“You’ll get your 
reward in 
Heaven.” 
Mom

I was informed last night that this week is National Retired Teachers Week. I never knew there was such a thing. Not surprisingly, this got me thinking about my years of experience in education.

Throughout my childhood, whenever a situation arose in which I felt that I wasn’t getting what I deserved, my mother would calmly say, “You’ll get your reward in Heaven.” The quote has its roots in the Bible — Matthew 5:12. If I remember correctly, Mom’s words were not always soothing to hear. Those words meant that, in my opinion, I was getting screwed.

I heard the same words from several of my elementary school teachers, mostly Sisters of Mercy, at Saint Gabriel School in San Francisco. They, too, wanted to pacify us by promising that, in the end, we would be justly rewarded for our efforts, accomplishments, and sacrifices which were not adequately recognized or appreciated at the time.

After passing the entrance exam for the San Francisco Fire Department, and receiving a letter informing me that I was invited to begin my firefighting career in the next training class, I made a decision which completely baffled my father. I chose to pursue a career in teaching. Not just teaching, but teaching in Catholic schools. Dad thought I was crazy, knowing full-well that the financial compensation and job security of a job with the SFFD would be much more beneficial than anything I would receive from the Catholic Church. He was right, and I knew it. Still, I did what I thought I was being called to do at the time.

Throughout my teaching career, the message I received from administrators in regards to salary and benefits was the same message I’d heard from my mother and elementary school teachers. While diocesan leaders and school administrators acknowledged that salaries were consistently well-below those being paid in public schools, teachers were also required to substitute without compensation for other teachers when they were absent. We were required to take on lunch supervision requirements, serve as moderators of club activities, and take on other responsibilities without additional pay. And Catholic school teachers were required to attend numerous school-related activities, in the evenings or on weekends, without compensation. The general message we received from admins seemed to indicate that, somewhere in our contract, was a clause promising that we would get our reward in Heaven.

I devoted 43 years to working for the Catholic Church in a variety of schools and parishes. For the most part, I enjoyed what I did. I accepted the implied, though rarely verbalized, assurance that justice would be served in the afterlife. Whether there is any truth to this remains to be seen. I also accepted numerous roles and responsibilities for which I knew I would not be compensated. When people love what they do, we just do these things.

As I look back at my career now, from the viewpoint of someone who has been retired for eleven years, and watch the value of my pension check shrink from month to month, I realize that yeah, I got screwed. My pension does not include cost of living increases. Nor does it include health benefits. I receive one check monthly, in the same dollar amount, for the remainder of my life.

Since this is something which, at this point, I cannot control, I’ve learned to accept it for what it is. I do, however, have ever-increasing hope that the message in Matthew’s Gospel, echoed by my mother and my elementary school teachers, is a reality and not just a convenient phrase intended to pacify us in frustrating times.