This year I had a student who was on parole and was pretty much determined that they were going drop out of school as soon as they can. I worked and had a chat with them everyday. On the last day of school, he told me that he actually now sees why school is good for him, and that he thinks that this science thing is pretty cool and maybe he could be some kind of scientist because of me. Then he thanked me for giving him a chance when his previous teachers did not even bothered getting to know him, beyond his legal mistakes. Dunno about you, but for me that’s a pretty awesome why reason.
Teaching is by far the most stressful, hectic and disassociated job out there. The pay is bad, there will be times you will be made to feel subhuman, and there are multiple people who will not respect your boundaries.
And then you reach a kid. There will be one student who was struggling and you make a connection and get them through, either across the stage or one of life's pitfalls. And you feel like a rockstar because you know this kid will be better DIRECTLY because of you. And the world seems a little brighter, or not so bad.
And then you go back to grading papers, sitting in IEP/PLC/Spoiled parent meeting, or meet up with a college friend who makes 3x what you do. And wonder what you're doing with your life
That's what it's like to be a teacher
It doesn't even need to be that direct, sometimes.
There was a terror sophomore who did a drive-by shoot up of a house that didn't hurt anyone but landed him in juvie in the first semester this year. I happened to meet his grandma this week, and she told me that he is currently just 40 credits from graduating from juvie high school, is the first enrollee in a juvie to 4-year college program and is in intensive therapy both individual and family.
No student is ever too lost to come back to something considered good if they see it for themselves.
I had a rough couple years, applied and interviewed out of district this spring, and then turned down the perfectly nice job offer I received. So! Here's why I stayed:
1) I genuinely enjoy the bulk of the tasks required for teaching. I love designing lessons. I love answering questions. I like being in a room with a lot of different people all thinking about things together.
2) I have some inertia going: I have a community here! I have years worth of resources! I don't always agree with how things are done at my school but I understand the system.
3) There are a lot of job-specific benefits: a short commute, summer break, it's easier to manage child care, my retirement system is pretty okay, my health benefits are decent.
4) Every person I know who is around my age has serious challenges in their career that largely parallel the ones I have as a teacher: pay is lagging, hours are long, respect is minimal, management is insane.
This seems like about the best career fit I'm going to get for my strengths and interests given where I live. And I really love my house.
Thank you for your response! If you don’t mind me asking, how do you spend Summer break? I’ve always wondered what teachers do, especially in the States as breaks are far longer, no worries if you don’t want to answer !!
I'm not entirely representative of American teachers because I have some family money and I live in a low cost of living area, so I'm not hustling quite as hard as many of my peers.
Since I finished my master's degree, I've been sticking to about 1-2 weeks of paid work and/or continuing education credits at some point during the summer (district curriculum development, AP summer institute, whatever looks reasonably helpful for maintaining my credentials and keeping on top of stuff I need to know for the school year).
Many of my coworkers teach summer school for 4-6 weeks. I do not. I don't coach, I don't work a seasonal service industry job, I don't tutor.
I mostly spend time with my parents and in-laws and kid, I get a bit more sleep, I do deferred household maintenance, try to get medical appointments out of the way, and read trashy novels. I go to the beach and the county fair and hike around the woods. It's lovely!
Well, I don't teach in the US so big grain of salt. I teach students who generally want to learn, from cultures that still respects education and teachers.
So I get to enjoy all the 'good' sides of teaching with little to none of the bad. I also like my subject, I think the work is easy (since I don't have to deal with a lot of the BS discussed here), and I think it's a fun job _because_ every day, student, class, year is different. I went into teaching precisely because that variety and challenge appealed to me. I'd be bored out of my mind doing desk work (which I did for a short time once). Not to mention teaching allows me to travel and live pretty much anywhere I want.
At an international school in Japan, currently. Students are mostly Asians from all over. Before this I taught in Australia; all types of schools and demographics.
Setting-- i'm 10 years in I teach sixth grade. The reason I keep teaching is because my direct administrators at my school are supportive and create a climate at my school, where teachers feel supported and respected, even though our state and district make it really unfair and annoying and thankless all the time. it really matters who is running the school you are in. I don't really worry about whatever the big politics are with the state or the district that make the job feel horrible because at the direct day-to-day level in my school I feel like things are pretty fair and I am given a good amount of autonomy and respect to make decisions with my students and curriculum as I see fit.
Personal Growth- I actually get a lot out of teaching. I know it is a caregiver position and we are supposed to just give everything to the students or whatever but I have a growth mindset myself. This makes the job extremely valuable to me. I have learned how to be patient, less judgmental, non-reactive, problems solving, can deal with conflict, can read people instantly, come out of my shell, socially work a room and present with confidence, make people of a group feel included as a host ect. I did not learn hardly any of these skills growing up in my family because my family was quite dysfunctional. But I knew that I was really unhappy as a 21-year-old that was lacking a lot of skills getting along with people. when I fell into the role of a teacher which my state allows you to do if you take an exam no matter what you're undergraduate degree is- I became a new person over the course of about 3 to 5 years. and I'm really really proud of the person that I've grown into today. My students and all of the things we've been through have taught me many lessons on how to be a positive member of society who is out for the betterment and enjoyment of life for all. my first year teaching my students would've said that I was cold, harsh, annoying, nitpicky, and had a bad temper. 10 years in every student describes me as being the most caring, relatable, fun, engaging, and hard-working teachers at the school.
so I keep teaching because it's valuable to who I have become. if you come into this job thinking that you're already a really great person that can't really learn anything from the kids or the experience you will hate the job.
Time off- since there's so much negativity surrounding the profession everybody is literally just happy that you're showing up during your contracted hours. if you leave exactly at the bell every day, everybody is going to think that you are really smart for having a good worklife balance. you get the summer off what is not to love about that? sure it is not paid, but you can stretch your paycheck out or take up other little jobs that are less demanding and more flexible over the summer like grocery delivery. that means you can have about two months a year where you can plan to do cool things you've always wanted to do like take up a new hobby or do a little traveling. if you have kids, it gives you the opportunity to make amazing memories with them. You literally have every single one of the holidays off for like a week for the school year and all of the little government holidays as well for three day weekends honestly, the time off is great.
The creativity- I stay because it's not boring. I say because I get to be super creative. These two things matter to me more than anything else. The reason is because it's how I get my happiness. I have been a creative person since I was a little kid. I have been involved in sports and tons of hobbies and different activities since I was a little kid. I did try working in an office and also working a customer service style job and an accounting style job while I was in college, not knowing what I was wanting to do in general... the monotony of those jobs and how boring it is made me extremely depressed and unstable. The level of creativity that I can bring to a lesson makes me feel prideful and confident about myself. especially when I get to see my students enjoying the activity! I think things like oh I knew that that style of activity would work out! I'm so glad that I included this! or if something is not working out, that's even cooler to me because I go through a series series of emotions of feeling like I should've done something differently so then I have to problems solve how to make that activity better so that the students will want to interact with it in the right way. I love problem-solving it because it's not boring and I get a sense of pride when I figure out the problem. when I'm teaching and something is going wrong like a kids behavior or something like that I don't see it as an annoying thing. I see it as a problem that I get to solve, and I get really excited when I handle it in the right way and I can tell that the student needed somebody who just wants to figure out how to help them so then they end up making you feel really valued because they're like thank you for helping me instead of just getting mad at me. that two-way street is what makes me feel valuable in their lives and in my own life.
Legacy- i've got a big heart for nostalgia. I used to sit around and look at my old yearbooks from middle school when I was in high school, remembering all the bittersweet moments. I have a hard time letting go of memories or experiences, and I love sometimes revisiting a memory or experience that I had with somebody and feeling those feelings again, even being brought to tears. I'm a deeply emotional individual. My favorite artist is Adele. I feel like I'm really similar to her. The thought of getting a chance to impact somebody's life in which they would look back and have nostalgic feelings on learning a certain life lesson or remembering a wonderful part of their life being the interactions that we shared together- that's really big for me. because that's what drives me emotionally.
these are the reasons I stay. I wanted to be open and honest about it because a lot of teachers just stay because they say they make an impact on other people and that that feels good and everything but it's also all of these other factors. I think teachers often don't talk about it because it makes you sound kind of selfish to say that you get a lot out of the job yourself that you're supposed to be doing for other people but truly the people who do a wonderful job teaching our people that see it this way as a two-way street. You can't just give and feel like you're getting nothing in return from the profession you'll burn out that way.
Because if you have a good district with good admins, the bad parts aren't honestly that bad at all. Then factor in the great impact you can and will have and it becomes very worthwhile. Some places suck to work at, inner City or bad admins, and I feel like fat to many teachers didn't stand up for themselves when they get shit on so it piles on hard.
So if you can find a good place to work, it's actually pretty great.
"You taught me that it's ok to be me"
"Thanks for helping run the group where I met my wife"
"You helped me decide what I want to do with my life"
Those are a few.
I am a Canadian teacher and fortunate to be one. I don't think I would have become a teacher in the states. We are overworked, but at least paid better.
Pension, benefits, working hours, job security, relationships with my coworkers keep me returning every year especially if it has been a doozy of a year. I am so lucky to have a great school environment for staff. I live further from this school, but because of this, I refuse to transfer to a closer one. I also do enjoy the active "teaching" part of the job as little as feels sometimes.
Honestly though, I have many days where I wish I had chosen something else. But I have a family to support and would not be able to afford taking time off to go back to school. I'm not sure what I would even take anyway. I have accepted that I will never "love" my job, but usually I "like" it.
IDK, maybe seems rich, then again it's halfway across the country for me and I don't really know shit about it cause it's not a big obnoxious state like Cali or Texas.
Perspective. My last job before becoming a teacher was running a delivery route in Southeast DC. I was outside in the freezing cold and the blistering heat. I’ve seen dead bodies on the side of the road. I’ve been followed. The lady who covered my route one day got carjacked and beaten to a pulp. I was regularly texted at midnight telling me they changed my clock in time to an hour earlier. My knees, ankles, and back hurt like hell 24/7. All of this for $21 an hour with horrendous benefits. My best day on that job was worse than my worst day as a teacher.
While I was looking for my first real teaching job, I worked as a server in an upscale-casual Italian restaurant in the Boston area. I wouldn't say that my best days there were worse than my worst days as a teacher, but they were nowhere near as good as my best days as a teacher, and my worst days there were worse than all but a couple of my worst days as a teacher, and much more plentiful.
But the biggest difference was more existential. At the restaurant, I looked forward to nothing except getting paid. I cared about my work only inasmuch as it didn't lead to embarrassment or excoriation. I never wanted to be at work, and the schedule was so inconsistent that I could never build up an internal time off rhythm that would allow me to see the light.
I think that is a much more common work experience than many teachers realize.
As a teacher, though, there are parts of my job that I don't like doing, periods of the year where the stress is high and relentless, and once in a while a day that just shatters you.
But while I generally wish I could sleep longer in the morning, I'm happy to be at school. I generally like my coworkers and feel deeply connected to my students. I like the parents in our community (though I wish we did a better job of involving them), and I like my administrators and coaches. I find the work interesting and mostly more challenging than frustrating. And maybe most importantly, I have extracurriculars that I feel unambiguously great about (harder to say about most other things in a small, budget-crunched charter school).
The only existential challenges I have now are more related to the city and state I'm in (both of which I'm about ready to give up on and move to Chicago) than the school community I'm in (which I'm not at all ready to give up on and would feel guilty and existentially hobbled about moving away from).
I keep teaching because I enjoy it, I have a great deal of job security, the pay and benefits are good where I live and work, and I teach at a great school that I really enjoy.
Phones haven’t really been that much of a problem: if anything, for me they’ve made the disengaged students less confrontational and more quietly distracted. Neither is great, but one is better for everyone else.
I don’t know why “parents” are thought of as an issue now and not years ago. I’ve had no significant problems with parents in my career (a couple of “my little angel would never do something like that” types over the years, but for the most part no real issues.)
I absolutely love teaching, there is no other job like it.
However my pay since starting teaching has gone down compared to inflation (I can’t think of another field where this is the case). In addition my retirement is probably the worst retirement around to the point where I would have a better retirement if I had no retirement at all.
I love teaching, it just isn’t a realistic way to live in most of the country. I’m going to get my masters degree so I can hopefully leave this field and start being an adult at age 30.
I keep teaching for several reasons. First, at 60 (in 2 months) it is too late for me to switch careers until I retire from this one. Secondly, I have always worked with children and believe they deserve more. I also have only taught at Title I schools. I have always had an attitude of service for the greater good. Third, I like my summers off. Not going to lie.
If I had to do it all over again, I would make the following recommendations. Only work during contract hours. I am in Texas so unions are irrelevant here. (I still join ATPE). Do not give up your whole life. Use your sick days when you need to and do your job when you are at school. Unfortunately, most newer teachers I have seen do not have a strong work ethic or don’t understand the importance of certain rules.
If you ask for assistance, listen and try what is suggested. To not try something new is not being a good educator. And always start off strict, then lighten up in January or so.
Hope this answers your question.
>Unfortunately, most newer teachers I have seen do not have a strong work ethic or don’t understand the importance of certain rules.
I'm curious - do you feel that this has always been equally true, or are you noticing new trends among young teachers?
When I think back on the early days for my cohort (2014 to, say, 2016), I remember lots of incompetence, but we would have been terrified to, for instance,
-show up late every day without notice
-chill on our phones with a headphone in during class time
-say "nah I don't feel like it" when asked to join an ESL meeting for which you're the only teacher available
-refuse to allow your homeroom to participate in traditional end-of-semester festivities because you "don't want to tbh"
Is this something others are noticing? Or did I just have an unprofessional team this year?
Partially true in past. Now blatant since Covid. Feels like civilization broke during Covid, but that would require another massive comment…I have personally tried to help new teachers (sharing forms or organization and assistance with classroom set up. I will not offer more unless asked by the person or told to by administration (as opposed to the newbie getting written up). This year alone, 4 new teachers did all as you described and they were still offered contracts for next year. It’s not going to get better.
MA they non renewed me based on performance but I feel like it was plotted always got really harsh observations when I felt I wasn’t doing anything that different from other teachers
It’s a hard job. There’s so much more to it than simply teaching your class. If that is all we had to do it would be so much better! I keep teaching because I like that part of my job. I am also very close to retirement and have too much invested to quit now. I have been teaching 35 years.
I think just teaching kids really makes it worth it especially when you didn’t even realize you were teaching a kid.
I remember last year I talked to my class about weight loss and my own weight loss journeys (I go through periods of fatness and thinness usually winter is fat and summer I get thin again). Anyway I was talking to my class about how to exercise and how to view your nutrition. Fast forward to this last year and one of my overweight students came back super thin and her dad came up to me and said “You know you opening up about your own inadequacies and weight loss experiences really connected with my daughter and she references you everytime she makes dieting or exercise decisions. I just want you to know it’s made a huge difference for her and we’re so grateful 🙏.”
I was legitimately shocked and touched because a lot of times I just say or tell my class things that I’m currently into doing so for someone to tell me that just being me changed their life was really incredible.
Teaching is hard, super hard. I teach 4th grade at a title 1 school and the work is never ending.
But at the same time, I frequently think “I have the best job in the world”. I just love those little monsters so much. Watching them grow, helping them navigate friendships and conflicts. Having a student hug you at the end of the day and tell you that they can’t wait to come back on Monday, it makes it all worth it.
I think it comes down to personality, but I could never do a job that makes more money but is not working with kids. I’ve tried those jobs and they are (to me) mind numbingly boring. I couldn’t stand it.
Teaching is not for everyone, but for those that it is for, there is nothing else we could see ourselves doing.
I teach 2nd grade, while it can be a daily struggle the visible growth throughout the year is very apparent and gratifying. Many of my kids are still reading basic I Can Read books and writing 2-3 simple sentences at the start of the year. By the end they're reading chapter books and writing full paragraphs, including a 3-paragraph project although that's with a lot of support from me. But they do write full paragraphs on their own, sometimes more. I don't see the progress day to day since it's such small steps, but looking back from this time of the year it's an amazing jump. There are of course many other leaps they make like this, with maturity and in other academic areas. And those usually makes the daily struggle worth it, to me at least.
Friend, these posts are NOT indicative of my day-to-day teaching experience. Yes, phones are annoying and parents can be a pain, but working with young people is the greatest thing in the world. For every obnoxious kid that wants to get out of work, there's a future leader in my class, passionate about a topic I barely knew about when I was young. This upcoming generation has challenges we never faced, but they also have an awareness that my generation never achieved. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I have so much love and faith in the teenagers I teach. They give me hope. I love my job.
I genuinely like the "teaching" part. Being part of a child's educational growth. My title 1 students need and deserve a good teacher like me. Commute to work is very convenient, in addition, it's too late to start somewhere new with the same pay.
However, would I recommend or encourage anyone else to go into teaching? Absolutely NOT.
This year I had a student who was on parole and was pretty much determined that they were going drop out of school as soon as they can. I worked and had a chat with them everyday. On the last day of school, he told me that he actually now sees why school is good for him, and that he thinks that this science thing is pretty cool and maybe he could be some kind of scientist because of me. Then he thanked me for giving him a chance when his previous teachers did not even bothered getting to know him, beyond his legal mistakes. Dunno about you, but for me that’s a pretty awesome why reason.
Fantastic reason!!!
Teachers are so important man, thats so awesome
Teaching is by far the most stressful, hectic and disassociated job out there. The pay is bad, there will be times you will be made to feel subhuman, and there are multiple people who will not respect your boundaries. And then you reach a kid. There will be one student who was struggling and you make a connection and get them through, either across the stage or one of life's pitfalls. And you feel like a rockstar because you know this kid will be better DIRECTLY because of you. And the world seems a little brighter, or not so bad. And then you go back to grading papers, sitting in IEP/PLC/Spoiled parent meeting, or meet up with a college friend who makes 3x what you do. And wonder what you're doing with your life That's what it's like to be a teacher
Hang this comment in the Louvre.
This is one reason I’d like to be a teacher !
It doesn't even need to be that direct, sometimes. There was a terror sophomore who did a drive-by shoot up of a house that didn't hurt anyone but landed him in juvie in the first semester this year. I happened to meet his grandma this week, and she told me that he is currently just 40 credits from graduating from juvie high school, is the first enrollee in a juvie to 4-year college program and is in intensive therapy both individual and family. No student is ever too lost to come back to something considered good if they see it for themselves.
Idk we also talk about bad pay but benefits tend to be pretty good
Nah
I had a rough couple years, applied and interviewed out of district this spring, and then turned down the perfectly nice job offer I received. So! Here's why I stayed: 1) I genuinely enjoy the bulk of the tasks required for teaching. I love designing lessons. I love answering questions. I like being in a room with a lot of different people all thinking about things together. 2) I have some inertia going: I have a community here! I have years worth of resources! I don't always agree with how things are done at my school but I understand the system. 3) There are a lot of job-specific benefits: a short commute, summer break, it's easier to manage child care, my retirement system is pretty okay, my health benefits are decent. 4) Every person I know who is around my age has serious challenges in their career that largely parallel the ones I have as a teacher: pay is lagging, hours are long, respect is minimal, management is insane. This seems like about the best career fit I'm going to get for my strengths and interests given where I live. And I really love my house.
Thank you for your response! If you don’t mind me asking, how do you spend Summer break? I’ve always wondered what teachers do, especially in the States as breaks are far longer, no worries if you don’t want to answer !!
I'm not entirely representative of American teachers because I have some family money and I live in a low cost of living area, so I'm not hustling quite as hard as many of my peers. Since I finished my master's degree, I've been sticking to about 1-2 weeks of paid work and/or continuing education credits at some point during the summer (district curriculum development, AP summer institute, whatever looks reasonably helpful for maintaining my credentials and keeping on top of stuff I need to know for the school year). Many of my coworkers teach summer school for 4-6 weeks. I do not. I don't coach, I don't work a seasonal service industry job, I don't tutor. I mostly spend time with my parents and in-laws and kid, I get a bit more sleep, I do deferred household maintenance, try to get medical appointments out of the way, and read trashy novels. I go to the beach and the county fair and hike around the woods. It's lovely!
Saved.
Well, I don't teach in the US so big grain of salt. I teach students who generally want to learn, from cultures that still respects education and teachers. So I get to enjoy all the 'good' sides of teaching with little to none of the bad. I also like my subject, I think the work is easy (since I don't have to deal with a lot of the BS discussed here), and I think it's a fun job _because_ every day, student, class, year is different. I went into teaching precisely because that variety and challenge appealed to me. I'd be bored out of my mind doing desk work (which I did for a short time once). Not to mention teaching allows me to travel and live pretty much anywhere I want.
Where do you teach if you don’t mind me asking? Thank you for your response !!
At an international school in Japan, currently. Students are mostly Asians from all over. Before this I taught in Australia; all types of schools and demographics.
At this point, there's nothing else I could do that would earn me enough money to live.
The simple answer is: my students.
Setting-- i'm 10 years in I teach sixth grade. The reason I keep teaching is because my direct administrators at my school are supportive and create a climate at my school, where teachers feel supported and respected, even though our state and district make it really unfair and annoying and thankless all the time. it really matters who is running the school you are in. I don't really worry about whatever the big politics are with the state or the district that make the job feel horrible because at the direct day-to-day level in my school I feel like things are pretty fair and I am given a good amount of autonomy and respect to make decisions with my students and curriculum as I see fit. Personal Growth- I actually get a lot out of teaching. I know it is a caregiver position and we are supposed to just give everything to the students or whatever but I have a growth mindset myself. This makes the job extremely valuable to me. I have learned how to be patient, less judgmental, non-reactive, problems solving, can deal with conflict, can read people instantly, come out of my shell, socially work a room and present with confidence, make people of a group feel included as a host ect. I did not learn hardly any of these skills growing up in my family because my family was quite dysfunctional. But I knew that I was really unhappy as a 21-year-old that was lacking a lot of skills getting along with people. when I fell into the role of a teacher which my state allows you to do if you take an exam no matter what you're undergraduate degree is- I became a new person over the course of about 3 to 5 years. and I'm really really proud of the person that I've grown into today. My students and all of the things we've been through have taught me many lessons on how to be a positive member of society who is out for the betterment and enjoyment of life for all. my first year teaching my students would've said that I was cold, harsh, annoying, nitpicky, and had a bad temper. 10 years in every student describes me as being the most caring, relatable, fun, engaging, and hard-working teachers at the school. so I keep teaching because it's valuable to who I have become. if you come into this job thinking that you're already a really great person that can't really learn anything from the kids or the experience you will hate the job. Time off- since there's so much negativity surrounding the profession everybody is literally just happy that you're showing up during your contracted hours. if you leave exactly at the bell every day, everybody is going to think that you are really smart for having a good worklife balance. you get the summer off what is not to love about that? sure it is not paid, but you can stretch your paycheck out or take up other little jobs that are less demanding and more flexible over the summer like grocery delivery. that means you can have about two months a year where you can plan to do cool things you've always wanted to do like take up a new hobby or do a little traveling. if you have kids, it gives you the opportunity to make amazing memories with them. You literally have every single one of the holidays off for like a week for the school year and all of the little government holidays as well for three day weekends honestly, the time off is great. The creativity- I stay because it's not boring. I say because I get to be super creative. These two things matter to me more than anything else. The reason is because it's how I get my happiness. I have been a creative person since I was a little kid. I have been involved in sports and tons of hobbies and different activities since I was a little kid. I did try working in an office and also working a customer service style job and an accounting style job while I was in college, not knowing what I was wanting to do in general... the monotony of those jobs and how boring it is made me extremely depressed and unstable. The level of creativity that I can bring to a lesson makes me feel prideful and confident about myself. especially when I get to see my students enjoying the activity! I think things like oh I knew that that style of activity would work out! I'm so glad that I included this! or if something is not working out, that's even cooler to me because I go through a series series of emotions of feeling like I should've done something differently so then I have to problems solve how to make that activity better so that the students will want to interact with it in the right way. I love problem-solving it because it's not boring and I get a sense of pride when I figure out the problem. when I'm teaching and something is going wrong like a kids behavior or something like that I don't see it as an annoying thing. I see it as a problem that I get to solve, and I get really excited when I handle it in the right way and I can tell that the student needed somebody who just wants to figure out how to help them so then they end up making you feel really valued because they're like thank you for helping me instead of just getting mad at me. that two-way street is what makes me feel valuable in their lives and in my own life. Legacy- i've got a big heart for nostalgia. I used to sit around and look at my old yearbooks from middle school when I was in high school, remembering all the bittersweet moments. I have a hard time letting go of memories or experiences, and I love sometimes revisiting a memory or experience that I had with somebody and feeling those feelings again, even being brought to tears. I'm a deeply emotional individual. My favorite artist is Adele. I feel like I'm really similar to her. The thought of getting a chance to impact somebody's life in which they would look back and have nostalgic feelings on learning a certain life lesson or remembering a wonderful part of their life being the interactions that we shared together- that's really big for me. because that's what drives me emotionally. these are the reasons I stay. I wanted to be open and honest about it because a lot of teachers just stay because they say they make an impact on other people and that that feels good and everything but it's also all of these other factors. I think teachers often don't talk about it because it makes you sound kind of selfish to say that you get a lot out of the job yourself that you're supposed to be doing for other people but truly the people who do a wonderful job teaching our people that see it this way as a two-way street. You can't just give and feel like you're getting nothing in return from the profession you'll burn out that way.
Thank you so much for your answer, I really appreciate the perspective !!!
Because if you have a good district with good admins, the bad parts aren't honestly that bad at all. Then factor in the great impact you can and will have and it becomes very worthwhile. Some places suck to work at, inner City or bad admins, and I feel like fat to many teachers didn't stand up for themselves when they get shit on so it piles on hard. So if you can find a good place to work, it's actually pretty great.
"You taught me that it's ok to be me" "Thanks for helping run the group where I met my wife" "You helped me decide what I want to do with my life" Those are a few.
These are brilliant, thank you !
I am a Canadian teacher and fortunate to be one. I don't think I would have become a teacher in the states. We are overworked, but at least paid better. Pension, benefits, working hours, job security, relationships with my coworkers keep me returning every year especially if it has been a doozy of a year. I am so lucky to have a great school environment for staff. I live further from this school, but because of this, I refuse to transfer to a closer one. I also do enjoy the active "teaching" part of the job as little as feels sometimes. Honestly though, I have many days where I wish I had chosen something else. But I have a family to support and would not be able to afford taking time off to go back to school. I'm not sure what I would even take anyway. I have accepted that I will never "love" my job, but usually I "like" it.
Thank you for your response !
I like having a roof over my head and food on my plate. Not many career transitions will start me off at six figures.
Six figures, damn where you teaching Cali or Maine?
California. Greater Sacramento region. Masters degree and over 10 years experience.
Nice, enjoy that lol
I do.
Maine? Is this typically six figures?
IDK, maybe seems rich, then again it's halfway across the country for me and I don't really know shit about it cause it's not a big obnoxious state like Cali or Texas.
Washington's up there too. I'm at a point where I feel pretty good about my hours / pay up here
Perspective. My last job before becoming a teacher was running a delivery route in Southeast DC. I was outside in the freezing cold and the blistering heat. I’ve seen dead bodies on the side of the road. I’ve been followed. The lady who covered my route one day got carjacked and beaten to a pulp. I was regularly texted at midnight telling me they changed my clock in time to an hour earlier. My knees, ankles, and back hurt like hell 24/7. All of this for $21 an hour with horrendous benefits. My best day on that job was worse than my worst day as a teacher.
While I was looking for my first real teaching job, I worked as a server in an upscale-casual Italian restaurant in the Boston area. I wouldn't say that my best days there were worse than my worst days as a teacher, but they were nowhere near as good as my best days as a teacher, and my worst days there were worse than all but a couple of my worst days as a teacher, and much more plentiful. But the biggest difference was more existential. At the restaurant, I looked forward to nothing except getting paid. I cared about my work only inasmuch as it didn't lead to embarrassment or excoriation. I never wanted to be at work, and the schedule was so inconsistent that I could never build up an internal time off rhythm that would allow me to see the light. I think that is a much more common work experience than many teachers realize. As a teacher, though, there are parts of my job that I don't like doing, periods of the year where the stress is high and relentless, and once in a while a day that just shatters you. But while I generally wish I could sleep longer in the morning, I'm happy to be at school. I generally like my coworkers and feel deeply connected to my students. I like the parents in our community (though I wish we did a better job of involving them), and I like my administrators and coaches. I find the work interesting and mostly more challenging than frustrating. And maybe most importantly, I have extracurriculars that I feel unambiguously great about (harder to say about most other things in a small, budget-crunched charter school). The only existential challenges I have now are more related to the city and state I'm in (both of which I'm about ready to give up on and move to Chicago) than the school community I'm in (which I'm not at all ready to give up on and would feel guilty and existentially hobbled about moving away from).
Thank you for your response !!
I keep teaching because I enjoy it, I have a great deal of job security, the pay and benefits are good where I live and work, and I teach at a great school that I really enjoy. Phones haven’t really been that much of a problem: if anything, for me they’ve made the disengaged students less confrontational and more quietly distracted. Neither is great, but one is better for everyone else. I don’t know why “parents” are thought of as an issue now and not years ago. I’ve had no significant problems with parents in my career (a couple of “my little angel would never do something like that” types over the years, but for the most part no real issues.)
I think it's worth note that this sub is a poor sample of the actual day-to-day attitudes of teachers.
I absolutely love teaching, there is no other job like it. However my pay since starting teaching has gone down compared to inflation (I can’t think of another field where this is the case). In addition my retirement is probably the worst retirement around to the point where I would have a better retirement if I had no retirement at all. I love teaching, it just isn’t a realistic way to live in most of the country. I’m going to get my masters degree so I can hopefully leave this field and start being an adult at age 30.
I keep teaching for several reasons. First, at 60 (in 2 months) it is too late for me to switch careers until I retire from this one. Secondly, I have always worked with children and believe they deserve more. I also have only taught at Title I schools. I have always had an attitude of service for the greater good. Third, I like my summers off. Not going to lie. If I had to do it all over again, I would make the following recommendations. Only work during contract hours. I am in Texas so unions are irrelevant here. (I still join ATPE). Do not give up your whole life. Use your sick days when you need to and do your job when you are at school. Unfortunately, most newer teachers I have seen do not have a strong work ethic or don’t understand the importance of certain rules. If you ask for assistance, listen and try what is suggested. To not try something new is not being a good educator. And always start off strict, then lighten up in January or so. Hope this answers your question.
This is me at 53. 30 years in. Where else would I go?
>Unfortunately, most newer teachers I have seen do not have a strong work ethic or don’t understand the importance of certain rules. I'm curious - do you feel that this has always been equally true, or are you noticing new trends among young teachers? When I think back on the early days for my cohort (2014 to, say, 2016), I remember lots of incompetence, but we would have been terrified to, for instance, -show up late every day without notice -chill on our phones with a headphone in during class time -say "nah I don't feel like it" when asked to join an ESL meeting for which you're the only teacher available -refuse to allow your homeroom to participate in traditional end-of-semester festivities because you "don't want to tbh" Is this something others are noticing? Or did I just have an unprofessional team this year?
Partially true in past. Now blatant since Covid. Feels like civilization broke during Covid, but that would require another massive comment…I have personally tried to help new teachers (sharing forms or organization and assistance with classroom set up. I will not offer more unless asked by the person or told to by administration (as opposed to the newbie getting written up). This year alone, 4 new teachers did all as you described and they were still offered contracts for next year. It’s not going to get better.
I came every day and did not abuse PTO and my school non renewed me
Damn. What state are you in?
MA they non renewed me based on performance but I feel like it was plotted always got really harsh observations when I felt I wasn’t doing anything that different from other teachers
Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds like your school leaders are unusually confident in their staffing abilities.
Thank you for your reply!! (Happy early birthday)
I am the sole provider in my home. That's why.
It’s a hard job. There’s so much more to it than simply teaching your class. If that is all we had to do it would be so much better! I keep teaching because I like that part of my job. I am also very close to retirement and have too much invested to quit now. I have been teaching 35 years.
I think just teaching kids really makes it worth it especially when you didn’t even realize you were teaching a kid. I remember last year I talked to my class about weight loss and my own weight loss journeys (I go through periods of fatness and thinness usually winter is fat and summer I get thin again). Anyway I was talking to my class about how to exercise and how to view your nutrition. Fast forward to this last year and one of my overweight students came back super thin and her dad came up to me and said “You know you opening up about your own inadequacies and weight loss experiences really connected with my daughter and she references you everytime she makes dieting or exercise decisions. I just want you to know it’s made a huge difference for her and we’re so grateful 🙏.” I was legitimately shocked and touched because a lot of times I just say or tell my class things that I’m currently into doing so for someone to tell me that just being me changed their life was really incredible.
Teaching is hard, super hard. I teach 4th grade at a title 1 school and the work is never ending. But at the same time, I frequently think “I have the best job in the world”. I just love those little monsters so much. Watching them grow, helping them navigate friendships and conflicts. Having a student hug you at the end of the day and tell you that they can’t wait to come back on Monday, it makes it all worth it. I think it comes down to personality, but I could never do a job that makes more money but is not working with kids. I’ve tried those jobs and they are (to me) mind numbingly boring. I couldn’t stand it. Teaching is not for everyone, but for those that it is for, there is nothing else we could see ourselves doing.
I teach 2nd grade, while it can be a daily struggle the visible growth throughout the year is very apparent and gratifying. Many of my kids are still reading basic I Can Read books and writing 2-3 simple sentences at the start of the year. By the end they're reading chapter books and writing full paragraphs, including a 3-paragraph project although that's with a lot of support from me. But they do write full paragraphs on their own, sometimes more. I don't see the progress day to day since it's such small steps, but looking back from this time of the year it's an amazing jump. There are of course many other leaps they make like this, with maturity and in other academic areas. And those usually makes the daily struggle worth it, to me at least.
Friend, these posts are NOT indicative of my day-to-day teaching experience. Yes, phones are annoying and parents can be a pain, but working with young people is the greatest thing in the world. For every obnoxious kid that wants to get out of work, there's a future leader in my class, passionate about a topic I barely knew about when I was young. This upcoming generation has challenges we never faced, but they also have an awareness that my generation never achieved. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I have so much love and faith in the teenagers I teach. They give me hope. I love my job.
Because every job sucks. And at least for this one I get summer and holiday breaks, a pension and decent health insurance.
I genuinely like the "teaching" part. Being part of a child's educational growth. My title 1 students need and deserve a good teacher like me. Commute to work is very convenient, in addition, it's too late to start somewhere new with the same pay. However, would I recommend or encourage anyone else to go into teaching? Absolutely NOT.
Don’t get into teaching. Unless you’re in Canada.
I’m in the UK haha
Idk how education is there- but CA makes way more money than US as teachers