He claims that teachers work 1,100 hours a year. I can claim that teachers work 2,000 hours a year. Making up numbers and passing them off as facts is ridiculous; where in the world does Mr. Moran get his numbers?

In the district I live in (in the interest of full disclosure, as the Times Union says, my wife and I are both teachers), the minimum time a teacher can work is about 1,300 hours, not including staff meetings, parent-teacher conferences, planning lessons, devising and grading homework assignments, and extracurricular activities.

I would guess that the average teacher works close to 2,000 hours a year, and the truly great teacher works more. What's amazing about teachers is that they work those hours in 10 months rather than 12; doesn't that make them more hard-working?

And that's just the outright inaccuracies. Mr. Moran, all professions have some people who will just "go through the motions," but for most people, to quote our school supervisor: "Personal pride, integrity, self-worth and professionalism necessitate that teachers, like all employees ... do their best at whatever jobs they perform." And that is abundantly true of the teachers in our school system.

This is cache, read story here