let's discuss relative social worth.

[ulysses]

Poll question: let's discuss relative social worth.

A teacher, over the course of his/her career, deeply affects several thousand students and the course of their lives.

A CEO, over the course of his/her career, deeply affects several thousand employees and the course of their lives.

Which is worth more on the social scale, and why?

[sandnsea]

1. The teacher

There wouldn't be CEO's without teachers. But teachers will teach no matter the economic or social circumstance they find themselves in. They don't need an economy to support their desire to explore their surroundings and teach anyone who will listen what they've discovered.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. I voted teacher

But I am going to make ONE assumtion beyond your basic facts and that is that they were both GOOD at what they did (i.e. successful)

The actions of the CEO are more temporal....money as a resource is made then spent or saved/invested...end of story

Education on the other hand is a more inheritable resource...I have more thoughts, but time constraints at the moment are suppressing me from expounding..maybe I'll come back this in a while.

[proud patriot]

3. you know my Answer

Teachers of course .

My career of Early Childhood Professional is even
worse off . The only Professional to make less money
that us are clergy ...

[WLKjr]

4. Is it Just me

Why Shouldn't Teachers be considered Federal Employee's and recieve a lets say $75,000 to $100,000+ salary a year with awesome benefits? I think that kind of pay would take care of the teacher shortage problem.

[Steven_S]

5. I'd say teacher, followed closely by plumbers....

Without me, you all could go shit in a bucket....
:) :)

[whistle]

6. A CEO means nothing to anyone unless you are a stockholder...

...in the company the CEO is in charge of. Then if you work for that company and spend 40 years of your life there, a CEO can made a decision or implement policies that would take away everything that the workers have built for themselves.

Teachers on the other-hand can have an impact on thousands of students they have taught that will change those student's lives in unimaginable ways.

Is Bill Gates worth $400,000,000 in salary and bonuses a year, while teachers, if they are really good, might get paid $40,000 per year. That's one CEO getting ten thousand times the annual salary of a teacher. Maybe someone of Bill Gate's exceptional vision and impact on so many aspects of our world is worth that kind of pay scale. But what about the CEO's of Lockeed-Martin, or Hallibuton, DuPont, Enron, drug companies, insurance companies, wall street brokers, accounting firms and thousands of other companies where the only goal is to make huge profits and the public be damned? There has to be balance.

[dweller]

7. the teacher

what the hell would a CEO do with a roomful of 1st graders?

substitute grade levels of your choice.
dp

[forgethell]

8. A good CEO

would beat a bad teacher, any day, and vice-versa.

[Leprechan29]

9. They are interdependent

Without teachers, the CEO is not likely to be able to handle his duties. However, without CEOs (or similar positions) a company would likely not exist, thus an economy would not be as strong. If the CEO was not in his or her position, the employees would not get paid, and so the students educated under the teacher would not have the money to buy food, supplies, etc. I would give a slight nod to the teacher, just because a teacher has a more direct impact on CEOs and not vice versa, but again, without one, the other has a much harder job to do.

[Kurt Remarque]

10. i can't think of one ceo who was a positive influence on me

[Leprechan29]

12. Thats why I mean indirectly:

Somewhere a CEO runs the company that provides you with food, utilities, internet access, and most of the products you buy.

[camero]

11. We'll live without CEOs

Maybe even a little better. None of us could very well live without teachers.

[Philostopher]

13. Hey, look at it this way:

If you value CEOs (if you don't value CEOs in the overall social structure, insert doctors, attorneys, human services workers, whatever occupation you value), it could be said that the right teacher with the right tools could help enable hundreds of people to become CEOs (or any occupation) in the course of a career; how many CEOs, tools or not, enable hundreds of people to become teachers?