Education in other countries

On Monday when the panal of students came in to talk about how teachers were treated in other countries and what education there was like, I was expecting to hear something totally different then I actually did. I was expecting them to say that teachers in their countries were treated and respected more highly then the teachers hear. I was expecting less test to be given out and education be highly respected. However, after listening to each of them speak about their countries I was surprised to hear that teachers were not as respected either. The biggest surprise was hearing about Korea. I was shocked to hear that teachers were not as respected as they used to be. After class, I then thought why? Why are teachers looked so down upon in our socity? The answer is money. In our society, jobs that bring in a great amount of money are very respected. For example lawyers and doctors. Then this brought up another question. Why are teachers paid so little? After searching the internet for an article about teachers getting paid so poorly. I came across that many believe it just might be a "myth". The article I found asks the question whether teachers are getting paid too much or too little. http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/84780/teacher-pay-international-comparison-usa-korea. The article also brings up how well other countries pay their teachers. After looking at the charts and comparing the salaries the United States just did not add up. However, my question is still unanswered. I still can not come up with a clear answer of why teachers are paid so little. If our job is to teach the future lawyers and doctors its surprising to me the salary teachers do receive after all their time, hard work, and dedication they put into their job.