Why oh why would I want to be a teacher???

First of all my whole family is filled with teachers. My moms(2nd G), Aunt #1(Middle School)/ Aunt #2 (Middle School)her husband (Middle School). Grandma (HS Retired).

I'm just wondering why anyone would want to be a teacher.

1. The Pay sucks
lib.stat.cmu.edu...

2. They work about 50-60 hrs a week with all the afterschool stuff they are required to do. I know this personally as from my family who usually leave around 5:30am and get home around 5-6pm. They are always having do saturday seminars, camps, etc.

3. They have to be hyper sensitive with every thing they do: Something innocent can be construed as sexual, racial, anything else harassment.

4. If a kid isn't smart enough its their fault and never the kid, or his/her parents.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
education.guardian.co.uk...

5. They get ragged on all day at work, by bad kids, parents, administrators.

Now parents, and kids can rag on them online:

www.ratemyteachers.com...

What do you think?

The only reason you should want to be a teacher, is because you want to teach.

Sounds silly I know, but that is why most teacers do it, even with the little pay, and long hours. Their satisfaction lies in the products they produce, which is educated children. One of the few things in life that satisfies and fulfills me fully, is when I can a find a way, or modus operandi that allows someone who is struggling to grasp a concept or regiment, to truly understand it.

A small example with me( im not a teacher by profession btw) is when my fiance was struggling with algebra. She just could not understand the concepts as they were presented and taught by her instructor. It took me awhile working with her, to figure out how she concieved and logged things in her mind - but once I understood that as best I could, I was able to present the concepts in a manner which made sense to her. By accomplishing this, which in essence were helping her figure out how she learned, and we were able to instill some confidence into herself, and that 'f' math student turned into a 'b' math student over night.

Bottom line, most teachers teach for the fulfillment and satisfaction of helping to better someone - adult or child. IMO.

It's a calling, like any other. Teachers are as important as police, firemen, etc. They are developing the next generations. Their satisfaction comes from seeing those that they have taught flourish. There is payback too. My grade 6 teacher took a GREAT deal of time to get me interested in school, I was out. Well, I went on to graduated and go to univ. Without him that wouldn't have happened. I tracked him down last year and gave him a call, thanked him for what he did. Guess what? This was over 30 years ago and he still remembered. He was also grateful.

If you've had a teacher that made a difference, see if you can track them down with thanks. They earned it and you owe it to them.

That teachers make a difference in the world, and everything. But don't you think we as products of teachers could make life a little easier for them??

To be a teacher now is not what it was back in the day. They get no respect. Have to teach people not what they need to know but what the need to pass a friggen test that proves nothing. People in Texas should really understand the latter.

Originally posted by Royal76
To be a teacher now is not what it was back in the day. They get no respect. Have to teach people not what they need to know but what the need to pass a friggen test that proves nothing. People in Texas should really understand the latter.

Yes, it's harder today to be a teacher, all the more to respect them. What kids need to know and to pass a test seems to be what the goal is. I'm not getting that.

I have always heard that there are three good reasons to become a teacher:

1. June
2. July
3. August

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I have always heard that there are three good reasons to become a teacher:

1. June
2. July
3. August

Grady, a REAL teacher needs those months to recharge for the next year. So does their family. They put in 16+ hours a day through the school year.

I'd like to think that a certain amount of idealism is involved. To some people doing the right thing is more important than career success. I had a teacher, who I will just call Paul for the sake of his privacy, who was an outstanding example. He taught math and an state-version of the JROTC (military cadets), and he put a ridiculous amount of time into his students. he tutored during the lunch hour, he took his cadets on trips on a lot of the weekends when he wasn't training with his national guard unit (he was a former Ranger and a captain in a guard tank unit), and he even made time after school to work out with students who weren't happy with their performance in the cadet class (which was a phys ed credit). Once we had a cadet who was so dirt poor that his shoes were falling apart on him, so Paul bought him a pair of work shoes that could pull double duty as uniform boots and as everyday shoes.
The man was just plain and simple in it to instill some virtue in the next generation, because he told me often and was concerned that, "when America falls, there won't be a shot fired".


I have also seen cases where it was clearly a matter of someone getting a degree and finding out that they had chosen a field that wasn't for them, and deciding that they'd rather have a job where the hours are consistent and they can get away with a little multi-tasking on the job. I had a math teacher in 9th grade who would leave for 5-10 minutes at a time, sometimes 5 times in a 2 hour class period, to see how his stocks were doing. Teaching was just something that he could do that didn't get in the way of his day trading. I was having some issues during that year and wasn't always sleeping at night- but he never said a word to me about falling asleep in his class or about not turning in a single assignment- i'm not suggesting that it was his fault, I'm just saying that he wasn't even remotely interested in what was happening in his class.


I feel like we dont give people like Paul a way to do what they are capable of doing. They aren't in it for the money, but they do have concerns. Paul and his wife (also a teacher) don't have kids and apparently have decided not to. Paul could never do what he does if he had kids to provide for. I think that Paul is a rare breed in that he will sacrifice to do it- but not in the will to do it. I think that if that kind of effort paid off enough to support itself against more of the constraining factors that many people have to contend with- there ought to be something in going above and beyond like that.


Personally, there's no way i could make a career of teaching. I've entertained the idea of doing it when I get my degree, while I'm working on a masters, but I don't know if I could possibly fall in love with it enough to put in that kind of time and personal investment on something that doesn't set me up to ever be able to move on to other things at the end.

My mom usually spends most of those months doing school activities.

She goes to camps, seminars, having meetings. Granted some of them were pretty cool. She's been to NASA every year, apparently they really like to give a lot of info to teach in schools. Yeah she gets more than two weeks off a year, but she usually looks like a pro football player after a game during that time.

I'm sorry everyone misunderstood my post. It's an old joke I heard from a teacher. I know how hard teaching is and I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

edit: I'm speaking of primary and secondary teaching. I'm actually considering teaching at the college level, but that's another ball of wax completely.

[edit on 2007/4/4 by GradyPhilpott]

Better cash, environment, tools. You don't like someone, they giving you crap: kick them out of the class. Plus the females are always "hot for teacher"

I only have a master's degree, so a tenure track is out of the question in this day and age, but a position with a community college or a branch campus might be interesting and a good way to spend the rest of my working life.

…a position with a community college or a branch campus might be interesting and a good way to spend the rest of my working life.

I assume that you will keep the grammar, reading, writing and arithmetic in order; it’s easy and of course you will. But smuggle in a little contraband wit, fancy, imagination, thought. Have the self-command you wish to inspire.

If a student happens to show that they know any fact about astronomy, or plants, or birds, or rocks, or history, that interests them and you, hush all the class in encouragement so that all may hear. Then you will have made your school-room like the world.

Why be a teacher?

The energy they nurture pulses forever on through the borders of society, to the circumference of the universe.

Life as a teacher requires time, use, insight, event, all the great lessons and assistances of God; and only to think of using it implies character and profoundness; to enter on this course of discipline is to be good and great. By simple living, by an illimitable soul, they inspire, they correct, they instruct, they raise, they embellish wisdom.


[edit on 5-4-2007 by METACOMET]

Grammer anymore...I honestly have always been bad with conjugation, etc.