Social Futures LO8246

Ben Compton (BCOMPTON@novell.com)
Mon, 01 Jul 1996 19:16:28 -0600

Replying to LO8210 --

Bill asks a very good question:

> Ben, I can't help but ask a follow on question from yours. Why is it
> that your knowledge based business pays you a higher salary than
> Grade School teachers who will be entrusted with the lives of several
> thousand people? I assume that they are knowledge based workers.

I'd agree that teachers are knowledge based workers. Why are they not paid
more money? I don't know. It's tragic. I believe the privatization of
education would increase teachers salary, but that would preclude many
children from having a reasonable opportunity for a good education.

Are teachers salaries reflective of the value we, as a society, place on
formal education? I certainly hope not, but I'm beginning to draw that
conclusion.

IMHO, our parsimony discourages intelligent and competent people from
pursuing a career as a teacher. This clearly impacts the quality of public
education, which in turn excites public opinion, bringing into question,
yet again, the value of our teachers. What a vicious cycle!

Maybe this cycle has, in part, given rise to the number of people turning
to private and home school for their children's education.

-- 

Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell GroupWare Technical Engineer | fax: (801) 222-6991

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>