November 29, 2004

The Game of Life

I work the biggest part of six days a week. Yesterday, I was spent most of the day marking GCSE course work and stayed up into the wee hours preparing lessons. The average secondary school teacher, without the added pressures of the NQT year, is reputed to work 56 hours a week. This seems a conservative estimate.

The average professional footballer trains a few hours per week to prepare for a game.

My preparation leads up to spending 20 hours per week controlling unruly teenagers and forcing them to do what they don't want to do.

Footballers' preparation leads up to 90 minutes on Saturday or Sunday playing a game. A game. Their audience wants to be there. Their audience is excited about being there. The crowd are doing exactly what they want to do and are paying a lot of money to do it.

I prepare the next generation to be adults, hoping my labour and sweat will result in some of them living productive lives. Especially in a society where so many parents can't be bothered to do their job, I have the responsibility to keep the wheels of civilisation turning.

Footballers run around on 5000 square yards of grass and try to kick a leather ball into a net.

I make less than £19,000 per year. Less than it costs to support a small frugal family in Rip-off Britain.

Some footballers less than half my age make more than £50,000 per week. For those of you keeping score at home, that's £2.6 million per year. For those of you keeping score in US Dollars, at today's exchange rate that's $4,918,940.00 for kicking a soccer ball for 90 minutes a week and splitting the work with 21 other men.

Something just ain't right about that.

Posted by david at November 29, 2004 12:25 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Dave, i remember the name and particulars of every teacher i've had since kindergarten, needless to say each and every one of them has had a significant impact on me. Your work is not properly compensated, but know it is indeed invaluable.

Posted by: aaron at November 29, 2004 08:05 PM

Ik ga totaal akkoord. Ware Thats, mijn oom altijd vertelde me dat. Ik houd van uw adviezen en ik zal vaker uw plaats voortaan bezoeken. Dank voor grote inhoud, houdt het goede werk. Ongelooflijk er zijn geen dergelijke goede plaatsen zoals van u. Als mijn bovengenoemde grootvader: het goede werk zal altijd appriciated zijn. Ten slotte zou ik willen toevoegen dat vele mensen niet aith akkoord zouden gaan dat het soort adviezen maar dont, harder houdt opgeeft! Hvis du vil have Christiania Mønten med hjem som souvenir, skal du spørge efter den når du handler i Fristaden. Hører du til den type der synes, at lokale valutaer er et spændende økonomisk eksperiment, opfordres du til at bruge Christiania Mønten i din hverdag.

Posted by: Grizzlie at December 6, 2004 12:34 AM
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