out PSS procurement process, classroom needs from brooms to sweep the floor to electronic equipment as teaching aids, from pencil sharpeners to air-conditioners (and electric fans when the air-con has air but no freon!), teachers often dig deep into their shallow pockets.
Federal funds generally allow initial purchases of equipment; they even build structures. Maintenance and upkeep is supposed to be local responsibility. Of materials and supplies, school administrators have been known to grow old faster than normal trying to accommodate classroom needs. Consumables like paper and printer toner usually last the first 45 school days, if the school has aggressive administrators. Replenishment may finally trek in before the school year is out, usually at the mercy of a pen pusher in some office elsewhere who is wary of budgetary limitations. I exaggerate but not by much.
The new officers of the Association of Commonwealth Teachers meet in executive session for the first time Tuesday afternoon, followed by a general membership meeting at 6 p.m. in room A-11 at SVES. They have their plates full. They will need to harness the energy of an active and vocal handful among the ranks, while figuring a way to light the fires under the seats of a seemingly distracted and indifferent majority. The reality remains: teachers’ pay is hardly living wages, and is increasingly spread out thinly to meet needs including those of the classroom.