I'm fed up with art teachers and their hefty salary schedules. What we need here is a little perspective. Of course they've had to go to college and get degrees, some of them even masters degrees, but after all, to do what? They try to teach kids useless stuff like drawing and painting and about dead artists who never mattered much anyway. If our kids need to learn such stuff, fine, but I see no reason to pay more than minimum wage for someone to teach my kid to play with clay and glue Popsicle sticks together. That's right, instead of paying outrageous taxes, I'd give them $5.00 an hour (minimum wage rounded off somewhat). Each parent should pay $5. per hour per day. Now, how many children does an art teacher see a day, maybe, ohhh, 100 or so? Okay, times 100 children is...$5. x 100 =$500 a day. Sounds high but remember, teachers only work 180 days a year, (I'm not paying them for vacations either). Now, $500. times 180 days a year is...$90,000!!!!

Huh? Wait a minute. Let's get a little perspective here...minimum wage is too high, after all what are they doing? Just baby-sitting, really. I see no reason to pay minimum wages when my baby-sitter only gets $3.00 an hour. (And she can draw better than that guy I saw...uhhh...Picasoso...whatever his name was.) That's more like it I think. Let's see, that's $3. times 5 hours...$15.00 per day, times 100 kids, that's $300. Multiply that time 180 days and...mmmm...$54,000...?

GEEEEZZZ...Wait a minute, let's get a little perspective here....where the heck did that salary schedule go...? (Maybe my calculator needs new batteries.)

Contributed by Lane, Jim
24 April 1998