Should I Become A Teacher?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting my teaching certificate. I’ve spent the 15 years since leaving college looking for something useful to do with my life. I’ve had well-paying jobs and jobs that I didn’t have to do too much, but I’ve hated them all. I want a job/career that has a point to it. Lately, I been thinking that teaching is the right choice for me.

Now, I know that no one reading this knows me, but I’m interested in what teachers (former, present, and future) and even students think about someone in their 30s moving into the teaching field.

I want to become a social studies teacher. In high school.

Am I mistaken in thinking that I could have a positive effect on kids?

What is the most difficult thing about being a teacher?

Students: What is it about a certain teacher that makes you respect them/listen to them?

What do you wish you knew about teaching before you entered the field?

Former teachers: Why did you leave the profession?

Any observations are welcome.

2

My favorite teacher from high school was my 10th grade Advanced English teacher, Mrs. T. She was also the academic team (quick recall) sponsor so I got to know her very well.

I respected Mrs. T because she had a “don’t mess with me and I won’t mess with you” policy. She did not play favorites and treated everyone fairly. A kid’s affluent family name meant nothing to her in class, nor was she harder (or easier) on kids with bad backgrounds. She wouldn’t put up with any BS from people but she wasn’t overly strict either. For example, she would let us bring in snacks and soda to class as long as we cleaned the mess up afterwards, but she made it clear that the first time she had to pick up a candy bar wrapper that was it for the whole class for the rest of the year.

I remember one day in class there was a discussion about marijuana, and one of the boys asked her if she had ever tried it.

She said “yes, I did, twice, and I liked it and that scared me so I haven’t touched it since.”

So many teachers would lie, and I’ll never forget thinking how cool her honesty was. No, she didn’t have to answer at all (it was none of our business), but at least she didn’t lie about it.

She also would not let the more popular kids pick on the outcasts (take a wild guess as to which group I was in). I can’t say she defended those of us that were being picked on but she wouldn’t hesitate to tell the bullies to shut up or be kicked out. That may not seem like much but I had a gym teacher that would join in on the bullying so it was nice to have a teacher who wanted her students to be decent people … and if they couldn’t be nice, to at least shut the hell up.

She tried hard to make a boring class fun, making up little songs to help us remember things. She REALLY encouraged class discussions … sometimes they turned into debates but hey, she got us thinking.

All of the best teachers I’ve ever had encouraged lots of class discussions, now that I think about it. You’re going to teach social studies so your students will have oodles to discuss, if you let them.

A big thing with Mrs. T was “maintain your dignity” – in other words, never fly off the handle and go bezerk. Every time something really bad goes wrong in my life I remember that advice and try to deal with whatever the problem is in a calm, rational manner as I’ve seen her do.

She was a strong woman. Her son had a serious heart surgery the year I had her in class, it was a life-or-death thing. She ended up missing almost a whole semester, but I respected that too because it showed that her kid was much more important to her than her career.

I go see her almost every time I’m back home in Kentucky for a visit.

As far as whether or not you can make a difference, I think you can, although … and this is just my guess here, it’s a lot harder to reach a high schooler than it would be, say, a kid. (Kids are still malleable, however a teenager’s basic personality is pretty much set, I think.)

A friend of mine is a high school biology teacher. She tells me that when you teach, your kids will try to find out EVERYTHING about you (where you live, what you drive, etc.) so you might want to be prepared for this, just in case it happens to you.

Good luck!

3

I’ve only done my student teaching, and I start my first teaching job on Monday, so this advice will probably seem really stupid to me in a year. That said:

The hardest things for me thus far are 1) you are not going to reach ALL your students, nad you can’t let that keep you from trying your hardest to reach all your students: you absolutly cannot write anybody off, but someowhere in the back of your mind the truth lurks that in 30 years you alllmost certainly will have kids you just don’t reach–there were a couple kids a failed miserably with in my student teaching, and that was really, really hard for me. WOrse, there are probablyt a couple kids I failed miserably with who I don’t even know I failed wiht–I know this only because so many people I know managed to fool teachers into thinking they had the kids on board when in fact they didn’t.

Second, and this may be my personal hang-up, but I found that while I didn’t really want/need my kids to like me, I hated, hated, hated it when they percieved me as unfair. Unfortunantly, some of that happens: I had a girl who ws convinced I told her that if she redid an assignment she had cut-n-pasted from sparknotes, I would give her full credit. I told her no such thing–I am positive of that–but she will go to her grave convinced I did and then recanted. That situation really bugged me because being fair and even-handed is so important to me.

4

Just one thing: Don’t become a SS teacher just so you can coach a sport for the school. I’m not accusing you of wanting to do that or anything of course. Its just that those teachers who care more about coaching always suck, and they’re bad for the students.

Luckily, that doesn’t seem like the case with you, since you want to make a difference (according to your OP.)

5

I’ve been a teacher for six years now. Only you know for sure if you should be a teacher or not.

Good things about being a teacher:

  • You know you are (sometimes) making the world a better place.
  • Usually you get a pretty good benefits package- health insurance, life insurance, and a reasonable number of accruable sicks days is normal.
  • There’s a nice, stable, fairly dependable retirement package waiting for you after 30 years of service.
  • You have a great deal of flexibility in how you do your job- you have a list of things your students need to learn, but how you do it is up to you. You can plan quiet working days when you’re tired or stressed, active hands-on days when you’re energetic or bored.
  • Compared to other professions, teaching offers pretty good job security. It’s actually possible to teach your whole career in the same school.
  • Summer vacations. It’s not a true ‘three months off,’ as there’s planning and preparation for next year to do as well as wrapping up last year, but you at least can choose where and when to do those things, and even with all of it you end up with a month or so off, better than most jobs.

Bad things about being a teacher:

  • The salary isn’t as awful as it used to be, but it’s still pretty low. You can live reasonably comfortably on it as long as you keep your expenses low and don’t have a taste for luxuries.
  • It’s very, very high-stress. Between the apathy of the students, the hostility of the parents, the in-school politics among teachers and administrators (which can get very nasty) and the utter moronity of the policy-makers, many teachers end up with physical and mental illnesses related to stress. Be prepared to make conscious efforts to control your stress (I use yoga, prayer, and a very involved hobby) if you want to avoid burnout.
  • Very little respect, either from colleagues/superiors or from or from the public. You need a pretty strong sense of self to know you’re doing well even when no one but you seems to believe it.
    -Isolation. Teaching can be a lonely job, spending all day with the students but very little time with people your own age. This has the effect of making many teachers extremely eccentric. It’s important to maintain healthy relationships with other adults, even though it requires extra effort.
    -Heavy work load. Summer is great, but during the school year, expect to spend several extra hours a day grading papers, making lesson plans, researching, and sitting in meetings.
    -At some point, you will have strong suspicions that you are not, after all, doing anything at all to make the world a better place. You need the ability to teach even when you’re sure you aren’t doing any good.

It’s your own decision to make. Like any job, it has its good and bad points. As for me, there are days that I come home late at night and search for truck-driving schools on the Internet, but in general, I’m content with teaching as a career choice for myself.

6

Mrs. Kunilou has been a teacher for more than 30 years, and we’ve been married for more than 20, so I can claim a little insight.

Can you make a difference in a student’s life? Absolutely. I have seen former students of Mrs. Kunilou actually thank her for the role she played in their lives.

Will you make a difference in all your students’ lives. Sadly no. In fact, you may come home every day despairing that you will ever be able to spark even a single student.

So let me ask you, do you have a view of life that always has hope, or a view that tends toward despair.

Can you face the fact that many times you will feel like you’re more interested in a student than his/her own parents? Can you cope with the paperwork, bureaucratic jungle, meetings and general crap that consumes more and more of your day each year?

In short, just ask yourself how you feel about the prospect of low pay and burnout vs. making a real, positive, life-changing difference in the lives of 1 or 2 percent of the people you come in contact with.

Light one candle or curse the darkness. What do you think?

7

I know a couple of people who shifted careers and became teachers, and who also left teaching for another career. Two left teaching and became lawyers. I suggest sitting in on classrooms or doing a little volunteering. I guess where you teach or to what type of student you teach is important, too. Social studies should be a fun topic.

8

Thank you for your input, all of you. I knew I could get a fair, even-handed look at the decision I am wrestling with.

Politics? That surprises me. What kind of politics are involved?

I’m aware of the lack of respect from society as a whole, but from colleagues/superiors? Do you have an opinion on why colleagues don’t respect each other? I thought that teachers were kind of tight with each other.

9

I could not spend all my time working with kids. That takes a special person. Good luck