I really appreciate your perspective about being glad that the next generation of teachers don't have some of the same struggles you dealt with in your career. When I began teaching 18 years ago, I set a firm line that I would never use my money to buy things for the program. If the school wouldn't pay for it, then we did without, and I would be honest to any parents or community members why we were without. I have worked to keep hard boundaries between my personal life and my job and have, for the most part, been successful in my career without allowing it to take over my life or my family's finances.

I think much of the disagreement that we are seeing is a result of folks from a previous generation who gave up time and spent personal money that they never should have had to. Unfortunately, rather than recognize that they were guilted into bad boundaries with their job, they wear it as a badge of pride, see it as "just part of the job," and expect that every teacher following them should be glad to do the same.