Are you FREAKING Serious????

So, after my blog the other day, where I talked about how I wish I could stay home and not have to work anymore and how I'm feeling STUCK in my job, well, there's more GOOD NEWS.

The WONDERFUL governor of Oregon has declared today that he would like all teachers to, ahem, get ready for this, WORK FOR FREE THIS SPRING in order to save the state money b/c of massive budget cuts. Cutting days would hurt the kids (YES, I agree), but working for free?? I am livid.

Echoing what my friend Janelle said in her blog, I feel like this is a huge slap in the face. The HOURS I pour into my job, the HOURS of unpaid time I give to my job, and now, "please work for free?"

If I could add up how much money out of my own pocket I spend on my classroom over the past 7 years, or the times when students don't bring lunch money and I buy snacks/lunch for them out of my own pocket, it would be a huge amount. I go to school and take classes, and spend LOTS of my own personal money to further my professional growth so I can be a better teacher b/c that's what I WANT to be, and then this? Why am I doing this?

Yes, I love teaching and I'm "in it for the kids"...but after taking SO MUCH crap over the years, being totally underappreciated (but still doing the best that I can and WANTING to be a better teacher all the time), this just makes me feel undervalued all the more.

I WON'T DO IT. I'm sorry...It's a HORRIBLE precedent to set to say "yes this is okay". I've done this before with my own job, when I come in on my own time and not get paid, and now it becomes "expected" of you. I'm NOT DOING THIS!