I was listening to a debate the other night on one of those knock-’em-down-politics TV shows, and the subject of the Chicago’s teacher’s strike came up. The conservative battler said the salaries of these teachers is $70,000 a year (which I don’t know is true or not but I’ll take as right for this piece), and that a heck of a lot of folks these days would love to have such a salary. He added that it’s also just 10 months of work a year.

Well, I don’t know. Working 10 months a year trying to teach kids who often just come for the free (or subsidized) breakfasts and lunches, and maybe spend after school hours participating in the gang violence rocking the city. Great pay for this kind of work? I know greeters at Wal-Mart get paid less. Still…

But what I really thought about when I heard this pay figure spouted out by a guy who obviously thinks school teachers are overpaid is one of my all-time favorite advertisements. It was for a premium helmet of the kind you wear while riding a motorcycle. The commercial ran: “If you have a $15 head, buy a $15 helmet.”

Isn’t that great? Is it possible to sum up in so few words the idea that you get what you pay for?

Which brings us back to the subject of school teachers’ pay. You got of $15 kid, give him or her over six or eight hours a day to a $15 school teacher. Sound like a good idea?

If so, perhaps you should consider birth control. Because parent-wise, to my way of thinking, you may be missing something important.