Where is the Respect?: 3 Reasons Teaching Is Not Taken Seriously

Teachers are seen as some kind of martyrs in society. There is this odd amount of condescending
respect for teachers. Most conversations go like this:

Person: What do you do?
Teacher: I'm a teacher
Person: Aw...that's awesome. How fun...

But this is the disconnect. The public appreciates teachers but sees them as simplistic service workers who have fun jobs. They remember their own teachers and recall the basics of a school day and extrapolate from that.  How could teaching be that hard, my own teacher barely did anything.

And there comes the disrespect in society. Teachers suddenly become this overprivileged group that is mocked in the public sphere for being greedy or lazy or both. There are three reasons for this disconnect in society:

1. A Typical Teacher's Work Load is Not Understood

Most people have attended school and had a teacher. They know that their teacher stood at the front of the room, had them read from books, assigned homework and gave grades. It all seemed straight-forward and easy--just go to the next page in the book and you're done. How could the job be so hard?
For many teachers, the actual "teaching" part is the easiest part of their day. It is a skill that comes naturally after many years of practice. The ability to stand at the front of the room, illicit questions and continue with a lesson is the performance. It is the stage show after weeks of rehearsal. It comes easily because they have all the other pieces put in place.
The hardest parts are two-fold: classroom management and planning:

• Classroom Management is the ability to control the behavior of a group of 15-30 students. It having to be Supernanny for an entire room of children. It requires setting rules, maintaining rules, monitoring behavior, punishing bad behavior, rewarding good behavior, watching for potential distractions (note-writing, doodling, etc.) all while maintaining poise and calmness. This is done on top of having to simultaneously teach how to add fractions in a way that makes sense to those same kids.
• Planning is the work done before the "performance". Planning is when the teacher takes her weekend or "prep periods" at school to write a lesson. This requires her to find materials, come up visuals/handouts, determine what she will say, brainstorm complications, create homework, etc. It is a time-consuming process to create a lesson in a way that it will be successful. The average elementary teacher is teaching around 5 lessons per day, each of which requires extensive pre-work before it is taught.

Classroom management and planning are the behind the scenes work that a student doesn't see. It all appears effortless, as it should. But, just because it looks effortless, doesn't mean that it is.

2. Teachers are Seen as Under-Educated
There's that phrase, "those who can't do, teach." This sentiment has bled into society with the idea equals who have a level of undeserved power. Coupled with the perceived level of "time-off" that a teacher has, the animosity and disrespect continues.
that teachers are no smarter than anyone else. The average teacher has attended college and received some kind of extra certification/education (credential or master's degree) in order to teach. However, this level of education is on par with many parents. Therefore, parents don't see teachers as a professional but as a peer. Teachers are not lawyers or doctors but

3. Teacher are seen as having a lot of free time
Having the summer's off seems like a huge plus in the workforce. While the businessman toils away in mid-July, the 1st-grade teacher gets to relax on a cruise. While the paralegal has to stay until 5:30 at work, the teacher clocks out at 3. However, this is not the case.
Teachers are salaried workers and are "paid" to work from ≈7:30-3:00. However, most teacher don't have any breaks in that period. Many teachers are the only person in a classroom and therefore are solely completely responsible for the well-being of dozens of other people for hours at a time. It is an emotionally & physically tiring job during the day.
What the average workday doesn't allow is time to prep for the next day. On Monday, a teacher must prepared for Tuesday. This includes writing lessons, designing curriculum, creating/finding worksheets, preparing homework, as well as figuring how the lesson will be taught. This all takes time and needs to be done outside of the 7-3 time period. This doesn't count the time spent grading papers/tests.
The workday is simply face-time with the kids in the classroom. It doesn't include: grading, lesson planning, making copies, passing out papers, tutoring, counseling, talking to parents, going to meetings, changing bulletin boards, following up on discipline issues, cleaning the classroom, etc. That adds hours to every week that is not paid. It's all extra---on top of an already long work day.