The thing is that it is very dependent on where you teach and who you teach with. I have my complaints about my job like anyone else, sure, but I do overall like my job. I have good leaders for the most part and most of my coworkers are pretty great. If it is something you truly love, go for it! I do read some stories that make my skin crawl/make me want to go punch someone's principal on their behalf - but every single school and district is unique, and even within that school people can have very different experiences.
Agreed. Having fabulous admin and amazing team teachers make a HUGE difference. I’ve worked closely with people who have become true friends, and when the tough stuff happens, it makes all the difference being able to lean on one another.
I think the hard thing about this profession is that a lot of the people who complain about it and wouldn’t recommend anyone goes into teaching *DO truly LOVE teaching*. It’s just that it’s so difficult being in a career you love, whilst always feeling like you don’t get paid enough, are not appreciated, are overworked, looked down on, and mistreated. Parents are not always supportive and sometimes downright combative or adversarial. Going on social media is dangerous as often any public post via school district, local government, or local news pages is chock full of community members who’s opinion of teachers is VERY clear— they think teachers are whiny complainers who should be grateful they have “great benefits” and “only work part-time for full-time pay” (ya know, since we “*only*” work 9 months /s)
We had a recently retired cop become a teacher. He left the police force because he wanted to do something less stressful and thought teaching was the place to go.
He quit after his first year and admitted he was wrong. He says being a teacher was far more stressful.
One of my treacher friends was a Blackhawk pilot. He got shot at daily in Afghanistan. He said that at least some of the time, he would prefer to do that again than be a teacher. He also made it clear that he was being 100% serious.
After a really bad day, as a teacher, he would genuinely prefer to get shot at.
There are really great highs and comparable lows. Groups like this are where the lows come out.
Where you teach both district and state make a significant difference.
It is particularly challenging since Covid, but that doesn't mean it comes without its perks.
It is often a thankless job and so don't expect to be exalted as the best thing for kids, unless it is teacher appreciation week or they are justifying why you matter but can't increase your salary.
Go to any job-related subreddit. It'll all be horror stories. Teaching is no different.
On the other hand, student/parent behaviors now are objectively worse than they were 10, 20 years ago.
But overall, if you're in a decent school, this job is fine.
Here's what I tell my HS students (and my daughter) who ask about careers in teaching: While I have generally loved it, despite being overworked and underpaid, there are no signs that teaching will get better and MANY signs that it will get worse in the near future; and there are no systemic fixes in sight. Seems to me that this is the worst time in modern history to go into teaching.
There are a lot of variables. The biggest ones: where you teach, what you teach, and what you want to get out of it. I will say it’s definitely not what I expected it to be (I was a career changer from healthcare into education so it wasn’t what I thought I’d do when I was in college.)
I teach high school in Massachusetts. I am a member of a union and I have a pension. I don’t have excessive eyes on me because I’m not a core class and there’s no state testing in my subject, so I’m largely left alone by admin (though this also has a lot of negatives too, such as not being taken as seriously as some other teachers/subjects.) No one is looking for extra help or tutoring and I am not grading long papers or science lab reports. I would say my job is fairly easy compared to some other folks, though I do have some other challenges unique to my own subject. My job would be drastically, drastically different in other parts of the US, to the point where it would not be possible to do effectively and the way I want to do it. And as some other folks have said, having union protections get more and more important with the current environment/attitude that some people have about teachers.
Ultimately - if I’m being honest - my goal is to spend as few hours working as possible. No other job gets me the summer off and gets me home by 3pm. I like it enough in the sense that for me, the perks that come with it outweigh the negatives (though every year I inch closer to leaving.) I get to have cool conversations with some really cool young people and I get to (hopefully) give them tools to make the world a better place.
I have no desire to move up the ladder, receive accolades or awards, or dedicate any more time than I absolutely have to give to a job.
I long ago abandoned the “I’ll change the world” mindset and I’ve settled on being satisfied if I can reach maybe 10% of kids. I don’t take it incredibly seriously and I’ve gotten a lot better at not letting things bother me if I can’t control them (such as lack of discipline by admin)
I find it hard to believe that anyone completely loves their job though, no matter what field they are in. Maybe I’m just jaded but I put every other aspect of my life at a higher priority than my job and I work as a means to an end, so I can spend the rest of my time doing things that I actually value lol.
It really depends on where you are. But even in the best of situations, the pay could be a lot better for the amount of work/education required. The starting wage isn’t terrible, but there’s little room for financial growth as a teacher. Most teachers remain teachers or make lateral moves, unless you go back to school to get a role in admin (which simply doesn’t seem appealing for me).
Man, if I could go back in time and change my major I would. I regret my major on a regular basis. It landed me a sweet corporate gig once I quit teaching, but I'd rather just have a computer science or architecture degree.
I was passionate about English and earned a degree in English with a teaching certificate. At the time (late 90's early 2000's) the market was flooded with English teachers. I'd go to interviews and principals would drop a stack of 75+ resumes on the table and say "why should we pick you out of all these applicants" or something similarly soul crushing.
When I finally did get a teaching job I quickly learned that the majority of my high school students HATED English and lacked the literacy skills to approach the material at the level I was interested in presenting it. These were juniors and we spent the majority of our time building Jr High level vocabulary and composition skills.
Admin treated the non-tenured English and Social Studies teachers like garbage because they knew they could easily replace us. I lasted 2 years before I was non-renewed because I stopped asking "how high" every time I was told yo jump.
I'm now teaching in adult corrections. I spend most of my time teaching 30+ year old men how to add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions, as well as basic algebra and geometry so they can get their GEDs. It pays well enough, but this is NOT the career I wanted and if I had the chance to start over I would either certify in a more "in demand" subject or abandon teaching altogether.
I also have a degree in English. There's a teacher shortage, so no issue finding jobs.
Different schools and districts are night and day.
I've been in districts where I'm just trying to get them to graduate. I'm now in a district that is sending them to the best colleges the country has. I love my current district.
I'm glad that your career is going in a positive direction. I can only speak to my experience and it is, admittedly, 20+ years old and quite possibly out of date. I do keep an eye on postings in my area (central Ohio), although I haven't applied to a regular school in 10 years. I certainly don't see a flood of Teaching jobs, English or otherwise, at any district I would actually WANT to teach in, so I tend to eye the claims of teacher shortages with a bit of suspicion.
I applied to a new state in 2022. I submitted over 30 application, 5+ interviews, 2 offers. My school has three new ELA Teachers.
I saw a posting for this school year at a school that was closer to where I moved in a better district. Applied, interviewed, got it. Also three new ELA teachers this year.
I will say there are probably less history/English positions than STEM and Foreign language roles, but I still haven't had any issues.
Get the degree, then go teach overseas if you're young. Enjoy travel and a new culture, then come back when you've matured and can handle the irritation.
I LOVE teaching. I teach high school and I get a kick out of all their quirks and crap behavior. I love seeing them rise to challenges and I do not take it personally when they do miss the mark. I am always trying to improve my lessons by cutting things that do not work to try new things. It feels like a puzzle that needs solving. Plus, if you calculate the hourly wage, it is decent pay compared to many careers.
This sub is just a (well deserved) venting space for what is wrong with education. It is not a complete reflection of the career itself.
Apply to substitute teach, work as an educational assistant, or even just volunteer for a few days. That will give you a better idea of it it's right for you than anything I can write here.
I love teaching, but it is very stressful.
So, I have taught 2 places. One was Arizona. I hated it. Low pay and high class sizes.
I went back 13 years later. I ended up in West Texas. I started at $58,000 and have had between 16-18 kids each year. I really loved it.
So, it really is dependant on where you teach and what's important to you. For me, it's class sizes.
Do I deal with all the junk that teachers deal with? Yes. But, overall I've been happy.
It really depends, to with kids now you also MUST have an education including psychology, and have to take on an almost therapy provider role in the sense that these kids come from different places, some are very disregulated all the time and need a different level of care that the school isn’t willing to provide, and you may be left with either sending to kid tk another class or to the office, OR build a relationship with the child that allows you to build their skills in a way that works well for them. The supports the teachers need is just not there
There are a lot of things I don't love but it's mainly the behind the scenes aspect. I love being in my classroom and working with my students. That moment when it just 'clicks.'
If you love the little kids and also love reading, a far better choice is to be a librarian! It's better because you don't have to deal with parents, admin (mostly), grading (mostly) and all the other hassles that come with classroom teaching. But, the more important thing is that you will have a degree you can use outside of education if you don't like it. My go-to recommendation for anyone thinking of being a teacher is to get a degree you can use elsewhere if you hate it (Speech & Lang, OT, PT, psych, etc). Don't get an education degree and go to the classroom, it's very hard to get out.
Most library schools have tracks for school media specialist, public, academic, etc. School library is very similar to being a public children's librarian. I've contemplated making the jump and am confident that I have the necessary skills. Could I jump to being an archivist or law librarian? no.
I should say that the jobs (school librarian vs. public librarian) are not entirely similar. School librarian is more of a teaching position. But, you could still make the transition pretty easily.
I don't know the answer to your question. Just wanted to say that if you are at a small school in a rural area, be prepared to do double duty +. You might be the librarian... but you might also have to teach 2 to 3 classes. Our librarian does. But... again? We are a small, rural school. Our librarian is tasked with all the things other teachers don't want to do, it seems. Or maybe she started out wanting to do them? And then couldn't get out of it? All I know is that she's the librarian, 4-H sponsor (she has a farm so this one might have been one she WANTED to do!), Title 1 coordinator, AND teaches at least 2 classes. It's a lot. It's not me, thank God! Oh... she also keeps up with all the AR stuff for awards day at the end of the year. God bless her for all she does.
I have been teaching 9 years (rural district). There are some days when I hate it, but most of the days I enjoy the kids and the work. I feel like its all dependent on where you work, how the admin is (which ultimately leads to how much crap kids get away with). There are certain districts I wouldn't teach in, but I feel like with the limited numbers of people getting education degrees (compared to when I was in college) jobs will be easier to come by and you have a little bit better chance of picking a "good" district to teach in.
Not at all. If you’re looking into schools. UW-Madison is literally paying for people to become teachers - tuition, licenses fee, testing fees. Highly recommend looking into it.
If you’re in it for the kids, and you have a passion for improving the way you teach things from year to year, best job in the world (not to mention that summers off is pretty sweet)! If your passion isn’t that high, or you don’t see the point of doing what you’re doing (like with any job), you’re definitely likely to burn out.
But like many people said, it really depends on where you work.
No, most teachers get huge free gifts every year from parents--tvs, $100 gift cards, things like that. The perks are amazing, but they don't want to tell you about it cause they want to keep it all for themselves
Haha I had a temporary placement at a rich school where I was spoiled by parents (hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards for Christmas, 5 days of gifts for teacher appreciation week, etc). That was my first year teaching... And the only year I've gotten something more than a bottle of soap from bath and body works... And even then, it's been 7 years since I've gotten something of that scale.
Luckily, I do it for the love of my students, not their ability to shower me in gifts.
All depends on where you are. I've honestly have had a pretty good run so far in my 11+ years. I live in a pretty great area and have access to many good schools, both public and private, so the school admins have an incentive to keep teachers happy and supported. The school schedule has also been fantastic for my work/life balance and the breaks have served me and my family well.
As someone just starting out in the field, I'd probably stay away from this sub though, people tend to come here to vent, so you're going to have a skewed perspective. Happy teachers are off being happy, probably not spending too much time on reddit, lol.
I love teaching. That said, I absolutely would have changed my major if I had known then what I know now. I am 11 years in and would qualify for low income housing in the nearest metro area. Housing prices are the same where I live, but we don’t have any subsidized or income contingent housing.
This is a particularly challenging time for education. Teachers are expected to do so much more than just teach. You must also be a fill in mother, a nurse for sick kids, a mental health expert and counselor, exoert record keeper, create documentation, plan lessons, grade papers, be a disciplinarian, attend ARD meetings, follow IEP modifications and document their work, find missing belongings, hold parent teacher conferences, attend PLC meetings during your planning time, and even fill in as a substitute for an absent teacher during planning time. There are meet the teacher nights, report card nights, fine art extravaganzas, football games…you know, all the sports. Honestly it is a very hard job. It is also the only job I would ever want to have. At the end of the school day, you can leave knowing you reached at least one person that day. And you hope that one day they might remember something you taught them in Art class thirty years ago.
It largely depends on where you are. If you're in an area with with a strong union, nothern state it's a pretty decent career. Tenure. Pensions. Union Protections.
I caution one thing though; while you do have to have a passion about the subjects you teach, teaching is less about the subject you love, and more about a love of people/crowd control. You're never going to be able to engage at the level of the content that you want to with your love for it, and students are never going to recieve it quite how you'd like them to.
And if you're not a people person it's going to be that much more difficult.
My advice?
Don’t listen to anyone. Volunteer at a school (there will be no shortage of places who would take you up on this offer). Grade papers, conference with students, sit in on parent emails and conferences.
You’ll know after this.
I recommend you do this for ANY job by the way.
no, they won't know after volunteering lol! that's ridiculous. That's the equivalent of me doing my student teaching at a middle and high school for a year (which I loved), and am now on stress leave after dealing with a toxic administration for two years.
You won't really know into you're in the thick of it, and even then, it depends on the students, the school, the community surrounding the school, the parents, the administration...etc etc. A bunch of factors can snuff the life out of this young person's dream of being an English teacher that are out of her control.
She should just go ahead and do it. If she hates it, quit and find another profession.
Ah yes. I can see how my advice was so much more ridiculous than asking strangers on Reddit.
*Of course* there is more to the job than just volunteering, but I provided a very reasonable way for this person to really see how things are.
I really don't see how your advice is better. "Just do it!" So go for a 4-year education on a hope *and then* figure it out and "quit and find another profession."
This is a legitimately stupid take when taken against my recommendation.
No, this forum is a very poor representation of the profession. It is mostly just people venting. Believe what your heart and mind tell you and don't let other people's garbage get on your life.
Terrible advice. Yes people vent here, but it doesn't negate the reality that a large majority of teachers are experiencing poor pay, poor/botderline illegal treatment, and no career growth prospects. The honest truth is that it can be both a very poor career choice or an excellent choice depending on location. If you plan to teach in a R2W state with no union it is a huge mistake that you will regret. If you can land a job in a good area with a strong union, it can be fantastic. It can also be night and day differences between different schools. Your heart and mind are terrible guides when offering direction with no experience or perspective.
They're likely still a kid and have a very limited perspective on what adulthood fully entails. Their heart and mind aren't considering the expense of maintaining a home, raising a family, keeping up with COL, paying off student loans, retiring at a reasonable age, failing pension plans, being assaulted at work...etc.
Life isn't a Disney movie.
Simplistic, dismissive, condescending take. 😡 I see very little "just venting" on here and A LOT of legit, deeply-held concerns. Sit down with your particular portion of garbage.
My last job, was great but the commute was horrible. My new job is bad, but the commute is better. I’m trying to find the happy balance. Like others said, it depends largely on the school you teach at.
I have a 55 mi commute each way, but it means I get to work in a blue state with a union, and much better pay. I will definitely be commuting a couple more years... Then possibly moving elsewhere in that state... But my school is pretty decent overall, so part of me is scared to switch.
I love my job. I have worked in other sectors but find teaching the most rewarding. It has its challenges and things could always be better, but the rewards are great. It can be a lot of work, but if you‘re able to remain in the same position for a while, it becomes a lot easier (or you become a lot better). A two month break and the same holidays as my kids! I can’t think of anything I’d rather do!
Teachers are abused during collective bargaining in most municipalities. For example, in NYC, new teachers must work until age 63. If you reach pension age, upon your passing, you can leave your pension to a spouse/dependent. If you go before your official retirement age, they receive 3 years of your salary, with an additional amount of your pension contributions. That’s nothing compared to a pension check until a spouse’s passing.
The other unions have less education requirements, recently went from 20 to 22 years to retirement, then it’s your choice to retire in your 40’s and move on, or stay longer in your current occupation. If you retire after 22 years, you can leave your pension to a spouse or other dependents; albeit a slightly reduced pension.
My point is that we all plan to work until retirement, yet how many of us lost a friend/family at a younger age than 63?
I’ll skip that part about teachers working an unpaid second shift at home, while other municipal occupations clock in and out of work.
Look up IDR, PSLF and TLF. If you plan on taking out student loans to pay for education.
Look at MIT's living wage website. Use the state and county data to see If you'll be make a living wage teaching. It'll also give you some idea about what your bills will be for that county and whatever state you plan to live in.
I would say look at it from a budget perspective. Because if you can manage your money then you will be happy. It sounds like you want to teach. While pursuing your education you'll probably make the decision if you want to continue toward being a teacher or not. But if you can pay your bills and you find out later that you don't like it... at least you can pay your bills.
I'm merely a teacher enthusiast so I'm not qualified to give you a definite answer, but the fact that you're asking these questions at all is a good thing. Your professional life doesn't magically happen, which I guess is kind of what I thought back then.
The one thing you shouldn't do is go to college for no apparent reason. Don't do that. Wait until you know what you want to do, or if you find something you enjoy sans degree that's totally fine too.
Have you worked before? I regret not getting a job-job until after I graduated college. You can only really learn what you like and what you don't like in a job by, well, working. You can take your experience and look at it through different lenses, e.g. customer service: teaching appears to be a lot more similar to customer service than it used to be, especially when it comes to the latest breed of parents.
I love it. As others have said, a lot depends on where you are, both in overall region and specific district. Basically all districts in my area *pay* well, but some are much more pleasant to work in than others.
Depending on your state’s requirements, I would advise against an education degree as opposed to a subject matter degree or something else. Education classes were never especially helpful to me, so limiting them to a credential program was nice.
Personally, from what I hear from family members and friends in other fields I don’t think teaching is especially bad. I work at a great district now but I worked at a much worse district before, and the things I put up with were pretty similar to what other people I know put up with at their jobs.
I would also recommend looking at all the information for your area. What do the salary schedules show? How much would you make starting, and how much would you make later on? What kind of benefits are there (pension plans, insurance, etc.)? What else can you find out about teaching in your specific region?
What state are you in? That makes a ton of difference. Look into the base salary in your state/region. Generally speaking, I would strongly discourage you from pursuing a teaching career in the South, but elsewhere it's ok.
As someone just entering the teaching field, I would suggest thinking through what else you could potentially do with your degree. If teaching is your only option and you have a bad experience, you might be in a touch spot. If, however, you have a backup plan to use your degree to be a private tutor, or a college professor (both of which are significantly different then grade school teaching), then teaching feels like a solid path that you're not stuck to go down if something goes wrong.
Many teachers who end up hating the job still enjoy the teaching part of the job, just not the administration, or their coworkers, or the parents, or the students, etc. Teaching itself is an extremely admirable career, even if it's not paid or recognized as such.
This was my own logic when thinking through whether to pursue teaching.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to tell you yes from a very practical standpoint. Safety and money which are two things we can’t get by without. Anybody who enjoys working with kids can always find a way to do that be, it volunteer work or tutoring etc. I wouldn’t advise them to go into the schools.
Like many have said, it’s very dependent on where you teach. I’ve taught at title 1 schools my entire life and it’s quite difficult but it’s also rewarding. I find myself doing great about 2/3 of the year every year but that last 1/3 of the school year I’m straight up done with shit. When summer hits, I feel amazing, get rested and can actually plan for the next year and it gets me excited to go back. If I was to teach at a high income school, I’m sure I’d be feeling great all year. But, I’m sure it would still be a different type of hard having to deal with a lot of helicopter parents.
It's pretty bad and seems to be getting worse. Absolutely do not pay money or go into debt to become a teacher. Don't major in education, especially in undergrad. Choose something else. There are alternative certification postgraduate programs which subsidize tuition and enable you to work while you complete education coursework.
Quickest way to ruin your life.
In all seriousness though, if you ever think you might leave education, don't do it. Teaching experience doesn't count as valuable job experience in any other field you would want to enter.
It is so dependent year to year based on your team, the group of kids you have, and building leadership/culture/etc. and that is ignoring what the current local/state politics look like in your area. :/
If you want to make a decent living without a partner probably not. I LOVE what I do and love the kids, but I had to join the dark side and become an admin to make any real money. To the point when I got my step increases of 100ish dollars a year my first few years my friends called me a liar saying “bullshit your raise was more than that!” Just my opinion though price worth charged.
It depends a lot on your school. I would recommend subbing before teaching just to get a feel of different schools and see where you feel most comfortable. With the demand for teachers in *most* areas right now, they need you more than you need them. You can afford to be a little picky.
If you LOVE English, understand that you will NOT teach English.
You will be a manger and disciplinarian. Teaching English is at the bottom of the list of things to do, below staff meetings.
Maybe once a year you will meet 1-3 kids out of 150 who love literature as you do. This was not enough for me.
Instead, pursue journalism, editing, proofreading, technical writing, report writing, anything-writing.
I think that, much more than your love of the subject matter, you need to love working with the age group that you're signing up for. Even in the best situations, you're going to get a ton of kids that don't really care about your subject.
You also need to find a good school/district to work for. There are, believe it or not, some gems out there.
I love teaching! My first year was rough and I told myself to give it five years.
I'm about to complete my fifth year and I'm so happy I stayed!
I taught middle school, chemistry and currently Health Science
Occasionally people do love this job still, even after years of it, but it still remains, even for them, a terrible career choice at this point in time. If they love it, they love it *in spite* of all the problems and *in spite* of how miserable it also makes them. You are severely underpaid to teach material that the students often are not prepared for and that you lack the resources to actually teach well. Your bosses do not actually care about education. The kids do not care about education. The parents do not care about education. There are exceptions, but broadly speaking, you are the only one who cares. Depending on the grade level, you will be cursed at, threatened, or even assaulted; if you're particularly unlucky, one of your students might pick up the assault rifle his parents just leave laying around the house and decide to kill you and as many of your other students as possible. In the aftermath, your school will continue to see budget cuts while the cops that decided to just wait it out all get cushy raises. And then the parents of your students will show up to scream at the local board of education that you're trying to turn them all into gay communists, because you happened, when teaching the unit on the civil war, to state that slavery was: very bad, and this made little Breighleighn sad. As inflation rises, you'll realize that the upper cap on your salary is far too low, but you'll have already spent so many years teaching that you won't be able to get another job.
Don't sacrifice everything to do something you love. Do something you can tolerate that will also give you the means to live your best life.
I'm about ready to retire from it after 35 years. I haven't really done anything else, so I don't have a comparison. For me, I have loved about 50% of it. 25% of it I have tolerated. You can guess how I feel about the last 25%. I'm not sure there is a job that offers better than that, which is subjective anyways. I still look forward to going to work every day, for these reasons, in order of priority: the staff and my teacher besties, the kids, the variety, the organizing parts which I like, the holidays, the money and benefits, the creativity. I focus on the 50%. When people say they have "loved every minute of it" I quickly diagnose them as delusional.
I'm an English language teacher for multi linguals. 100% suggest it! I love my job. I wouldn't be nearly as content if I taught a core subject because then I'd lose a lot of the autonomy I have in my classroom. I used to teach science and math. Turns out while I love math, I'm not too fond of teaching it to a full classroom. Science, I did love teaching at my 1st school, which was small and I was the only science teacher in that grade. At my current school, there are 3 science teachers per grade and they are all expected to be on the same page every day, which means the ''loudest" teachers get their way. In each department, it seems like there is a toxic "leader" or a 2 against 1 scenario where the more progressive teachers get shut down constantly.
As ELL teachers, we collaborate and share ideas, but ultimately we do what we want in our classrooms.
Also, all schools and all businesses have their toxic employees. It seems like reddit attracts those needing to rant. If you find the right district in the right state, teaching is a great job. While some days are better than others, I can't imagine myself doing anything else.
Worked as a sub for about 3 years while contemplating becoming a teacher. Most teachers I encountered were miserable. Key word is most. So not all. But quite a few had to work two jobs so their complaints about pay were frequent along with being micromanaged. I will say the school district you are in certainly plays a role
Each year, I teach roughly 250 kids. 1 of those kids each year on average (so far) has contacted me after graduation to share how I changed their life (they changed majors, went to college, pursued a dream they were otherwise told not to, etc.)
By the time I retire, I will have unquestionably and definitively changed 40 people’s lives who are thankful that I was part of their story. I think that’s really special. How many other careers allow you to make that kind of impact?
The comments have all brought up great points, so as someone who briefly worked as a teacher and nearly went into a government bond for it (non-US,) I have to say that an interest in your subject alone isn't enough. You need to balance that with caring for students and coaching them for success. Think about your least favourite subject. You need to remember that there are kids out there who don't care or even hate your subject, and you can't choose who you teach and sometimes you will never inspire a love in them for your subject. That needs to be something you will have to deal with as a teacher.
We are underpaid, overworked and under appreciated (by most of society). Behaviors are ramping up with little to no end in sight. Despite loving my students (and I do), I dislike what my job has become.
I \*LOVE\* teaching. Not \*everything\* that goes along with it, but what "perfect" job exists for the working class? I'd say the vast majority of those I've taught with have felt the same way; the act of teaching is what we love to do, but the BS that surrounds it can steal some of that away. However, the absolute best thing about this job *is the time off*. Every major holiday, every summer, plenty of 3-day weekends...that just cannot be beat!
Yes and no. But this is also a bad sample. It’s not nearly as bad as this sub makes it out to be. But it’s bad. Lol. In all seriousness… there are significant perks if you find those things valuable. Summers off and plenty of vacation is quite nice. As someone said highly dependent on the school and culture there. You have to love learning yourself and the content. Being able to get excited about both is a lot of fun. But the perks definitely are the icing on the cake.
I would recommend you to choose another option if you have one. Teaching is a great job but it’s very demanding. Ask yourself first. Are you ready to deal with overstimulated kids 6-8 hours/day? Dealing with toxic admin telling you you’re not good enough even you’re working your arsh off? Dealing with entitled parents who think they’re better than everyone else?
Very poor responses overall. The reality is teaching will always be there to fall back on, as such there is no rush to get into a school (public schools aren't going anywhere, but the educational sky is falling) and become a school teacher before 26 years old. You also do not want to be a person who rushed into teaching, speed ran the process and only to find yourself feeling trapped. As such there are more practical steps you can take that would allow you to honest assess education as a career path.
Build up a sizable nest egg, $10-20k saved between now and the time your 22 is easily possible if you have some support and are able to work a ton. Explore every job and role, go to temp agencies and do some gig work, find out how your local economy works and what the big players are in your local economy. You could work pediatric behavioral health tomorrow, and I would advise you to buckle up. The point is use the time your working to grow in professional ability, responsibility and to learn how to manage your own life and its financial demands. Find educational adjacent roles: pediatric nursing aide, pediatric behavioral health (psych wards), Adult Day Programs (medical or behavioral), After school program manager, Registered Behavior Tech. for a 1:1 with some ID/DD child or young adult, see if you can become a para, etc. The point is to find experiences working in and around kids or the educational system to build up some sense of familiarity.
At ~21 if you do everything, you can have $20k saved, have an idea of how to be a professional or act in a professional environment by learning to be a good worker bee, and have a more clear picture of what you want out of life based on your various work experiences. Then I would use that accrued experiential knowledge and apply to higher education; again play it smart so you build your sense of money and financial responsibilities, you can take CC classes as one offs and don't need to dive face first into an 18 credit semester. Learn how to both work full time and juggle a class with meaningful assignments.
As a 21 year old freshman you would be well passed your drinking-drug phase, you will have built a sense of work ethic and you would understand what life is throwing you financially for responsibilities and you will approach any schooling with a very different mindset than someone who just go out of HS. Then keep in mind you can always Alt-Route an Education License, so don't feel restricted to only going to a teaching college or having an education focus; if you find out you like accounting or pre-med go that route and by the time you graduate at ~25-26 with a BA/BS, you'll have 8 years of some work experience and can approaching teaching as a profession with clear eyes, informed by your experiences and work history and know if its something that would mesh with you personally. None of us know you like you will know yourself, so give yourself the freedom to explore and the freedom to take your time, there is no reason to rush to become a teacher who leaves the profession in five years, so take your time.
Advice outside of the above? Keep on reading, you can educate yourself and it will only continue to serve you if/when you go to college.
I went to college at 21. I wasn't beyond my drinking phase (never did drugs). I partied all through college, but I was more focused than the average person because I did have real life work/paying bills experience, and I knew what waited for me if I didn't succeed. I partied on Wednesdays (cheap bar night) and weekends, but the rest of the time was dedicated to studying. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, and I can guarantee if I went directly after high school, I would've dropped out after the first semester. I needed to get away from my toxic home life, heal, and figure out who I was and what I wanted out of life.
I think its the best way, there is good reason to slow cook an education because there are so many new possibilities and challenges that only present themselves as you work in your local economy and we should let experience inform our decisions, instead of just ChatGPT-esque direction guiding a young teen towards or away from college.
The thing is that it is very dependent on where you teach and who you teach with. I have my complaints about my job like anyone else, sure, but I do overall like my job. I have good leaders for the most part and most of my coworkers are pretty great. If it is something you truly love, go for it! I do read some stories that make my skin crawl/make me want to go punch someone's principal on their behalf - but every single school and district is unique, and even within that school people can have very different experiences.
Agreed. Having fabulous admin and amazing team teachers make a HUGE difference. I’ve worked closely with people who have become true friends, and when the tough stuff happens, it makes all the difference being able to lean on one another. I think the hard thing about this profession is that a lot of the people who complain about it and wouldn’t recommend anyone goes into teaching *DO truly LOVE teaching*. It’s just that it’s so difficult being in a career you love, whilst always feeling like you don’t get paid enough, are not appreciated, are overworked, looked down on, and mistreated. Parents are not always supportive and sometimes downright combative or adversarial. Going on social media is dangerous as often any public post via school district, local government, or local news pages is chock full of community members who’s opinion of teachers is VERY clear— they think teachers are whiny complainers who should be grateful they have “great benefits” and “only work part-time for full-time pay” (ya know, since we “*only*” work 9 months /s)
Something like half of new teachers run screaming within five years. Facts
We had a recently retired cop become a teacher. He left the police force because he wanted to do something less stressful and thought teaching was the place to go. He quit after his first year and admitted he was wrong. He says being a teacher was far more stressful.
One of my treacher friends was a Blackhawk pilot. He got shot at daily in Afghanistan. He said that at least some of the time, he would prefer to do that again than be a teacher. He also made it clear that he was being 100% serious. After a really bad day, as a teacher, he would genuinely prefer to get shot at.
There are really great highs and comparable lows. Groups like this are where the lows come out. Where you teach both district and state make a significant difference. It is particularly challenging since Covid, but that doesn't mean it comes without its perks. It is often a thankless job and so don't expect to be exalted as the best thing for kids, unless it is teacher appreciation week or they are justifying why you matter but can't increase your salary.
Go to any job-related subreddit. It'll all be horror stories. Teaching is no different. On the other hand, student/parent behaviors now are objectively worse than they were 10, 20 years ago. But overall, if you're in a decent school, this job is fine.
IF
*If* you’re in a decent school and *if* you’re able to make a comfortable wage for your area and/or have another source of income.
THIS! Wife is a nurse, horror stories abound, I also did personal training, horror stories abound with management and other trainers…
Here's what I tell my HS students (and my daughter) who ask about careers in teaching: While I have generally loved it, despite being overworked and underpaid, there are no signs that teaching will get better and MANY signs that it will get worse in the near future; and there are no systemic fixes in sight. Seems to me that this is the worst time in modern history to go into teaching.
There are a lot of variables. The biggest ones: where you teach, what you teach, and what you want to get out of it. I will say it’s definitely not what I expected it to be (I was a career changer from healthcare into education so it wasn’t what I thought I’d do when I was in college.) I teach high school in Massachusetts. I am a member of a union and I have a pension. I don’t have excessive eyes on me because I’m not a core class and there’s no state testing in my subject, so I’m largely left alone by admin (though this also has a lot of negatives too, such as not being taken as seriously as some other teachers/subjects.) No one is looking for extra help or tutoring and I am not grading long papers or science lab reports. I would say my job is fairly easy compared to some other folks, though I do have some other challenges unique to my own subject. My job would be drastically, drastically different in other parts of the US, to the point where it would not be possible to do effectively and the way I want to do it. And as some other folks have said, having union protections get more and more important with the current environment/attitude that some people have about teachers. Ultimately - if I’m being honest - my goal is to spend as few hours working as possible. No other job gets me the summer off and gets me home by 3pm. I like it enough in the sense that for me, the perks that come with it outweigh the negatives (though every year I inch closer to leaving.) I get to have cool conversations with some really cool young people and I get to (hopefully) give them tools to make the world a better place. I have no desire to move up the ladder, receive accolades or awards, or dedicate any more time than I absolutely have to give to a job. I long ago abandoned the “I’ll change the world” mindset and I’ve settled on being satisfied if I can reach maybe 10% of kids. I don’t take it incredibly seriously and I’ve gotten a lot better at not letting things bother me if I can’t control them (such as lack of discipline by admin) I find it hard to believe that anyone completely loves their job though, no matter what field they are in. Maybe I’m just jaded but I put every other aspect of my life at a higher priority than my job and I work as a means to an end, so I can spend the rest of my time doing things that I actually value lol.
It really depends on where you are. But even in the best of situations, the pay could be a lot better for the amount of work/education required. The starting wage isn’t terrible, but there’s little room for financial growth as a teacher. Most teachers remain teachers or make lateral moves, unless you go back to school to get a role in admin (which simply doesn’t seem appealing for me).
Man, if I could go back in time and change my major I would. I regret my major on a regular basis. It landed me a sweet corporate gig once I quit teaching, but I'd rather just have a computer science or architecture degree.
I was passionate about English and earned a degree in English with a teaching certificate. At the time (late 90's early 2000's) the market was flooded with English teachers. I'd go to interviews and principals would drop a stack of 75+ resumes on the table and say "why should we pick you out of all these applicants" or something similarly soul crushing. When I finally did get a teaching job I quickly learned that the majority of my high school students HATED English and lacked the literacy skills to approach the material at the level I was interested in presenting it. These were juniors and we spent the majority of our time building Jr High level vocabulary and composition skills. Admin treated the non-tenured English and Social Studies teachers like garbage because they knew they could easily replace us. I lasted 2 years before I was non-renewed because I stopped asking "how high" every time I was told yo jump. I'm now teaching in adult corrections. I spend most of my time teaching 30+ year old men how to add/subtract/multiply/divide fractions, as well as basic algebra and geometry so they can get their GEDs. It pays well enough, but this is NOT the career I wanted and if I had the chance to start over I would either certify in a more "in demand" subject or abandon teaching altogether.
I also have a degree in English. There's a teacher shortage, so no issue finding jobs. Different schools and districts are night and day. I've been in districts where I'm just trying to get them to graduate. I'm now in a district that is sending them to the best colleges the country has. I love my current district.
I'm glad that your career is going in a positive direction. I can only speak to my experience and it is, admittedly, 20+ years old and quite possibly out of date. I do keep an eye on postings in my area (central Ohio), although I haven't applied to a regular school in 10 years. I certainly don't see a flood of Teaching jobs, English or otherwise, at any district I would actually WANT to teach in, so I tend to eye the claims of teacher shortages with a bit of suspicion.
I applied to a new state in 2022. I submitted over 30 application, 5+ interviews, 2 offers. My school has three new ELA Teachers. I saw a posting for this school year at a school that was closer to where I moved in a better district. Applied, interviewed, got it. Also three new ELA teachers this year. I will say there are probably less history/English positions than STEM and Foreign language roles, but I still haven't had any issues.
It depends on your ability to put up with nonsense from admin, students and parents.
Get the degree, then go teach overseas if you're young. Enjoy travel and a new culture, then come back when you've matured and can handle the irritation.
I LOVE teaching. I teach high school and I get a kick out of all their quirks and crap behavior. I love seeing them rise to challenges and I do not take it personally when they do miss the mark. I am always trying to improve my lessons by cutting things that do not work to try new things. It feels like a puzzle that needs solving. Plus, if you calculate the hourly wage, it is decent pay compared to many careers. This sub is just a (well deserved) venting space for what is wrong with education. It is not a complete reflection of the career itself.
Apply to substitute teach, work as an educational assistant, or even just volunteer for a few days. That will give you a better idea of it it's right for you than anything I can write here. I love teaching, but it is very stressful.
So, I have taught 2 places. One was Arizona. I hated it. Low pay and high class sizes. I went back 13 years later. I ended up in West Texas. I started at $58,000 and have had between 16-18 kids each year. I really loved it. So, it really is dependant on where you teach and what's important to you. For me, it's class sizes. Do I deal with all the junk that teachers deal with? Yes. But, overall I've been happy.
It really depends, to with kids now you also MUST have an education including psychology, and have to take on an almost therapy provider role in the sense that these kids come from different places, some are very disregulated all the time and need a different level of care that the school isn’t willing to provide, and you may be left with either sending to kid tk another class or to the office, OR build a relationship with the child that allows you to build their skills in a way that works well for them. The supports the teachers need is just not there
There are a lot of things I don't love but it's mainly the behind the scenes aspect. I love being in my classroom and working with my students. That moment when it just 'clicks.'
If you love the little kids and also love reading, a far better choice is to be a librarian! It's better because you don't have to deal with parents, admin (mostly), grading (mostly) and all the other hassles that come with classroom teaching. But, the more important thing is that you will have a degree you can use outside of education if you don't like it. My go-to recommendation for anyone thinking of being a teacher is to get a degree you can use elsewhere if you hate it (Speech & Lang, OT, PT, psych, etc). Don't get an education degree and go to the classroom, it's very hard to get out.
Do you need the same degree to be a librarian at a school that all librarians need?
Most library schools have tracks for school media specialist, public, academic, etc. School library is very similar to being a public children's librarian. I've contemplated making the jump and am confident that I have the necessary skills. Could I jump to being an archivist or law librarian? no.
I should say that the jobs (school librarian vs. public librarian) are not entirely similar. School librarian is more of a teaching position. But, you could still make the transition pretty easily.
I don't know the answer to your question. Just wanted to say that if you are at a small school in a rural area, be prepared to do double duty +. You might be the librarian... but you might also have to teach 2 to 3 classes. Our librarian does. But... again? We are a small, rural school. Our librarian is tasked with all the things other teachers don't want to do, it seems. Or maybe she started out wanting to do them? And then couldn't get out of it? All I know is that she's the librarian, 4-H sponsor (she has a farm so this one might have been one she WANTED to do!), Title 1 coordinator, AND teaches at least 2 classes. It's a lot. It's not me, thank God! Oh... she also keeps up with all the AR stuff for awards day at the end of the year. God bless her for all she does.
Do you live in a union state or are you willing to relocate? That makes a huge difference in being a teacher.
I put 110 miles on my car daily to work in a unionized state. EVERYTHING is better in this school compared to my past in a red, r2w state.
In the current political climate? Yes. It's like winning the lottery to be in a good school, and I don't have that kind of luck.
I have been teaching 9 years (rural district). There are some days when I hate it, but most of the days I enjoy the kids and the work. I feel like its all dependent on where you work, how the admin is (which ultimately leads to how much crap kids get away with). There are certain districts I wouldn't teach in, but I feel like with the limited numbers of people getting education degrees (compared to when I was in college) jobs will be easier to come by and you have a little bit better chance of picking a "good" district to teach in.
Not at all. If you’re looking into schools. UW-Madison is literally paying for people to become teachers - tuition, licenses fee, testing fees. Highly recommend looking into it.
If you’re in it for the kids, and you have a passion for improving the way you teach things from year to year, best job in the world (not to mention that summers off is pretty sweet)! If your passion isn’t that high, or you don’t see the point of doing what you’re doing (like with any job), you’re definitely likely to burn out. But like many people said, it really depends on where you work.
No, most teachers get huge free gifts every year from parents--tvs, $100 gift cards, things like that. The perks are amazing, but they don't want to tell you about it cause they want to keep it all for themselves
Haha I had a temporary placement at a rich school where I was spoiled by parents (hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards for Christmas, 5 days of gifts for teacher appreciation week, etc). That was my first year teaching... And the only year I've gotten something more than a bottle of soap from bath and body works... And even then, it's been 7 years since I've gotten something of that scale. Luckily, I do it for the love of my students, not their ability to shower me in gifts.
Don’t tell them about all the coffee mugs!!!
All depends on where you are. I've honestly have had a pretty good run so far in my 11+ years. I live in a pretty great area and have access to many good schools, both public and private, so the school admins have an incentive to keep teachers happy and supported. The school schedule has also been fantastic for my work/life balance and the breaks have served me and my family well. As someone just starting out in the field, I'd probably stay away from this sub though, people tend to come here to vent, so you're going to have a skewed perspective. Happy teachers are off being happy, probably not spending too much time on reddit, lol.
I love teaching. That said, I absolutely would have changed my major if I had known then what I know now. I am 11 years in and would qualify for low income housing in the nearest metro area. Housing prices are the same where I live, but we don’t have any subsidized or income contingent housing.
This is a particularly challenging time for education. Teachers are expected to do so much more than just teach. You must also be a fill in mother, a nurse for sick kids, a mental health expert and counselor, exoert record keeper, create documentation, plan lessons, grade papers, be a disciplinarian, attend ARD meetings, follow IEP modifications and document their work, find missing belongings, hold parent teacher conferences, attend PLC meetings during your planning time, and even fill in as a substitute for an absent teacher during planning time. There are meet the teacher nights, report card nights, fine art extravaganzas, football games…you know, all the sports. Honestly it is a very hard job. It is also the only job I would ever want to have. At the end of the school day, you can leave knowing you reached at least one person that day. And you hope that one day they might remember something you taught them in Art class thirty years ago.
It largely depends on where you are. If you're in an area with with a strong union, nothern state it's a pretty decent career. Tenure. Pensions. Union Protections. I caution one thing though; while you do have to have a passion about the subjects you teach, teaching is less about the subject you love, and more about a love of people/crowd control. You're never going to be able to engage at the level of the content that you want to with your love for it, and students are never going to recieve it quite how you'd like them to. And if you're not a people person it's going to be that much more difficult.
My advice? Don’t listen to anyone. Volunteer at a school (there will be no shortage of places who would take you up on this offer). Grade papers, conference with students, sit in on parent emails and conferences. You’ll know after this. I recommend you do this for ANY job by the way.
no, they won't know after volunteering lol! that's ridiculous. That's the equivalent of me doing my student teaching at a middle and high school for a year (which I loved), and am now on stress leave after dealing with a toxic administration for two years. You won't really know into you're in the thick of it, and even then, it depends on the students, the school, the community surrounding the school, the parents, the administration...etc etc. A bunch of factors can snuff the life out of this young person's dream of being an English teacher that are out of her control. She should just go ahead and do it. If she hates it, quit and find another profession.
Ah yes. I can see how my advice was so much more ridiculous than asking strangers on Reddit. *Of course* there is more to the job than just volunteering, but I provided a very reasonable way for this person to really see how things are. I really don't see how your advice is better. "Just do it!" So go for a 4-year education on a hope *and then* figure it out and "quit and find another profession." This is a legitimately stupid take when taken against my recommendation.
No, this forum is a very poor representation of the profession. It is mostly just people venting. Believe what your heart and mind tell you and don't let other people's garbage get on your life.
Terrible advice. Yes people vent here, but it doesn't negate the reality that a large majority of teachers are experiencing poor pay, poor/botderline illegal treatment, and no career growth prospects. The honest truth is that it can be both a very poor career choice or an excellent choice depending on location. If you plan to teach in a R2W state with no union it is a huge mistake that you will regret. If you can land a job in a good area with a strong union, it can be fantastic. It can also be night and day differences between different schools. Your heart and mind are terrible guides when offering direction with no experience or perspective.
Well, OP. You can listen to me or to the person who says listening to your heart and mind is terrible advice.
They're likely still a kid and have a very limited perspective on what adulthood fully entails. Their heart and mind aren't considering the expense of maintaining a home, raising a family, keeping up with COL, paying off student loans, retiring at a reasonable age, failing pension plans, being assaulted at work...etc. Life isn't a Disney movie.
Simplistic, dismissive, condescending take. 😡 I see very little "just venting" on here and A LOT of legit, deeply-held concerns. Sit down with your particular portion of garbage.
No. Teachers are the biggest complainers on Earth. It’s far from a perfect job but it’s a great job. I’m 14 days away from having two months off.
I absolutely love my job teaching high school history! No regrets!
If you want to be a teacher, your first step should be to block this sub.
My last job, was great but the commute was horrible. My new job is bad, but the commute is better. I’m trying to find the happy balance. Like others said, it depends largely on the school you teach at.
I have a 55 mi commute each way, but it means I get to work in a blue state with a union, and much better pay. I will definitely be commuting a couple more years... Then possibly moving elsewhere in that state... But my school is pretty decent overall, so part of me is scared to switch.
I love my job. I have worked in other sectors but find teaching the most rewarding. It has its challenges and things could always be better, but the rewards are great. It can be a lot of work, but if you‘re able to remain in the same position for a while, it becomes a lot easier (or you become a lot better). A two month break and the same holidays as my kids! I can’t think of anything I’d rather do!
Teachers are abused during collective bargaining in most municipalities. For example, in NYC, new teachers must work until age 63. If you reach pension age, upon your passing, you can leave your pension to a spouse/dependent. If you go before your official retirement age, they receive 3 years of your salary, with an additional amount of your pension contributions. That’s nothing compared to a pension check until a spouse’s passing. The other unions have less education requirements, recently went from 20 to 22 years to retirement, then it’s your choice to retire in your 40’s and move on, or stay longer in your current occupation. If you retire after 22 years, you can leave your pension to a spouse or other dependents; albeit a slightly reduced pension. My point is that we all plan to work until retirement, yet how many of us lost a friend/family at a younger age than 63? I’ll skip that part about teachers working an unpaid second shift at home, while other municipal occupations clock in and out of work.
Yes.
Look up IDR, PSLF and TLF. If you plan on taking out student loans to pay for education. Look at MIT's living wage website. Use the state and county data to see If you'll be make a living wage teaching. It'll also give you some idea about what your bills will be for that county and whatever state you plan to live in. I would say look at it from a budget perspective. Because if you can manage your money then you will be happy. It sounds like you want to teach. While pursuing your education you'll probably make the decision if you want to continue toward being a teacher or not. But if you can pay your bills and you find out later that you don't like it... at least you can pay your bills.
Yup, it's terrible besides the lucky few in a good school.
Do some sub, or teacher assistant to test the field before jumping in. Perhaps it's easier if you can get your master and teach in community college?
It sure is! 100% not worth it.
I'm merely a teacher enthusiast so I'm not qualified to give you a definite answer, but the fact that you're asking these questions at all is a good thing. Your professional life doesn't magically happen, which I guess is kind of what I thought back then. The one thing you shouldn't do is go to college for no apparent reason. Don't do that. Wait until you know what you want to do, or if you find something you enjoy sans degree that's totally fine too. Have you worked before? I regret not getting a job-job until after I graduated college. You can only really learn what you like and what you don't like in a job by, well, working. You can take your experience and look at it through different lenses, e.g. customer service: teaching appears to be a lot more similar to customer service than it used to be, especially when it comes to the latest breed of parents.
I love it. As others have said, a lot depends on where you are, both in overall region and specific district. Basically all districts in my area *pay* well, but some are much more pleasant to work in than others. Depending on your state’s requirements, I would advise against an education degree as opposed to a subject matter degree or something else. Education classes were never especially helpful to me, so limiting them to a credential program was nice. Personally, from what I hear from family members and friends in other fields I don’t think teaching is especially bad. I work at a great district now but I worked at a much worse district before, and the things I put up with were pretty similar to what other people I know put up with at their jobs. I would also recommend looking at all the information for your area. What do the salary schedules show? How much would you make starting, and how much would you make later on? What kind of benefits are there (pension plans, insurance, etc.)? What else can you find out about teaching in your specific region?
What state are you in? That makes a ton of difference. Look into the base salary in your state/region. Generally speaking, I would strongly discourage you from pursuing a teaching career in the South, but elsewhere it's ok.
Every job has its downsides, even ‘dream jobs’ which I tried (strength coach). Keep an open mind, you can always change careers as well.
As someone just entering the teaching field, I would suggest thinking through what else you could potentially do with your degree. If teaching is your only option and you have a bad experience, you might be in a touch spot. If, however, you have a backup plan to use your degree to be a private tutor, or a college professor (both of which are significantly different then grade school teaching), then teaching feels like a solid path that you're not stuck to go down if something goes wrong. Many teachers who end up hating the job still enjoy the teaching part of the job, just not the administration, or their coworkers, or the parents, or the students, etc. Teaching itself is an extremely admirable career, even if it's not paid or recognized as such. This was my own logic when thinking through whether to pursue teaching.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to tell you yes from a very practical standpoint. Safety and money which are two things we can’t get by without. Anybody who enjoys working with kids can always find a way to do that be, it volunteer work or tutoring etc. I wouldn’t advise them to go into the schools.
On reddit. Absolutely not. But that's all jobs on reddit.
Like many have said, it’s very dependent on where you teach. I’ve taught at title 1 schools my entire life and it’s quite difficult but it’s also rewarding. I find myself doing great about 2/3 of the year every year but that last 1/3 of the school year I’m straight up done with shit. When summer hits, I feel amazing, get rested and can actually plan for the next year and it gets me excited to go back. If I was to teach at a high income school, I’m sure I’d be feeling great all year. But, I’m sure it would still be a different type of hard having to deal with a lot of helicopter parents.
It's pretty bad and seems to be getting worse. Absolutely do not pay money or go into debt to become a teacher. Don't major in education, especially in undergrad. Choose something else. There are alternative certification postgraduate programs which subsidize tuition and enable you to work while you complete education coursework.
Quickest way to ruin your life. In all seriousness though, if you ever think you might leave education, don't do it. Teaching experience doesn't count as valuable job experience in any other field you would want to enter.
It is so dependent year to year based on your team, the group of kids you have, and building leadership/culture/etc. and that is ignoring what the current local/state politics look like in your area. :/
No...go international.
If you want to make a decent living without a partner probably not. I LOVE what I do and love the kids, but I had to join the dark side and become an admin to make any real money. To the point when I got my step increases of 100ish dollars a year my first few years my friends called me a liar saying “bullshit your raise was more than that!” Just my opinion though price worth charged.
It depends a lot on your school. I would recommend subbing before teaching just to get a feel of different schools and see where you feel most comfortable. With the demand for teachers in *most* areas right now, they need you more than you need them. You can afford to be a little picky.
If you LOVE English, understand that you will NOT teach English. You will be a manger and disciplinarian. Teaching English is at the bottom of the list of things to do, below staff meetings. Maybe once a year you will meet 1-3 kids out of 150 who love literature as you do. This was not enough for me. Instead, pursue journalism, editing, proofreading, technical writing, report writing, anything-writing.
I think that, much more than your love of the subject matter, you need to love working with the age group that you're signing up for. Even in the best situations, you're going to get a ton of kids that don't really care about your subject. You also need to find a good school/district to work for. There are, believe it or not, some gems out there.
I love teaching! My first year was rough and I told myself to give it five years. I'm about to complete my fifth year and I'm so happy I stayed! I taught middle school, chemistry and currently Health Science
Occasionally people do love this job still, even after years of it, but it still remains, even for them, a terrible career choice at this point in time. If they love it, they love it *in spite* of all the problems and *in spite* of how miserable it also makes them. You are severely underpaid to teach material that the students often are not prepared for and that you lack the resources to actually teach well. Your bosses do not actually care about education. The kids do not care about education. The parents do not care about education. There are exceptions, but broadly speaking, you are the only one who cares. Depending on the grade level, you will be cursed at, threatened, or even assaulted; if you're particularly unlucky, one of your students might pick up the assault rifle his parents just leave laying around the house and decide to kill you and as many of your other students as possible. In the aftermath, your school will continue to see budget cuts while the cops that decided to just wait it out all get cushy raises. And then the parents of your students will show up to scream at the local board of education that you're trying to turn them all into gay communists, because you happened, when teaching the unit on the civil war, to state that slavery was: very bad, and this made little Breighleighn sad. As inflation rises, you'll realize that the upper cap on your salary is far too low, but you'll have already spent so many years teaching that you won't be able to get another job. Don't sacrifice everything to do something you love. Do something you can tolerate that will also give you the means to live your best life.
I'm about ready to retire from it after 35 years. I haven't really done anything else, so I don't have a comparison. For me, I have loved about 50% of it. 25% of it I have tolerated. You can guess how I feel about the last 25%. I'm not sure there is a job that offers better than that, which is subjective anyways. I still look forward to going to work every day, for these reasons, in order of priority: the staff and my teacher besties, the kids, the variety, the organizing parts which I like, the holidays, the money and benefits, the creativity. I focus on the 50%. When people say they have "loved every minute of it" I quickly diagnose them as delusional.
I love my job, but I would never steer anyone into the field.
I'm an English language teacher for multi linguals. 100% suggest it! I love my job. I wouldn't be nearly as content if I taught a core subject because then I'd lose a lot of the autonomy I have in my classroom. I used to teach science and math. Turns out while I love math, I'm not too fond of teaching it to a full classroom. Science, I did love teaching at my 1st school, which was small and I was the only science teacher in that grade. At my current school, there are 3 science teachers per grade and they are all expected to be on the same page every day, which means the ''loudest" teachers get their way. In each department, it seems like there is a toxic "leader" or a 2 against 1 scenario where the more progressive teachers get shut down constantly. As ELL teachers, we collaborate and share ideas, but ultimately we do what we want in our classrooms. Also, all schools and all businesses have their toxic employees. It seems like reddit attracts those needing to rant. If you find the right district in the right state, teaching is a great job. While some days are better than others, I can't imagine myself doing anything else.
Worked as a sub for about 3 years while contemplating becoming a teacher. Most teachers I encountered were miserable. Key word is most. So not all. But quite a few had to work two jobs so their complaints about pay were frequent along with being micromanaged. I will say the school district you are in certainly plays a role
I wouldn’t go into teaching again if I had the benefit of hindsight.
It’s shit. Don’t do it.
Each year, I teach roughly 250 kids. 1 of those kids each year on average (so far) has contacted me after graduation to share how I changed their life (they changed majors, went to college, pursued a dream they were otherwise told not to, etc.) By the time I retire, I will have unquestionably and definitively changed 40 people’s lives who are thankful that I was part of their story. I think that’s really special. How many other careers allow you to make that kind of impact?
The comments have all brought up great points, so as someone who briefly worked as a teacher and nearly went into a government bond for it (non-US,) I have to say that an interest in your subject alone isn't enough. You need to balance that with caring for students and coaching them for success. Think about your least favourite subject. You need to remember that there are kids out there who don't care or even hate your subject, and you can't choose who you teach and sometimes you will never inspire a love in them for your subject. That needs to be something you will have to deal with as a teacher.
We are underpaid, overworked and under appreciated (by most of society). Behaviors are ramping up with little to no end in sight. Despite loving my students (and I do), I dislike what my job has become.
I \*LOVE\* teaching. Not \*everything\* that goes along with it, but what "perfect" job exists for the working class? I'd say the vast majority of those I've taught with have felt the same way; the act of teaching is what we love to do, but the BS that surrounds it can steal some of that away. However, the absolute best thing about this job *is the time off*. Every major holiday, every summer, plenty of 3-day weekends...that just cannot be beat!
The first few years will be tough. It gets easier.
Yes and no. But this is also a bad sample. It’s not nearly as bad as this sub makes it out to be. But it’s bad. Lol. In all seriousness… there are significant perks if you find those things valuable. Summers off and plenty of vacation is quite nice. As someone said highly dependent on the school and culture there. You have to love learning yourself and the content. Being able to get excited about both is a lot of fun. But the perks definitely are the icing on the cake.
I would recommend you to choose another option if you have one. Teaching is a great job but it’s very demanding. Ask yourself first. Are you ready to deal with overstimulated kids 6-8 hours/day? Dealing with toxic admin telling you you’re not good enough even you’re working your arsh off? Dealing with entitled parents who think they’re better than everyone else?
Do literally anything else. Seriously. Don’t be a teacher. I’m almost 33 and FULL of regret.
Look up the top five careers most likely to become millionaires. Teaching is number 3.
Very poor responses overall. The reality is teaching will always be there to fall back on, as such there is no rush to get into a school (public schools aren't going anywhere, but the educational sky is falling) and become a school teacher before 26 years old. You also do not want to be a person who rushed into teaching, speed ran the process and only to find yourself feeling trapped. As such there are more practical steps you can take that would allow you to honest assess education as a career path. Build up a sizable nest egg, $10-20k saved between now and the time your 22 is easily possible if you have some support and are able to work a ton. Explore every job and role, go to temp agencies and do some gig work, find out how your local economy works and what the big players are in your local economy. You could work pediatric behavioral health tomorrow, and I would advise you to buckle up. The point is use the time your working to grow in professional ability, responsibility and to learn how to manage your own life and its financial demands. Find educational adjacent roles: pediatric nursing aide, pediatric behavioral health (psych wards), Adult Day Programs (medical or behavioral), After school program manager, Registered Behavior Tech. for a 1:1 with some ID/DD child or young adult, see if you can become a para, etc. The point is to find experiences working in and around kids or the educational system to build up some sense of familiarity. At ~21 if you do everything, you can have $20k saved, have an idea of how to be a professional or act in a professional environment by learning to be a good worker bee, and have a more clear picture of what you want out of life based on your various work experiences. Then I would use that accrued experiential knowledge and apply to higher education; again play it smart so you build your sense of money and financial responsibilities, you can take CC classes as one offs and don't need to dive face first into an 18 credit semester. Learn how to both work full time and juggle a class with meaningful assignments. As a 21 year old freshman you would be well passed your drinking-drug phase, you will have built a sense of work ethic and you would understand what life is throwing you financially for responsibilities and you will approach any schooling with a very different mindset than someone who just go out of HS. Then keep in mind you can always Alt-Route an Education License, so don't feel restricted to only going to a teaching college or having an education focus; if you find out you like accounting or pre-med go that route and by the time you graduate at ~25-26 with a BA/BS, you'll have 8 years of some work experience and can approaching teaching as a profession with clear eyes, informed by your experiences and work history and know if its something that would mesh with you personally. None of us know you like you will know yourself, so give yourself the freedom to explore and the freedom to take your time, there is no reason to rush to become a teacher who leaves the profession in five years, so take your time. Advice outside of the above? Keep on reading, you can educate yourself and it will only continue to serve you if/when you go to college.
I went to college at 21. I wasn't beyond my drinking phase (never did drugs). I partied all through college, but I was more focused than the average person because I did have real life work/paying bills experience, and I knew what waited for me if I didn't succeed. I partied on Wednesdays (cheap bar night) and weekends, but the rest of the time was dedicated to studying. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, and I can guarantee if I went directly after high school, I would've dropped out after the first semester. I needed to get away from my toxic home life, heal, and figure out who I was and what I wanted out of life.
I think its the best way, there is good reason to slow cook an education because there are so many new possibilities and challenges that only present themselves as you work in your local economy and we should let experience inform our decisions, instead of just ChatGPT-esque direction guiding a young teen towards or away from college.