The Moral of the Story

The following funny piece appeared on the Education Intelligence Agency Blog. Be sure to visit the EIA to view the links associated with the post.


"When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." - Albert Shanker, Former President of the American Federation of Teachers

Cathy

Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

The Ancient History of Education Labor
Rick Hess is excerpting items from his new book on his blog, and includes these interesting historical notes on differentiated pay for teachers:

In the Greek city-state of Teos, for example, elementary teachers were paid 600 drachmas for the first grade, 550 for the second, and 500 for the third. Equally noteworthy is that the Greeks also paid instructors differentially depending on the subject taught. Teosian archery and javelin teachers were the lowest-paid teachers, at 250 drachmas per year; literature teachers earned 500 to 600 drachmas; and music teachers were the highest-paid teachers, at 700 drachmas.

…Eventually, the Roman Emperor Gratian established a salary schedule throughout the empire in the fourth century CE, with pay routinely differentiated based on judgments regarding the import of various instructional roles.

These examples provide valuable insights on the history of paying teachers, but the ultimate outcomes were not so encouraging. Teos was destroyed by an earthquake and Gratian was assassinated by a rival pretending to be a supporter.

The lesson here is: If you mess with teacher pay, build your house on a solid foundation and keep your armor on.