Making sacrifices to do what you want

I'm writing in response to the Feb. 6 op-ed column by Jay P. Green and Marcus A. Winters on average teachers' salaries. While the piece raised some thought-provoking points, its application to me is lost. You see, I haven't been teaching for enough years to be the average teacher.

I'm a 44-year-old second-year teacher. Perhaps my age peers who are in the teaching field with master's and specialist degrees may very well be making the hourly wage Green and Winters are speaking of. I am working in the highest-paying district locally and feel blessed to be doing so. It is also a school district that values professional development and a sense of family among its employees.

Being only a second-year teacher, however, I can appreciate what my younger peers are going through who are working at a similar salary as I. For all the basic material things we seek -- the reason we attend college and get our degrees is so we can have those basic things and, I hope, more -- I can understand why many do not stay in the field.

In order for me to purchase my modest home, buy a vehicle, pay my student loan and address other various expenses that go along with daily living, I must supplement my income with other jobs. I tutor, hold detention one day a week in my classroom, sponsor a club and work 15 hours a week at a convenience store in addition to the 35 hours a week that I am paid for as part of my school day. Of course, that does not count the 90 minutes that I arrive early to prepare lessons and make copies or the additional time I stay after, when possible, to do the same, or the occasional Saturday I come in. I also teach summer school and come back to school during the summer months for professional development for at least one week.

After all that, you would think I'd be sitting quite nicely financially, but as a single woman I still find it difficult to add to my savings each month as those inevitable surprise expenses occur. I am not opposed to working to have the things I want, but I am not driving a luxury car or living in even an average-priced home for our area after working a 65-hour week. You ask most anyone who puts in that kind of time -- lawyers, doctors and other degreed professionals -- if they end up making $11 an hour. That's how it all figures out this year combining my various jobs. That would be slightly less than the hourly wage other professionals charge when I engage their services. Granted, those I mentioned attend a few more years of school than I did as a starting teacher, but before I'm done, I will look toward earning a master's and incurring more student-loan debt in the process.

But what am I to do? I choose not to whine or go deeply into debt. So I work more. As I sit here at my desk and look around my classroom, it all comes together. I love teaching, my children, my colleagues. And I'm growing quite fond of my co-workers at my new part-time job. It's the life I've chosen to live, and I own my happiness in the process. Not everyone has that luxury. Sometimes you make sacrifices for the things you love and what you need in life.

Kandee Reiminger of Cape Girardeau is a sixth-grade teacher at Jackson Middle School.