This was such an interesting post! Very topical for me at the moment.
I'm a teacher in Western Australia and with a state election looming the ongoing dispute over teacher pay is getting stronger.
The state government has offered what the media is portraying as an excellent pay rise and most teachers are rejecting the offer. Instead they are dreaming bigger and asking the government and society to value education and educators more highly.
Recently around the staffroom table we were discussing tutoring and what a reasonable rate is. I'm a maths teacher so tutoring is easy to come by. My Head of department commented that many teachers are charging $100 per hour and my reaction was that this seemed very expensive. So this post was a wake up call for me, and probably would be for many other teachers. We can't just ask the government and society to value educators, we have to start demanding it in what we do. This is a very important message to pass onto our students as well.
I recently made a goal for myself to pay my mortgage off in 3 years time (when my spreadsheet suggests it should be 5.5 years). I wasn't sure how this could eventuate but this post has made it so much clearer. I too look forward to the follow up!
Thank you so much Steve
