Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
Misconception #14 was previously used for a more broad misconception. I have decided to rewrite the misconception to more directly address the inaccurate claims made by teachers. In particular, teachers insist that professional athletes are paid better than teachers.
The simple reality is that teachers are using misleading statistics. They talk about how much professional athletes make, but they are only including the highest paid athletes. Yes, elite-level athletes make significantly more money than teachers, but that's not what teachers are saying.
Not all athletes are elite. Not all of them are highly paid. I have managed to find a website that breaks down median pay of professions. As it turns out, the median pay for athletes is less than elementary school, middle school, high school and post-secondary teachers. The truth is very different from the wording. Most teachers make more money than most professional athletes.
Why do the richest athletes make more money than teachers? In short, it's because the financial model for athletes is very different from teaching. The number of professional athletes is far smaller than the number of teachers, and teams are essentially bidding for the best. Teachers would likely make more money than even elite athletes if they embraced the financial model used in sports. Good luck convincing teachers to compete over 13,600 jobs with a median salary of $50,850 in hopes of striking it rich. Good luck convincing teachers to massively expand class sizes.
Personally, I don't mind professionals providing fans with entertainment receiving more pay than professionals providing children with mental harm. This is only true if you used skewed statistics. We should either compare all athletes against all teachers, or maybe even the highest paid teachers against the highest paid athletes. Not only are teachers embracing skewed statistics, but they are portraying them as an apples-to-apples comparison, pardon the cliché.
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