Wow, I just have to reply to this post!  I am teacher and you are seriously misinformed, wherever you got your information on teaching!   First of all, the elaborate time off is a myth!@  I often work 60-70 hours a week during the school year, sometimes even more!  I often also spend weekends getting projects ready for the week or making some sort of poster that is needed for a lesson!   Yes, we get two weeks at winter break and a week at spring break–but that time is used to get ahead on some of the paperwork that never ceases to exist!  And as for summer break–I spend the first two weeks of June organizing everything that I had cleaned out.  July is spent for family time….and then the beginning of August, I start going back into the school and getting the classroom ready for the new school year!  Not to mention–the time spent over summer working on new lessons, improving lessons, etc!  What you see a teacher do–is just the performance part of the dayhappens after the day ends–both at school and taken home to continue!    A child spends typically 6 1/2 hours a day at school and another hour on the bus, if they ride one.  They are typically home and awake from say 4pm-9pm–only 5 waking hours at home. At school, the teacher is constantly interacting with the child.  At home, that is not the case.  Being a teacher is like being a parent to 20-30 children at once –I guarantee you it is not a part-time job!    Second, paymuch considering many of them, including medebt from going to college!  Did I mentionyear degree such as engineering or accounting they would be making an easy $45,000-$60,000 to start!  Also, thank to many requirements–they have to continue going to college and incur even more expenses while the accountant or engineer get continued training for free!   As for ACT/SAT scores–many teacher have very high ones!  And, what other job do you need to be well-rounded in every subject possible and be prepared for any question that a 10 year old might ask?  All teachers are required to take some classes in all subjects!  When you hear about people teaching classes that they are not qualified for–for ex: they are talking about Math teachers that didn’t take every Math class in existence there was to have a math major….it’s far from saying that they didn’t take math at all!   As for tenurealive!  And, if it wasn’t for tenure–schools would be firing experienced knowledgeable teachers to hire in new ones left and right just to be paying less!  And considering it takes a new teacher a couple years to get totally familiar with the curriculum they are teachinggood thing!  Just look at any school that has trouble keeping teachers!    In summary, I absolutely LOVE teaching as 99% of teachers do.  However, because people like you see it as an easy cake jobonce did figure out my working wage per hourwagetheir spouses picked a more reasonable paying job?    Teachers affect and change the lives of your children and yet you think that teachers should be making next to nothing–just because it is satisfying work!  I bet you wouldn’t say that to the doctor who works an hour to do a life saving surgery!   Teachers lift students to their highest potential and save lives from going to prison!  In fact, did you know that some places are actually predicting the number of prison cells they will need based on how children are doing in school as early as 2nd grade!  What would your world be like if you couldn’t read, write, or do math–just to name the basic subjects?    I would NEVER ask any of my students to pay anything for a gift for me.
in fact, I rarely get gifts as a special education teacher.  However, I would LOVE it if this country were to reevaluate where its values lie.    PS