Your contention that “firefighters’ overall life expectancy is nearly 6 years less than the general population” without citing your source is obviously an attempt to perpetuate the myth.

Teachers are not required to work a 12 hour day and should they finish a day’s work to the best of their ability at the time of the bell, than they should be able to go home without critism. In no other other profession with a salary similar to that of a teacher’s, are employees criticized for not working a longer day than they are compensated for. More hours logged does not naturally equate to a more effective and satifactory job done.

Teachers, after years perfecting their craft, create lesson plans that meet CA Sate Standards, align with curriculum purchased by their school district, and provide creative and thoughtful opportunities for learning. Why should a teacher not continue to employ these lessons each year?

Having student’s grade eachother’s homework is a teaching strategy used to review coursework, improve self-monitoring skills, and encourgae mastery of a subject area. Student’s are more likely to become experts in a field of study when they are given the opportunity to teach their new found skill set. When students study in a peer-to peer environment it improves learning for both the high achieving and struggling student. During a typical school day, a teacher is using a myriad of teaching tecniques to expose students to new concepts, build upon pre-existing knowledge, and meet the needs of students with different learning styles. Peer to peer is one EFFECTIVE tecnique used.

I would not expect someone without extensive training in the areas of education, child development, effective teaching tecniques, multiple intelligences, or socioeconomic impacts on learning to understand all the strategies a teacher must employ to meet the needs of the students.

What I am shocked by is how someone like you, without a shred of training or experience in the field, is so confident in her opinions.

Do we add in pensions, Christmas breaks, Easter and summer breaks, 100% health insurance premiums, and exemptions from Social Security into a more lucrative and secure system that invests and grows those moneys? Do some work year round while others don’t? If we use JK’s numbers of 183 days and use say $42,000 let’s just do the math. Take the 260 and divide by 183 and you get 1.42 multiply that by $42,000 and you get $59,672.00, if you work the 260 days. Now if you use $62,000 you get $88,087 for the 260 days.

What do we add to the $42,000 and $62,000 in benefits to get a real number and how does that equate to private industry pay?

I think the whole thing boils down to requiring fundamental fairness for a Day, Week, Month or Years pay, with no “my” job is more “special” than yours because I’m a teacher, fireman, etc.

In this day and age of having the equivalent of supercomputers at our desktops this should be a easy objective fix but everybody seems to want to think only they are “special”.

I believe that public sector employees are often assumed to be less capable, less educated, and less motivated than their private sector counterparts. I have had the rare opportunity to experience both a VERY blue collar and VERY white collar existence. Both groups are highly motivated, but what they are working for and what they expect to achieve are very different. Your average union employee is motivated by providing the essentials to his family. He wants to make the mortgage payment on time each month. He does not have a savings account. He doesn’t have money in stocks. His savings IS his pension. And he is working towards it everyday. Private sector employees have different opportunies in their careers. There are opportunites for advancement and salary increases that public workers do not have, and with that comes the promise of a big pay off. We know the risks and rewards when we choose our path. Some will choose to work slow and steady, knowing full well they will never be wealthy, but will always be safe. Others will take a risk, work towards the “big pay off.” One is not a better choice than the other, most had access to the same choices, but we must own our fate.