Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998
Salaries of teachers vs. NBA players show where priorities lie
As I read the sports section of the USA Today on Feb. 5, it dawned on me how our views of what is important are so displaced.
Laurian R. Bowles (lrb122@psu.edu) is a junior majoring in journalism and African American studies and a Collegian columnist.
What kind of world do we live in where there are people making
$100 million to dribble a ball down a court? I don't understand
how this can occur, considering that the average starting salary
of a teacher is $25,200, according to U.S News and World Report.
If your salary measures your success, then teachers are not worth
the benches that NBA players sit on. Imagine a world where we
valued the truly important things.
What is more important, watching a man throw a ball into a net,
or having someone being taught how to read from a dedicated teacher?
I prefer the latter. If you argue the first point, then I must
ask you, why are you in college? We should all aspire to be NBA
players, and spend our time shooting layups instead of reading
a book. What a world we would have then. We would have a bunch
of illiterates running around the court, who are not able to read
the letters on their jerseys nor the numbers on the scoreboards.
There are some discrepancies in the values of this society. Kevin Garnett signed a deal for $126 million, yet there are teachers in this country who do not and will not, make that much money in a lifetime. In some urban areas, the story is bleak, with school budgets lower than some NBA players' salaries.
If this is the case, how about basketball players and teachers
switch places for the next millennium and then we will see the
real strength of teachers? If teachers had half the funds given
to these players, there would be a lot more students learning
and a lower dropout rate.
But I live in a fantasy world, because the basketball-loving industry
refuses to see things my way, and I have encountered enough arguments,
for each of which I have a reply.
Some people say that basketball players are role models for children.
So are teachers. If I had modeled myself after some of the NBA's
finest, instead of my third grade teacher, I would be ejected
from society. My consolation would be that I could walk back to
my cardboard box with a pair of Air Jordans on my feet.
Other people think I am a basketball hater. Not true. In fact,
I like the game over any other. It is one of the few places black
men can showcase their talent to the world and get paid handsomely
for it. I just have a problem with the ridiculous amounts of money
these NBA players are paid.
It takes finesse to play basketball, I will not argue there, but
the efforts of a first grade teacher to calm down a rowdy bunch
of students is no easy task either. Instead of merely giving them
a summer vacation to recuperate, how about we give them more money.
Most school teachers have a main goal -- to get their students
to think. Now, I ask you to do the same. It is time for us to
think about the important things, such as the value of an education.
Learning in the classroom is simply a hand to help us succeed
in the world. There needs to be more women and men teaching children
their ABC's. We need more than another point guard on the court
to accomplish that. There are more jobs in the teaching field
that need to be filled, while basketball teams overflow with overpaid
bench warmers and water boys.
The closing argument is this, where would you be without a good
teacher? Most likely, not here. You would be in a room somewhere
attempting to decipher the difference between blue and green,
because no one taught it to you.
Where would you be with one less overpaid basketball star? You would be using the lessons that the good teacher instilled in you while looking at the blue sky and green grass with an appreciation of what that great teacher taught you.
