Dear [email protected],
It’s time we say enough!
I am a teacher with many years experience, boruch Hashem. I have seen much success in the field. I enjoy giving over our mesorah and am passionate about reaching every talmidah. With a heavy heart and a big sigh, I am about to hand in my resignation form to my school.
It is impossible to make life work on such a low salary. I did my research, and no matter what field I decide to enter next year, they are all in the range of $10k-$15k more than what I am making now. It is sad for me to leave my job and it is sad for me to write this. I am just one of the many talented moros out there who would love to stay in teaching for many years. It is just not feasible on this pay scale.
It is time we all come together, speak to the administrators, principals, and directors, and make it clear: Good teachers are a priority, good teachers are a commodity, and good teachers deserve to get paid more than, or at least as much as, every other job.
Let’s band together for the chinuch of our children and the future of Klal Yisroel.
S.S.
Monsey NY
Troll
I agree. This letter seems to be thrown out there by some bored controversy seeker with too much time on his hands.
The crazy thing is that men who teach in the same girls schools are on a different pay scale.
Their job is much less time consuming, and a lot less stressful.
Why are they getting paid properly, while the Moros are being taken advantage of?!
“Their job is much less time-consuming, and a lot less stressful.”
What are you talking about? Teaching boys is a thousand times more stressful than girls Morah’s are underpaid but don’t make foolish remarks that are untrue and unhelpful.
not teaching boys. Rabbis/professors who teach in BY high schools.
Good bye. Get lost. You’re a phony thru and thru. You were getting a low salary because you’re not that great of a teacher. Your attitude stinks. If you were such a tzaddik like you’re trying to portray yourself, you would easily be able to get a better more prestigious job in a different mosod. The problem is with YOU, not the Yeshivos.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Most schools don’t pay teachers or rebbeim by how well they perform. The schools I worked for have a set pay scale for all teachers no matter how much experience you have. If you open your mouth you may get a little more.
Shame on you
not nice
Unless you know this teacher and you are stating a fact, you are an animal!
I’ve been a rebbee for nearly 1/4 century in a main stream yeshiva and I too am considering to call it. I’ve already merited to have two children of my students from early on but my family’s financial matzav is causing me to consider leaving the field I adore. I love passing on the fiery torch of Torah and yidishkeit but it’s become wholly too difficult. I am fine driving around in my 2005 Odyssey and my wife seems comfortable with a pair of shoes to last the season. It is challenging when our neighbors discuss the various seasonal sales going on now and she knows that my Chanukah gifts from appreciative parents went to pay for the chovos Tishrei brought about but the pain that my children’s only clothing are hand me downs is much for us to bear. Thanks to Chasdei Lev we’re able to make Yom Tov happen with real Simcha in our home but the pain of being the recipient of Tzedaka does hurt me: I’m certain my wife has her bouts of shame, crying and sadness but she’s careful not to share them with me. I’m hardly able to partake in the call for worthy tzeddakah appeals because it’s not just about calling out one’s pledge in Shul like everyone else; it’s got to be paid. The electric bill and heating costs atop the medical insurances are choking us. Is this how Torah teachers have to live? Must I always worry each month how to pay the mortgage? And the Yeshiva’s salary, albeit quite meager to begin with – not commensurate with the rate of inflation, doesn’t always come on time. The mortgage company does want to hear that. I’ve married off b”h three of our seven children but I don’t know how the rest will happen. I’m sure Hashem will help it happen but my feelings of dedication is waning. And rapidly! I’m supposed to always be upbeat and invigorated to impart but my gas tank is in the “E” range. I’m not disgruntled but I do feel let down especially when some bully board member once said, “That’s the field you went into! You knew that when you decided to teach!” (I know I will not meet him in Gan Eden.) Is that the value we’ve put into our investment into tomorrow’s generation?
You sound like a classic kofer beikar. I’m glad you’re not any of my kids Rebbe.
I’m glad I don’t have you as a parent body. Contrary to what you’ve been brought up to believe by your mother, the world doesn’t revolve around you.
if you are helping the Klal by being a rebbi and therefore making far less money than if you went into a normal job then it isnt accepting tzedaka to get money from chasdei lev or the like its simply part of the community funding for rebbeim to be able to continue to teach!!!
“Impossible to make your life work” Please explain what your life is? If your life means, I have a husband who is kollel and I’m trying to be the breadwinner of the family, then why did you pick a teaching job? People who teach should not be in it for the money! This is a job for passionate people wo want to teach kids and are willing to sacrifice. If you want to support your family, go get a degree or learn a profession that pays more. We’re not begging you to be our child’s teacher. Rather a teacher should be begging to teach a give over to the children. Also. it seems like you have a little Gaivah in your voice which I would not translate into pure passion for teaching.
Very silly comment. If you have weighing on your head how you’re going to pay this months bills it’s hard to teach no matter how dedicated you are. אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה
I’m glad I don’t have you as a parent body. Contrary to what you’ve been brought up to believe by your mother, the world doesn’t revolve around you.
girls schools make a lot of money
Can you list 10 examples of girls’ schools that pay their teachers 10-15K above the going rate for Moros? (It goes without saying that the pay is on time, obviously!)
If you can’t list at least 10 mosdos across different communities, please don’t make such broad sweeping statements, because they tend to be patently false.
Bye
The children are better off without you.
Thank you for proving that Teachers are well paid. Teachers only make 10-15K less than another job you could do. And thats considering 10 weeks off in the summer? working half a day
What a good deal teachers, get!
teachers do not work half a day. They work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Prep, grading papers, individualized special ed lesson plans, speaking to parents, etc not to mention that teachers are made responsible for the emotional and social wellbeing of children as well, so that takes up time and headspace too.
It’s clear you have never been in the teaching field.
Teachers make 10-15K less than a 9-5 job, but theirs is 24/7!
I don’t think you WANT your kids to have teachers whose teaching day begins at 8:30 and ends at 1:00.
Think about it.
I’m thinking about it and stand by what I said
It doesn’t take half a day + weekends to grade tests.
If a teacher has that many trests that they are busy 9-5 and two days on weekends, then yet another reason to get rid of the teacher.
Not only grading tests. Preparing worksheets and classroom activities, speaking to parents, creating individual education plans for children with learning disabilities, and the list goes on.
If your screen name is Emes, you should be open to accepting it when it hits you in the face.
I always accept Emes
Redoing lesson plans every year?
doesn’t smell like Emes
There is no question teachers work less than most other professions
(I forgot to mention early Friday dismissal Not to mention having their schedule revolve around Yomim Tovim Amazing!)
The truth of the matter
WELL SAID.
Ill do it for you as soon as you speak with my boss about inflation and my salary going up. Basically, i feel bad but everything is going up in price and i wouldnt be able to afford to pay you more if my salary doesnt go up as well.
We have no way of knowing if the original post is honest, but what we do know is that this site is infested with troll commentators. No sign-up or verification requirement = a free-for-all where Russian trolls, Chinese hackers, bored teenagers and the rest of the Earth’s populace can post whatever lunacy they want without censorship (or haphazard censorship, anyway).
The virus is a hoax? The President is a clone? The Earth is flat? The Jews run the world? This post was written by a bas kol min hashomayim? Hey, no problem! Post away!
Exactly. Whatever gets hits, Matzav is all for. This letter was not written by any Rebbe. If someone won’t print his real name and email address on an opinion piece, it’s worth gornisht mit gornisht.
Many people teach to get a nice tuition break for their kids. THAT IS PART OF THE CHESHBON OF THEIR SALARY. If you take that extra 10 or 15k of others fields, that extra money (and more!) goes directly to tuition!! If you have no other kids to put through school then kol hakavod. But on a “teacher’s salary” your still not more broke then others when you take into account the real cost of tuition.
AL TOO TRUE, TOTALY AGREE WITH WHOM EVER WROTE THIS, THE STATEMENT IS TRUE, MY WIFE AND ALL MY DAUGHTERS OF AGE, ARE TEACHING AND ITS A SHAME ON US KLAL YISROEL THAT THIS IS THE PRICE TAG WE PUT ON THOSE, THAT ARE POLISHING OUR DIAMONDS. YES ITS TRUE FOR REBBEIM AS WELL. WE AS YIDDISHE NATION HAVE IGNORED THE FACTS ANYONE OUTSIDE CHINUCH IS AMKING A VERY DECENT SALARY, WHY NOT OUR REBBEIM AND TEACHERS AS WELL. ITS BEEN REPEATED OVER AND OVER.
I’m a girls’ teacher for close to 2 decades. I couldn’t agree more with the author of this piece. Any commentator who has espoused negativity is either not a parent or a sadly bitter person. It’s highly frustrating that a teacher who encompasses so many skills and talents and giving 100% of themselves to their students are barely compensated for their work. It’s sad for example that the teacher who composes lessons, manages classroom, oversees every child’s academic, social, and emotional well- being get on average a third of the salary for example of a p3 provider or shadow who works with 1 child a time. Sadly, the intelligent and talented young seminary graduates are not even considering a career of teaching due to the lame salary. It’s hard to come up with an effective solution, but if something is not done – the future of our daughters will reflect the payscale of the teachers.
AL TOO TRUE, TOTALY AGREE WITH WHOM EVER WROTE THIS, THE STATEMENT IS TRUE, MY WIFE AND ALL MY DAUGHTERS OF AGE, ARE TEACHING AND ITS A SHAME ON US KLAL YISROEL THAT THIS IS THE PRICE TAG WE PUT ON THOSE, THAT ARE POLISHING OUR DIAMONDS. YES ITS TRUE FOR REBBEIM AS WELL. WE AS YIDDISHE NATION HAVE IGNORED THE FACTS ANYONE OUTSIDE CHINUCH IS AMKING A VERY DECENT SALARY, WHY NOT OUR REBBEIM AND TEACHERS AS WELL. ITS BEEN REPEATED OVER AND OVER. ITS JUST A SHAME READING ALL THE COMMENTS, OBVIOUSLY NO ONE IS TEACHING FOR THE MONEY. DO YOU WANT THESE FATHERS AND MOTHERS TO RAISE FAMILIES OR ONLY YOU UNGESHTUPT RICH GUY. WHO CARES WHO WROTE IT!! READ WHAT THE STATEMENT SAIS. YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO INCLING WHAT A REBBES OR TEACHERS JOB ENTAILS. NO ITS NOT FROM 9 TILL 2 AND 10 WEEKS OFF, ITS 24 HOURS, FROM PREPARING, TEACHING, TAKING CALLS FROM PARENTS AND DEALING WITH ALL STUDENTS ISSUES, OH I FORGOT MARKING TESTS THAT HAPPENS BY ITSELF. ENOUGH! REALIZE WHAT THE CHINUCH FIELD IS GOING THROUGH FINANCIALY.
No one forced you to become a Rebbe/Morah/teacher/minahel. You knew going in what the salary level was. Don’t come kvetching now, after 25 years. Your complaining shows that lichatchila, chinuch wasn’t for you. There’s more to life than getting a “good” shidduch for your kids.
If all Rebbeim/Morahs/teachers/menahelim had priorities the way you think they do, our children would all be in public school. Thankfully, we have wonderful people in our community who have a passion for chinuch habonim.
Many times, people go into chinuch before marriage or when the children are young, and the bills work out. But children get older and suddenly there are more expenses. Do you want our wonderful rebbeim and morahs to quit teaching as soon as their oldest son becomes bar mitzvah or daughter gets engaged?!
Your comment shows how little you are machshiv your children’s Torah education, or it shows that you don’t have kids yet, and when you do, they probably won’t go to cheder/BY because you think that all teachers are horrible, greedy people who are in it for the money.
I suggest you think long and hard about this attitude of yours and the message it imparts to your children about chashivus hatorah (or lack thereof).
In all these comments mostly bashing teachers, THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE COMMENT JUST ACKNOWLEDGING THIS WONDERFUL MORAH AND ALL THE REBBEIM AND MORAS!! The rebbeim and moras who put in hours outside the classroom toiling and sweating over each subject and more importantly each student! The ones who try to get each and every one of OUR kids make them reach their max potential! THEY SHOULD BE GETTING FROM THE HIGHEST SALARIES IN KLAL YISROEL! WE NEED THEM!!
All I want to say is THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to this morah and all our kids rebbeim and moros who chose to put their life into building the future of tomorrow!
And to this morah b’frat, we will miss having you in the classroom and we sincerely thank you and appreciate your years of mesiras nefesh put in to your students.
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN TO ALL OF THOSE THAT WENT INTO THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN KLAL YISROEL -CHINUCH- OUR DEDICATED REBBEIM AND MOROS!!!!!
I am horrified at the posters on this thread, dismissing the whole idea because they think it was written by a troll. This is a serious problem in Klal Yisroel today. Who this letter was written by is irrelevant.
To all the people disparaging our Rebbeim and Moros as greedy and in it for the money, let me ask you a question: If you think your kids’ teachers are such selfish, horrible people, why do you trust them with your kids? Why do you trust them with YOUR chiyuv dOraisa of chinuch?! With an attitude like yours, I would be highly doubtful that you are yotze.
Your children absorb this attitude towards people in chinuch. If anyone was wondering why less and less sem graduates are going into teaching, this is why!
All of you need to take a good long think, and ask yourselves this question: Who will teach your grandchildren? Who will WANT to teach the children in 20-30 years from now?
Your attitudes are immature and despicable, and must change.
Good point. This anonymous writer shouldn’t of posted his drivel on some public website for all to comment on. This is what Torah Umisorah and the Agudah convention was created for. Serious issues are discussed with professionals in those fields, not on Matzav. What did the letter writer expect? Everyone should agree with him? Everyone should shower him with rachmanus? The fact that this alleged anonymous writer posted his complaints here in public rather then with his contemporaries in private, shows his lack of maturity and seriousness. He mocks the system. He has no shame. He should of never been a Rebbe.
It would be interesting to see how teachers, administrators and others address the points/claims made here in the comments:
* Teachers make $10K-$15K less per year than “normal” jobs.
* Teachers receive tuition breaks (and other assistance like Chasdei Lev) for their own children that they otherwise would not have gotten.
* Teachers work fewer hours than “normal” jobs
* Teachers are off ten weeks (i.e. Summer) each year (in addition to Yom Tov/Erev Yom Tov, et al.)
If these claims are all true, then if a teacher nonetheless needs to earn more than their salary and cannot do so during “off-hours” and/or summer, for academic or other reasons, then that is certainly understandable.
So, I don’t understand why a teacher in this situation would claim to be under-compensated, as they would be seem to earning, at least on an hourly basis, as much or more than in a “normal” job.
However, if a teacher is paid much, much less than “normal” jobs, and adding in the out-of-class hours required (de facto or otherwise) makes the teaching job equivalent to, or even more demanding than, a “normal” job, then the claim of under-compensation certainly seems valid, even with the other “perks”.
1. Tax free tuition reductions/credits ARE part of your salary
2. You get discounts/benefits only open to Klei Kodesh- store discounts, no shul dues, “teacher discounts”, besides for the pre yom tov food help!
3. You get 2 months off every year.
4. You get tax free gifts from teachers, the school, the PTA… besides different goodies throughout the year.
5. You dont earn as much because you work in a frum business. It’s a premium to never be asked about chagim, why you wear a wig and a long skirt, why you cant eat at the business lunch…. anyone who works in a strictly frum company has the same problems….
6. You get vacation time and sick days on TOP of knowing you get every YT off, every erev YT off, issru chat off, chol Hamoed off, even automatic half days on Friday…
The rest of us dont get vacation because it is all used for YT itself. I work Chol Hamoed, not because I want to but because I will lose my job otherwise. Some years there goes my sick days too.
Now, add up all your bonuses. Then divide by ACTUAL working hours. And not add in any take home work unless mandatory by your school (in the contract that you must spend 2 hours a week calling parents.) Because we all take home unpaid work. CEUs, paperwork, extra learning to do my job better, calls from the boss after hours…
I wonder who is better off? I might go take that cushy and well paid teaching job…
The after-class work that teachers have are de facto part of the job. You can’t teach if you don’t prep.
That’s why many teachers who teach half a day don’t take a job for the other half.
and summers are spent planning and going over the curriculum, having meetings, etc etc.
Claiming that teachers earn less because they work less just proves your ignorance.
Anyone who is a teacher or has one in their family knows that what I am saying is true.
i know plenty of people who teach multiple jobs!
It’s really disheartening to see how many people take their children’s chinuch for granted.
Nebach, is all I can say.
I hope you don’t find out the hard way how valuable a good Rebbi or Morah is.
A good Rebbe/Morah doesn’t complain on the internet!
First of all while of course optimally it would be great if teachers spent huge amounts of time outside of their main work hours on thinking about the kids and stuff that is not the etzem job they’re getting paid for. The job they are getting paid for is generally only part time and likely the other jobs she is comparing to include more hours and summers. Besides for that 10-15 thousand dollars is FAR LESS of a difference then the sacrifice MANY rebbeim make when choosing to go into chinuch. Knowing just rebbeim that i have had many gave up the possibility at careers that likely would have paid 100 to 200 THOUSAND DOLLARS more than what they get paid as rebbe, WHICH THEY GAVE UP LSHEIM SHAMAYIM TO TEACH TORAH!!!. So I’m not all that amazed about someone getting paid only 10-15 thosuand less
I hear.