Money-the greatest driving force of American culture to date. It is not crazy to say in the world of 2021 that the sentiment that, “money makes the world go round,” has been held true by most developed nations. The economy is a plague that infiltrates every aspect of life. In order to have the essential needs of living- food, water, shelter, and clothes- items must be bought. In order to have the money to buy life needs, one must work in a job, not matter how cruelly laborious, to provide a steady source of income to provide for themselves, and potentially a family. In order for workers to get paid, their bosses must be finding a steady source of wealth to provide the income to their workers. It is a constant ongoing cycle, where only the wealthy, the top 1%, ever get to feel comfortable, while everyone else suffers trying to claw their way through life with the bare necessities.

Much of this issue, can be seen through the public education system. While the government does not hold stake in all businesses, as some are private, government controls almost everything when it comes to schooling. They control the curriculums, sometimes with no one in government having prior experience with teaching children, that are used to make children better test takers, where the child grows up unprepared for the outside working world. An even bigger issue, however, is that education is the means of sustaining a country, training children to get to the next step in their life to become a doctor, a teacher, a prolific writer, or even a garbageman, but it is not treated as such. Education does not see a decent portion of money from the government; a huge chunk ends up in the pockets of the military. This then fuels a system of miserable administration and teachers, that came into a job intrinsically, but find no benefit to it beyond helping children. At a certain point, a teacher’s intrinsic want to aid others in working their way up through life cannot sustain their enjoyment of teaching. In many other countries, teachers are paid a lot more than what is seen in America, where some are even paid salaries close to those doctors see in those countries. Teaching, overseas, is a prestigious occupation, where most are influenced to get their doctorate’s in education and have to endure strict certification protocol, to have the best of the best influencing children through the next stages of their life. That same grandeur of the profession is not seen in America. Many of my own teachers only got paid between $40,000- $50,000, with some that are close to retire getting more towards $60,000, forcing some to get second jobs outside of their teaching schedule. They have to juggle reviewing lesson plans, creating plans to engage the most students, grade papers, all while trying to remain content when their own country is not supporting their endeavors. Teachers deserve better because the children of America, the future of America, deserve better. Teachers are the building blocks of a childhood and should be treated as such, but the American government does not value them enough, equating a beg for a slightly heighten income as an inconvenience to all.

It is not hidden, as of 2021, that teaching is one of the most rigorous occupations that have an income that does not reflect that. No matter what level a teacher is teaching at, they deserve praise, but with the way the world works, that is not good enough. Money is the fuel that keeps America aflame, making it a necessity for teachers to get paid more, so that they do not end up passing their misery onto their students. A happy teacher is a happy student, where a teacher would be a lot happier if they were paid in the way they deserve, as they have the ability to make or break the future, through their influence of the children they teach.