Cultural Analysis of "Pay Teachers More"

In this blog post, I am going to be analyzing the cultural messages discussed in "Pay Teachers More," which is the single text, out of the three in my "Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations" blog post, that I chose.

My cultural keywords are "salary," "performance," and, of course, "education."

• Salary: Clearly the article is centered around the topic of salary, but it is stressed in different ways:
• The amount that teachers are receiving in comparison to other countries and professions, is undeniably low.
• The controversy and argument between saying whether teachers are overpaid or underpaid.
• Salary connects with performance, as the article gave international examples of excelling educational programs, with high teacher salaries.
• The amount that a person gets paid can also be a sign of respect that they have in a society.

• Performance: The article discusses not only the teacher's performance as an educator, but also the student's performance level. 
• The teachers perform better, or have a greater incentive to try harder, if they are paid more.
• The children are statistically proven to heed economic benefits later in life if they had a good teacher. 
• In other countries around the world, teaching, as a profession, accept students that are at the top of their college graduating class.

Bob Cotter. "The Importance of a Teacher." 11/08/2011 via Flickr.
Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic License.

• Education: Again, this article obviously revolves around education, but not just the current student's education.
• Undergraduates involved in education often graduate at the bottom thirty percent of their class. 
• If "good teachers" were more available throughout K-12 years, than the differences in the levels of education between the whites and blacks would be indiscernible.
• The Center for Education Reform is pushing for an increase in teacher's salaries.
• Many claim that the education system would drastically be changed if there was an increase in salary.

The basic thesis or argument for this article is as follows: If teacher's salaries were to be raised, the performance level of themselves and their students would greatly increase, and the benefits would be evident through an economic, social and physical standpoint.

This exercise is going to be very helpful in this upcoming Project--not only have I determined what the thesis is in the text, but also I have highlighted a few key words that are important to mention.

--Jenny Bello