Athletes are More Important than Teachers…?

I just recently started reading Harmonic Wealth by James Arthur Ray. It’s a great read and very down to earth. I love reading these types of books as they have so many little insights that can drastically change your way of thinking or substantiate what you’ve been thinking for a long time. Finally I realize, I’m not crazy.

One particular chapter he speaks about society’s skewed view of what we value. We contribute to and pay more for what we value. It’s so strange that in today’s “evolved” society we pay athletes and actors millions of dollars just to entertain us – sure they are professionals and at the top of their class in terms of skill and deserve compensation. Yet we pay teachers so little. These are the people shaping the minds of our youngsters and our future leaders. They devote their lives to higher learning and get paid peanuts. Do you see the craziness here?

I’ve always thought it somewhat bizarre that people from all different walks of life will rally and band together to support virtual strangers play a game or act out a script as if they were gods. Yet when it comes time to support and rally around the teachers, professors and educators who have such a dramatic impact on all our lives – barely anyone shows up. In fact many will sit there and criticize. Come on think about it… if you didn’t have a teacher to show you all that you now know especially at the beginning of our childhoods where would we be today? OK, we do the learning part and many of us learn through reading and observing for ourselves, yet without the fundamentals we’d all be lost or illiterate. Could you really succeed if you could not read or write, could not do simple math or know how to speak properly? Likely not. Yet I think most of us could get by if we didn’t have sports to watch on TV or movies and TV sitcoms to watch. Hey entertainment has value but does it have that much?

I think it’s high time society started making some changes and start giving more value and paying our educators better. We’ve all seen the effect of budget cuts on schools and teacher salaries. Who ultimately suffers? Our children who are forced to cram even more information into a shorter day, with less resources and support – oh and don’t forget way more kids to a classroom than any sane person can handle.

People grumble when they hear about a teacher strike when they only want a small percentage increase in their already meager salaries, but no one complains when an athlete gets a few cool million slapped on his contract for an extra season or two. It seems we reward the individual and penalize the ones who make a difference in the masses. What is our world coming to?

One thing I’ve learned in my own pursuit of personal growth and development is that our beliefs need to be challenged. We cannot simply accept what society has in place when we come along and are able to think for ourselves. We can make a difference in this world, after all it is partly ours too.

What do you think?