Better Pay, Better Teachers, Better Students

This is in response to Catalina's blog Teachers need an urgent salary raise . I agree whole heartedly that teachers are much more that just professionals who instruct our children in reading, writing and arithmetic. Catalina makes a good point that teachers our with our kids for 8hrs of the day and we rely on teachers to shape our children's young minds, personalities and behaviors. An increase in pay will help to attract those teacher candidates who might otherwise go into other professions if the salary wasn't as competitive. For those reasons I do agree that we should pay these important professionals more. However, with more pay shouldn't we expect more out of our teachers?

If we are to pay these teachers more we need to hold them to higher standards. Teachers should be tested on a regular basis to ensure that they continue to develop in their respective field. The progress of their students should also reflect how effective the teachers methods of instruction are. The last thing we need to to have higher paid teachers with a laissez-faireattitude. Let´s give our kids the best, and if that means recruiting better teachers with a higher pay scale, then so be it. That is, as long as we make sure those teachers remain the very best.