My Wife is a Teacher, A Very Good Teacher
By: The husband of BAT Cathy Drew Benjamin
My husband of 41 years (a non-educator) posted this to his Facebook, as our local association begins to feel the wrath of an unkind BOE during failed/failing contract negotiations (~gulp! 25%increase in health care contribution! - among other issues). I love my family. They "get" it.
One of my heroes was Andy Rooney. I decided to write this in his style:
My wife is a teacher.
She goes to work before me and works an 11 hour day.
She takes so much pride in her job and her students.
Their successes and failures belong to her.
She knows because they come back years later to tell her and say thank you.
If she didn’t spend her own money on supplies her students would go without.
The Board of Education doesn’t supply enough. Sometimes she doesn’t even have textbooks.
The State stole some of her retirement money so they wouldn’t have to raise taxes.
It was never paid back. Now the state wants her to pay back the money they stole!
Isn’t that a little crazy? I guess the state thought so because they passed a law that said they would pay it back.
Well, the state broke that law too and now they still want my wife to pay back what they stole.
She never made a lot of money considering all the education she has.
She likes her job. It was never about the money or even benefits.
It was always implied “We’ll give you a decentBadass Teachers Association: