Showing Up

Woody Allen famously said that “80% of success is just showing up.” Though we can’t be sure of it, we suspect he may have been referring not so much to show business or life in general, but to the ins and outs of being a member of a teachers union. At page one of yesterday’s New York Sun, our Kathleen Lucadamo reported on 25 teachers in New York City public schools pulling down six-figure salaries. Many different factors are at work — such as retroactive salary increases for the years New York City teachers worked without a contract. No one says the teachers didn’t earn their pay. But most made the money they did simply because they have shown up for long enough and have taken on a few extra chores.