I was a teacher, now work from home to raise my 5 kids....i have many teacher friends who all complain about their low pay and how they practically work for "charity".....are they kidding me???? Many teachers are totally out of touch with reality and pretty much live a bubble where they are insulated from what employees in the real world go through.....how many of us get to boast a 75,000 annual salary (mind you...many of my teacher friends make at least 85K or even over 100K - as elementary classroom teachers NOT administrators), 15 weeks of vacation, sick and personal days, medical and dental insurance AND a pension upon retirement....and don't forget a contract that spells out a 6 hour and 52 minute work day plus 55 minutes for lunch and no more than 3 meetings per month after or before school.......now i totally get that most teachers put in much more time than what their contract requires and also spend money out of pocket for what they need to do.....but is that really any different than what other employees do in other fields also????? I think if teachers want the respect they say they so often do not get, they have to take a step back, and really look at what they DO GET and stop alienating the rest of the non-teaching population by crying poverty and unfair compensation.