The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Milpitas is now nearly \$3,000 a month, a 15% spike since last September... That works out to roughly half the annual salary for early-career teachers in the district, who earned around $68,000 last year.
Some districts are looking to create teacher housing on school property--but that's expensive.
Imagine the relationship a family would have with a live-in teacher. What sort of boundaries get set? Of course one model doesn't fit every situation, and I can't imagine everything being successfully firewalled. So how much extra help does Junior get from the teacher? How much extra help does the teacher get from the family?
Some years ago I mused about the possible increase in the number live-in servants. I should revisit that. We'd need some changes in home design.
We used to do this routinely. Even well into the 20th Century this was done, especially in rural places. The teachers lived with a family. She was provided her meals as a part of her pay. She was expected to help with the chores, although it's doubtful she had to be asked; she would have pitched in as a matter of course. She had her own room, and was expected to keep it up. She took part in the life of the family, although she could plead off if she wanted some down time. In the early days she would have been expected to worship with the host family, and even much later the community would have expected to see her in church. The host family was usual a school board member or a prominent family in the community. She could date, but her beau had to be squeaky-clean; he'd probably be someone from the community. And a marriage, at least in the early days, meant the end of her teaching career. That ceased to be a concern as time went by.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Junior needed some help with his homework? He'd get it, and he'd get it with a smile. What else was she going to say?
I look for this to come back. It's a practical solution; the host family could be given something above and beyond her salary, and she'd be in the community without such a long commute; she could even save some money and be able to enjoy life.