Is it realistic for a 50 year old woman to go into elementary ed?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was looking at my Yahoo homepage, and one of it’s feature headlines was “5 careers you can go into at any age.” One of the careers was Elementary school teacher. Now, I am a 50 plus male, and I know that there are a lot of careers that you can go into…you just won’t get hired.
So, if a 50 year old woman decides to go into elem ed., she will be 54 by the time she graduates. Is it realistic for her to expect to get hired? I put this in GQ because, although I’m asking for a judgement, this particular judgement would be based on strong citable(?) sources.

Thanks,
hh

OOps, wrong forum. Already reported. Sorry, guys.
hh

2

In some places, like the Mississippi delta, they are practically begging for school teachers. So I’d say yes, in a place like that, she would have a very good chance of being hired.

3

I don’t see why not. I know a guy who went on to teach elementary school after his 30-year military career ended. He did fine.

4

I started teaching (high school) last year, after I turned 52. Male. No one has batted an eye.

5

I’ve known lots of people who have done this. My mom was around 50 when she started teaching. The good thing about her setup is that your retirement point is calculated on age + experience!

6

I hope so, Harry. My 53-year-old sister is doing her student-teaching now.

7

No problem at all. In fact, most districts would jump to hire her. The age thing would be to her advantage, actually. The district would see her as more settled, stable, and they would also know that she would never top out the salary scale before she retired, saving them a bundle in salary.

8

As noted, this is completely doable and even common. Where it might be difficult is if she lived in a highly desirable school district with well-behaved, upper-middle-class kids, and only wanted to teach in that school district. That type of district can be selective about who it hires. It’s not so much that I think they’d discriminate against her for being 50, but that a lot of new teaching grads don’t start out in the most desirable districts, and if she lacked flexibility it could be a problem getting experience. Even then, she might be able to pull it off, since she might well know a lot of people in the area.