It must be nice to have your summers off. Or as teachers call it, non-contract time

If you are a teacher, you have probably heard someone make this or a similar statement. My response? I usually smile and agree, “Yes. Yes it is nice to have my summers off.” All the while I am wishing all sorts of voodoo on their ignorant arses.  Let me break it down. Teachers are not employed with said district during the months traditionally known as the summer months.  Certified staff, also known as teachers, work under a contract. Said contract is issued for roughly 190 days give or take a few exceptions. The 190 days conveniently fall within the school calendar year, again give or take a few days. See where I am going with this? Teachers do not work during the summer months because, well first of all there is no school, but mostly it is because we do not have a contract, therefore we are not employed. We are unemployed, which, and you might be way ahead of me here, also means we are not getting paid. Let me repeat that, we do not get paid during the summer months. Not. Get. Paid. We are paid for 190 give or take days. No more, no less. To respond to those of you thinking but… most districts give teachers an option to receive their contract pay in 20 or 24 installments (if your district pays bi-monthly).  If you choose the 24 installments, your pay is spread out over a calendar year. But you are still only paid for 190 days.

Got it? Good. 

So what do we do with all this unpaid free time? Re-charge. Rest. And a million things we never have time for during the school year. What else do we do? We clean up/out/organize our classroom, on our own time. We take professional development courses conveniently offered during our time off so the district does not have to get / pay for subs, we do not have to plan for subs, and there is less disruption to learning, on our own time. We often continue to receive work communication, are asked to sit in on interviews, and or may be contacted for various employment related reasons, on our own time. More importantly, we spend uninterrupted time with our families and friends. We squeeze in a vacation, you know during one of the most expensive, and crowded, times to travel. The most? Spring break and Winter break. Two other times we are not paid. No, we are not paid over winter or spring break.  We read. We sit. We binge watch. Most of us work.  We work. We work because what we are paid does not cover our cost of living. Because what we are paid lags painfully behind inflation, behind the consumer price index (CPI). So we work so we can afford to teach. Many of us work second jobs during the school year for the very same reasons.  As we inch closer to the start of the school year, we start planning, we start organizing, we start setting up our classrooms, on our own time.  We review our rosters, we reach out to families, we start planning lessons, on our own time.  We purchase supplies, we plan for open houses, we meet with colleagues, on our own time. 

We do not have our summers off. It needs to be said. And not because, as too many people think, we need your sympathy, we don’t. Or that we are complaining, we are not. It is because we deserve the dignity to not have our profession whittled down to “summers off” comments. 

You might be thinking to yourself, geesh all I said was it must be nice to have your summers off. No you clod, it was not all you said. It is more. It is demeaning.  It is just one more way folks use disinformation to disrespect teachers, to undermine public education, and to justify harmful legislation.  And take it from teachers everywhere, we do not think it is funny, we do not appreciate it, and we are so over it. Not as over it as the whole snow day debate, but over it. So if you are one of those, that upon learning you are conversing with a teacher and the first thing you think to say is “it must be nice to have your summers off.” Don’t. Just don’t. 

With gratitude,

Teachers everywhere