The middle school at which I teach is currently in the midst of a dust-up over prep time during parent conferences. Many years ago, we had to teach a full day, then stick around for four more hours for evening conferences, then show up bright and early the next morning for another full day of conferences. Our union fought to change this so that we would not have to teach on the day of conferences. As it is now, we have prep time until noon, then have conferences until 8:00. We come back the next morning and have conferences until noon. It still makes for a long day, but at least we aren't being required to converse intelligently with parents after a day of corralling their kids!

Now they want to change the schedule so that we have two evening conference periods, in order to accommodate parents who work during the day. To do so would once again require us to give up the hard-won prep time.

Our union reps have pointed out the history of our current schedule and the potential hazards involved with willingly giving up plan time. One of our teachers sent out a staff-wide email that such an argument was a "red herring," and that the plan time was unnecessary and was only implemented for the benefit of "teacher convenience," rather than willingness to accommodate the parents. The entire gist of his message was that if we really cared about the job, we would be willing to put up with a little inconvenience.

I'm not sure how others reacted, but I took great offense to his email. To me, it implied that those who wanted the plan time were somehow less dedicated than those who were willing to give it up. It perfectly illustrates one of the primary problems with public education in America: Many teachers are willing to give up their professional skill and time for little or no compensation, which sends society the message that what we do has little value, monetary or otherwise.

The best analogy, to me, seems to be that of a co-dependent relationship. As long as one party is willing to put up with ill-treatment and disrespect, the other party will never change for the better. The abuse will continue, and the system will stay broken.

Am I overreacting here?