I work in the infant room of a high-quality childcare center. Roughly half of the teachers at the center, including myself, have a master's degree. Every teacher at the center has a bachelor's degree. I am paid better than the teachers in Emily's article, although I make far less than a public school teacher - teachers with a MA at my center typically make about $15/hour. We work year-round (the center only closes for 8 holidays) and get 10 days of vacation.

I go to work every day for the children in my classroom. It is easy to grow attached to them, and while they can be a handful (they're all young toddlers right now, so we see lots of attempted biting, hitting, and pinching), a spontaneous hug from a child completely makes my day.

Unfortunately, the parents are not as good at expressing their appreciation. I have received exactly two "thank you"s from parents in the last several months. Seeing as how I interact with 14 parents on a daily basis, that's a very unimpressive number. At pick-up, the parents are often so overwhelmed with making the transition from worker to parent and finding out the details of their child's day that it's all they can do to remember their car keys on the way out the door. At Christmas and the end of the year, the parents often chip in to get each of us a gift card. I am appreciative of the gift, but I would much rather get a thank you, or at least an acknowledgement of the fact that I go above and beyond my job description to keep their child happy and healthy - I frequently buy toys and supplies without reimbursement from the center and I spend hours at home working on the weekly notebook and scrapbook of the two children for whom I act as primary caregiver. However, the number one comment I seem to hear at pick-up is "Oh, her pretty skirt is all dirty." I mean, come on, if you send your child to school and expect them to spend time on the playground and make all sorts of art projects to decorate your cubicle, don't send them in an expensive outfit! But I digress. The main point of this rant is that I encourage each of you to make a point of thanking your child's teacher for their work. It doesn't take long, and it really means a lot to us to hear that you're happy to have found a good caregiver for your child while you have to be at work.