Abstract:

Bill Ferriter gives an example of his own 73.75 hour work week to demonstrate how much more goes into teaching than just standing in front of a class.

Ferriter, B. (2005). Jay Greene's education myth. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 8 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/other/BF11.html 

Full Text:

Jay Greene's Education Myth

I'm reading a new book right now called Education Myths. Jay Greene, who is a researcher for a group that is generally critical of public schools, has written it to expose what he claims are commonly held misperceptions about public education. What frightens me is that Mr. Greene seems to be spreading myths of his own by drawing conclusions that seem far removed from the reality of my experiences over the past 12 years in the classroom.

For example, Greene claims that teachers work 7.3 hours a day for a total of 36.5 hours a week. This includes about 6 hours of direct instruction and 1-2 hours of planning daily, and it is, he argues, an ample amount of time to complete all tasks expected of teachers. To assert that teachers only work 7.3 hours and have 1-2 hours of planning each day is simply not an accurate reflection of my work!

First, I am required by my administration to be at school from at least 7:00-2:45. What's more, to realistically complete the rest of the tasks necessary to teach takes far longer than 7.75 hours a day.

Here was my work schedule last week:

So what was I doing during all of those hours? Things that teachers do every single day: Grading papers, planning lessons, responding to parent questions via email, meeting with my grade level team, meeting with my department, meeting with my administration, meeting with guidance counselors about struggling students....

...Helping to maintain our school's website, helping to enroll students in classroom websites, developing my own classroom website, reading professional literature, preparing my National Board Renewal portfolio, studying how to use digital moviemaking in my instruction, preparing for this week's open house...

...Acquiring materials for our upcoming lessons, tiding up my classroom, returning lab supplies, writing parent newsletters, cleaning boards, wiping desks, picking up spent tissues from the floor, coaching basketball, setting up intramurals, mentoring new colleagues, giving–and getting–advice on students or instruction...

The list of responsibilities that classroom teachers must manage in a typical week is almost endless! For me, all of this work (except my weekend hours) is done at school. Without children of my own, I can arrive early and stay long into the night. For many of my colleagues, this work is done at home after the kids have gone to bed and in between loads of laundry.

Is my work schedule unusual?

Perhaps a bit, but not as unusual as you may think. The most recent study of teacher working conditions in North Carolina shows that over half of the teachers in North Carolina spend between 3-5 hours outside of the school day each week involved in activities like coaching, tutoring, chaperoning field trips and sponsoring clubs.

Furthermore, almost 60% of the teachers in North Carolina spend between 5 and 10 hours outside of the school day each week preparing lessons, grading, holding parent conferences and attending meetings. Finally, almost 85% of teachers in North Carolina report having less than 1 hour of planning time built into their schedules each day to complete these tasks.

Using these statistics, we can conservatively estimate that over half of our teachers in North Carolina are working 51.5 hours a week-far more than the 35-hours that Jay Greene writes of. Maybe the long-held belief that teachers are only "working" when they are in front of students explains the "teachers only work 6 hours a day" myth.

Ask any teacher and they will tell you that the 6 hours that we spend teaching is the best part of our day. It's the long hours preparing for that instruction that can be overwhelming-chasing thousands of teachers from the classroom each year-and it is those hours that go overlooked by many under-informed critics of education.

Bill Ferriter teaches sixth grade language arts and social studies at the recently opened Salem Middle School in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he serves on a leadership team working to build a professional learning community. Bill is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Senior TLN Fellow, and regularly reviews professional books for the TLN website. He was recently named Wake County Teacher of the Year.

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