A high school student looked up at me a few years ago and asked, puzzled, “Do they pay you to come here?” It was an odd question. I was surprised he might have thought we were volunteers and worked free.  But hey, he did and it was kind of endearing. He thought I came here just because I love kids and schools and he’s not mistaken. I do love teaching and enjoy kids most of the time.  But we do get paid. Teachers, just like doctors, and plumbers and the police may love but we do but we still  have to pay our own bills.

I think teachers are actually paid quite well, if they have a classroom and are moving up on the salary grid each year.  There are some issues about what teachers have to do for that money.  I think it’s most cost effective and you get the most for your money if you have teachers teach, not patrol hallways or collect fundraiser money., but that is an issue teachers  have dealt with for decades. There are still people who hope and expect that there is this person outthere who can do everything, has infinite time, and will pretty well do whatever it takes for the children. It’s a wonderful goal. But as there is more and more to teach and there are so many other needs of kids for special help, there is a point where one person cannot reasonably do it all, at least not well.  There is a real role for teachers’ aides, cafeteria supervisors, more secretarial help.

Over the years education has been on a roller coaster for how much it pays and values teachers.  I would not say it now asks more of teachers than it did when they were at a one room school. But the tasks are different, the training is different, and the cost of living is different. The roller coaster continues.

In 2012 new teachers have to have about five years of university to get hired.  There are others who have four who have been teaching for a long time. We have a very well educated corps of instructors.  Many have a degree in the arts or sciences before getting their degrees in education and several each year go back to get a master’s degree or do it nights and summers.  There are several with doctorates, though that is rare.  A few teachers come from other professions. Instructors for auto shop and wood shop often worked earlier in industry.  Many have avocations that are also quite skilled; some are elite mountain climbers or skiers.  A few with half-time contracts also have jobs in construction or even waitressing, to make ends meet.

They are men and women, single, married, common law, divorced, and widowed.  Their ages are from about 23 to about 65 though it tends to be a job for young and middle aged women at the elementary level and for both genders, but a little older, at secondary.

Principals of elementary schools are more likely women than men, and principals of secondary schools are either. This is a shift from even thirty years ago when principals were nearly all men.  A lot are parents of young children and teens, trying to juggle their paid careers with the needs of their families and often you’ll see on the teacher’s desk or bookcase, photos of their ‘other life’.

The pay grid is established in each school district separately. The public board  in Calgary in 2012 pays beginning teachers from $48,025 to about $64,000 depending on years of university and they advance to higher pay with years of experience. The numbers are somewhat misleading since substitute teachers for instance are paid only a flat rate of about $200 a day. The most substitutes can earn on daily assignments is  about $38,000 a year even if they have decades of experience, and they rarely earn that since they are not called every day. 

Teachers do get extra pay for administrative positions, for instance as  heads of school departments or as principal or assistant principal. Classroom teachers usually get a free laptop, sick pay, maternity benefits, and some medical and dental coverage, plus pensions.  Substitute teachers do not get most of those benefits however, though all get vacation pay.

It is not a high paid job comparatively in the bustling oil city of over a million people. Lawyers are more likely to start at about $75,000 a year. Nurses get about $65,000. Average income of a chartered accountant is about $140,000 a year.  For those without post-secondary training, the minimum wage is $9.40 so an annual salary is just under $20,000.  All tolled, the average income currently for a man in Calgary is $38,750 a year and for a woman $25,080, including those without post-secondary.

 Teachers are not paid differently based on gender, but many other professions still attract men full-time more than women. Average annual income in Canada for someone in the transportation industry is about $48,000, in construction about $56,000, in mining about $90,000.  Teachers have a nice stable government job and do get summers and weekends without having to go into the office, though most are doing lesson plans and marking much of that ‘free time’.

A teacher’s day starts early, often about 7:30 or 8 to head to the school, earlier in some cases, and there is rarely a full hour for lunch.  The ‘break’ for recess is usually active time for the teacher scrambling to put together material for the next lesson or talking with students who need direction.  Most Calgary teachers also have to as part of their contract supervise hallways, lunchrooms and playgrounds in rotated schedules all year so there are many days when even the lunch break is work time. The day does not end at 3 or 4 really since most teachers also have obligations to supervise a club and a sports team.  Some teachers who coach have not only practices and games at the school but go with the students to away games. The debate team supervisor may even take the students to other cities and the music club supervisor often has to arrange a lot of performances in addition to instruction time.  There are moves to try to reduce a teacher’s obligations on both fronts, both for clubs and for supervising hallways just to make sure they have time to plan lessons, meet with students, do marking and reporting – to teach. Report cards take a lot of work lately for parent expectations of detailed feedback are very high.  It generally then for a classroom teacher is often a 60 hour a week job.

But then, it has always been an intense job. What is amazing to me is that it does not let up.  The day starts, the day ends.  There are a hundred needs, someone always wanting your attention, some administrator always needing some accounting, some form to fill out, meeting to go to, phone call to answer, even when you are not standing in front of 30 kids presenting a lesson.  And the moment you are in front of the 30 kids, you are, like any actor, ‘on’.  There is no personal life, you can’t cater to your sore throat or your indigestion or your worries about what’s going on back at home. Many teachers keep throat lozenges, hand lotion and headache medicine nearby, and carry with them a bottle of water. Even though education has moved from being teacher-centred to child-centred in theory, teachers still have to be the go-to person, guiding the inquiry and at the top of their game. Most leave each day exhausted and at the end of the school year, look physically drained. A few each year just burn out.

That part is not different I guess from earlier times.  It’s always been just a fascinating and exhilarating job. Teachers see the nation’s youth, and often I feel so privileged just to see those alabaster complexions, those keen eyes that are tomorrow’s promise.  I get to be a part of their lives and in a small way influence their character or skills.  But I’m glad I get paid for it.  There are days when the antics and defiance teachers have to deal with make it so that nearly no pay is enough. But few days are like that, mercifully.

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In the schools back east, in 1858 a teacher in Upper Canada might get paid 25 cents per child, or one quarter of a cord of wood. It was common in the very early schools to base pay on the minimum number of students and their attendance.  In  1881 in Edmonton a teacher got $150 for 3 months work, but only if the enrolment held to at least 15 students each day.

In 1884 in Calgary the teacher at End of Track school was paid $500 a year and had 17 students. In 1885 the teacher for the school above the general store was hired for $300 a year.   In 1885 a teacher in the Northwest Territories made about $100-$150 a year.   There was a preference in hiring someone who came from eastern provinces and had a university degree but sometimes there was a culture shock when they arrived. If a head teacher had a first class certificate,  pay was $350 a year, if a second -class certificate $300 a year, and if a third class certificate, $250 a year.

In 1886 Calgary formed an official school district to arrange pay for teachers. By 1890 so many people wanted to be teachers that it was common for 46 people to apply for one job.

In 1895 a teacher at Hardisty was paid $900 a year and got free meals at the local restaurant.

In 1897 the territorial superintendent of education for the Northwest Territories was paid $3,000 a year.  That was more than the premier earned. 

Payment to teachers was per month, usually over 10 months.  It was not per student or per hour. The pay for a teacher with 61 students was not adjusted because of the large class.  By 1902 there were 1000 students in the public school system.

When Alberta became a province, training of teachers was set up at a ‘normal school’. The third floor of a school at the time, Central, was used in Calgary to train teachers.  In 1905 teachers in Edmonton with two years experience got paid $600 a year. A well educated high school principal however might get $1600 a year. Getting that pay might be a problem though. The Northwest Territories government only promised that a teacher must be paid every three months.

In 1907 the average wage of a teacher was about $600 a year but many still wanted the job. Soon there were about 8 men and 18 women enrolled in teacher training in Calgary.  The course lasted 4 months and had a practicum.

By 1908 there were enough would-be teachers to have the province set up a building just for them. Premier Rutherford laid the cornerstone and there were 2 teachers of teachers, and 26 students. The training lasted 4 months. Courses for teachers included penmanship, manual training, the science of education, nature studies, class management, school law and regulations.  The teachers learned how to teach children to do crafts too. The ones who wanted to become teachers were usually aged 16-22 years. Eventually the program they took lasted 8 months.

In 1910 a common salary for those teachers with university education was $40-$50 a month so $400-$500 a year. Those with university got $75 a month so $750 a year.  The salary was not guaranteed. It depended on the school board of where they got the job and it also depended on the results of an inspection of how they taught. If they were not keeping good records, if too many students were absent, if the outhouse was not clean, the teacher might lose salary.

How did this compare to other professions? In 1911 laborers got 20-30 cents an hour, so for an 8 hour day that would be about $500-$750 a year for a six day week.  Carpenters and painters got about 30-37 cents an hour so up to $923 a year. Those who worked in the sandstone quarry got about 40 cents an hour ($1000 a year) and the highly skilled stonecutters got 55 cents an hour ($1,372 a year).  Sometimes they got more than that if the workday was ten hours long.   

Just before the war there was a boom in Calgary and the principal at Hillhurst in 1912 was earning $1650 a year. The home economics teacher there got $900 a year.  The school janitor might get up to $850 a year. However in 1917 a bookkeeper got paid $160 a month or $1920 a year. 1912 saw such a boom that there was a teacher shortage. School boards were grateful to have anyone with not very much training at all though those that could afford to pay preferred someone from ‘down east’.  In 1912 of 122 teachers in Calgary, nearly half had less than one year experience here.

There were so many new people arriving that in 1912 a survey of all grade  8 students found that 75% came from somewhere else.

By 1914 the Calgary school board had nearly 200 teachers and 9587 students. In 1914 when war was declared teachers were asked to take a pay reduction so government could also support the war effort. They took a cut of 10%.. When the war ended, many of the men who had been off fighting came back to teach.

In 1922 teacher training or ‘normal school’ moved to the new Provincial Institute of Technology in Calgary, the present day SAIT campus. It was a magnificent building overlooking the hill and downtown. The building, called Heritage Hall, still exists in 2012.  It was made grandly, with twin towers, polished wood floors, wood panelled walls  and cost $700,000 to construct. It was a time of city optimism and dreams.

 By 1924 there was again an excess of teachers in Alberta.  A teacher now was paid about $950 a year but many had to also do janitorial work. In 1927 one rural teacher got $1000 a year to teach  56 pupils grades 1-8.  Most schools did not pay  the teacher per pupil though grants to the school may be given that way.

In 1928 some rural areas were still having trouble getting teachers though. 24 schools in Alberta even had to close because they could not find a teacher and the students had to go for longer trips to attend another school. A 3rd normal school was set up to train teachers. In 1929 the province even gave every normal school grad, or ‘normalite’ a loan of $400 to set them up for their first job, though they did have to pay back the loan in two years.

By 1930 there are a lot of grads from teacher training but because of the Depression, many schools were too poor to hire them. As farmers abandoned their farms, some rural schools even closed.  Some stopped operating a full 200 day year and shut down at 160 days.

The schools that stayed open could barely afford the teacher and some provided only a small salary for instance $550 a year. A few advertised they would pay more but never quite did. Eventually in 1931 the province made a rule that a teacher must be paid $840 a year.  Some schools begged the province to reduce this to $600 a year so they could afford a teacher.

In 1932 all single teachers were asked to take another pay cut, this time of 4%. Married men however if they earned under $1500 a year, did not have to take a pay cut, so they could still support their families.   Many teachers, angry at the idea of a pay cut, agreed to get less but wanted it called a contribution to the unemployment relief plan or CUR.  They were forced to make this ‘ contribution’ but at least they wanted dignity in its label.

At the end of 1932 teachers were asked to take another pay cut or CUR of 11%.  The Calgary Herald published the salary of every teacher in its newspaper. In 1934 when things were still very cash-strapped in government, teachers were asked to take yet another pay cut of 15-20%.  By 1937 some teachers were getting 17% less pay than they got in 1931.

In 1932 there was a teacher surplus again and a teacher might send out 50-100 job applications before getting a job interview.  Some delayed a year, did another job, then tried again.

There were great differences between rural and urban centres. In 1933 at Haultain school the salary for a teacher was $126 a month or $1260 a year and the principal got $2720 a year. The custodian got $100 a month.  But shortly salaries plummeted. Those who had been paid $850 a year two years later got $650 a year. There was rarely summer pay or sick pay for teachers.

In Edmonton teachers were asked to make another sacrifice- to accept some of their pay not in cash but as bonds.  They were invited to save those bonds hoping that their value would increase in 5 years. However many teachers needed the cash now, cashed in the bonds and got $83-$90 for each $100 bond. In 1934 the Calgary board asked all teachers to sign an agreement that it could at any time reduce their pay more.

Then in 1935 all teacher contracts were suddenly cancelled. Those who wanted to could reapply but all new pay scales were lower, usually 25% less than the previous year and for some, this meant pay loss of  $400 a year.  A teacher who had been making $1400 a year a few years earlier now might get $700.  One teacher, William Aberhart, was so angry that he ran for political office and won. He later even became premier. The teachers who took jobs rurally, at the new price of $450 a year in 1935 ften had to wait six months to get paid.

Teachers were of course not the only ones with money problems. In 1935 a job at a shoe store paid $14 a week or $728 a year.  However as the economy declined even that pay for shoe sales staff went down to $12, then $10 a week, so $520 a year.  Some stores just laid off workers completely.

By 1936 salaries for some teachers were about $500 a year.   By 1937 the new government under Premier Aberhart said that the salary minimum must be $620 a year.  Still many rural boards were so cash strapped there were unable to pay what they had promised. Across the province teacher salaries were now a quarter of a million dollars in arrears.  Some teachers even had to get bank loans to pay their own bills.  In the years 1936 and 1937 some boards offered $750 a year and $840 a year wages but tried to figure out ways to keep costs down. Some rural districts paid the teacher $600 a year but made her pay $35 of that for renting the teacherage.

In 1937 the province had about 3000 teachers. Many school boards again made teachers agree to being let go without cause. By 1938 though elementary teachers were still trained at normal schools, secondary teachers in Edmonton were getting trained on the campus of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. By 1939 some salaries were up again to $738 a year and then war came.

Suddenly eligible young male teachers enlisted and there was a teacher shortage again.  Some schools could not find a teacher at all and had students supervised by a ‘sitter’ while they took classes by correspondence.  There was such a rush to get new teachers that the teacher training course was reduced to two months for elementary. A special designation called ‘Permit teacher’ was created for those who were willing to teach in rural areas.

By 1940 some teachers were making $1000 a year again.

Often the pay was linked to what grades you taught.  One rural teacher in 1942 found she only was assigned grade 9 and up. This was demanding work and because her job description was purely secondary she got a $50 bonus. However one day a busload of grade 8s arrived to take the rest of the year with her and suddenly her pay dropped. She got more students but less pay because her assignment was no longer purely secondary.

In 1944 the teacher shortage continued and a 3 month training program was set up to give grads a ‘letter of authority’ to teach.  When the war ended, things changed again. All teacher training now moved to the university, and normal schools closed.

With the baby boom came another sudden demand for more schools, more teachers and another teacher shortage.  At one point there were 10,000 students overflow, needing 814 teachers, and a six week quick training course was proposed for teachers. In 1949 there was such crowding in the schools that one class at King Edward had lessons in the hallway.

By 1947 to get people to become teachers the province even offered a $200 scholarship to any high school grad entering education studies.

In 1951 after the Turner Valley discovery,  an oil boom lured not just students to drop out of school, but put teachers’ pay in perspective. It was possible to get oil field jobs for older teens at $2 an hour or $4000 a year.

By 1963 a teacher needed two years of university and by 1972 the standard increased in  many areas to at least 3 years, with a university degree. The salary of a teacher in 1969 was about $7300 a year for those with 4 years of university.

By 1977 teachers had to have a four year education at university to teach in Alberta.

It is a profession that wavers between feeling essential and feeling undervalued.  In 1935 the premier told a convention of teachers “You will become so necessary that the government will be unable to get along without you”.  There are billboards that say “If you can read this, thank a teacher”.  But at some social gatherings among professionals from other walks of life, there is still that other assumption ‘Those who can’t, teach”.  The pay sometimes reflects the dual impression the public has of the role.