As mums, it's easy to sit back and moan every time the kids are off from school: Halloween, Christmas, midterms, it can sometimes feel like they're only in school a handful of days.
And, yes, it's easy to look at teachers with all this time off and feel like they have an easy run of things.
Sure they only work a few hours a day and they're free all summer, right? Wrong.
Mum-of-four Adrian Woods, took to her Facebook page recently, to share a letter written by Angie Scioli, who proves that a teacher's life is not just about trying to fill in the days off. Far from it in fact.
Addressing a person named Barry Parker, who said "teachers in our public school system work 180 days a year", Angie wrote:
"I will go to my school and work 194 days this year. On the days I work, I rise at 3 am and work until 5am, grading, lesson planning and answering emails. I go to work at 6:30 and actively teach actively for 5 hours, as well as hall duty and paperwork, and contacting parents. I leave at about 4:30pm, a 12 hour day, every day, plus at least two hours on weekends.
"So, 194 X 12= 2278 hours + 78 weekend hours = 2356 hours. If you divide that by nine (let's say business employees work 9 hour days if you include those emails after hours), you get 261 days of work.
"So, I worked 261 days last year. I just did it in 196 days. Now you know why teachers are so exhausted."
However, the number of hours that they work isn't the only thing that irks this Barry dude. The so-called holidays and benefits that they get is also another thing that annoys him.
But for every statement Barry has, Angie is ready with a response. A response that goes in some way to sharing the experiences of what it is actually like to be a teacher.
"Barry: 'Teachers have breaks: Fall, Christmas, Spring, Holidays and Summers Off," the founder of Red 4 Ed NC wrote.
"What is Fall Break? I do not get paid in the summer, and my ten vacation days are scheduled for me, no Disney World during September for me, no sir.
"Barry: 'And then there's their benefits - no major company provides pensions anymore.'
"Did you know I pay $439 a month to my pension? I've been paying in for 25 years so far, not exactly a free benefit."
Clearly, this Barry guy has some sort of chip on his shoulder about teachers, but Angie is not willing to take his criticism lying down. And quite rightly so.
In fact, we're not the only ones who are applauding Angie; followers of Adrian took time out to praise the teacher for being so open and honest.
"Thank you for posting this and always supporting teachers!" wrote one person.
Another said: "I hate people like Barry. Ignorance at its finest. People like him wouldn’t survive one week in a classroom."
