>>And here in Ontario, they have maybe the best pension and benefits plan of any career in the country. That's not a dig. They have it due to some of the smartest investing anyone has ever seen.
>>
>>I have a friend who was a teacher and he gets very angry when he hears teachers complaining about how they have to work late marking papers etc. When he taught, he used his off periods, or dead time in class to do that stuff and never had a problem. Most of the teachers, according to him, spent their off periods hanging out in the teachers' lounge doing nothing productive at all.
>>
>>So add to your list, lots of time off to waste during a normal day.
>>
>>Teachers could probably be paid a bit more, but they're salaries are hardly at starvation level.
>
>In the USA they should be paid more. It is a hard job that we, as a society, do not seem to recognize and value appropriately.
>http://faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/last_night1

I'd have to say that either the San Francisco Bay Area is the quintessential example of a return to mediaeval ignorance, or the guy is exaggerating. Certainly here in Canada, there is no such system as is portrayed in his post. The government had to walk through hell here just to get a system whereby teachers could be re-tested from time to time to make sure they were keeping up with their own subjects.