I thought about becoming one years back. An acquaintance of mine was a teacher at my old high school and offered to let me shadow him for a day so I could see what it was like.
The real revelation was lunchtime. We hung with all the other teachers and he introduced me to a bunch of them. They all joked “are you stupid or something?” or “you should run.” Then they all detailed their plans to exit the profession. Every one of them had made up their mind to go, and had a different path to some other career.
I became one for a while at an older age. I knew it was shit, but you know food costs money + existential angst.
It’s not just the money, it’s not just the unpaid hours, it’s not just being thrown in at the deep end with little to no training, it’s not just teacher education often being divorced from the daily reality of schools, it’s not just parents, it’s not just behavioural issues, it’s so many things, …
Teaching is (perhaps surprisingly tiring) emotional labour for an often ungrateful audience (students, administration, parents, society as a whole), and because old forms of authority no longer exist (and have been replaced by new forms of authority like online influencers), the odds are high that you become an overqualified babysitter for grown-ass kids who have already failed, know they have already failed, and know the educational system and the political system you work for and represent are responsible for that failure.
And because turnover is so high, and because so many people hate their jobs, colleagues and superiors have often given up on retaining the good teachers and don’t support each other.
You’re setup to fail, and when you fail you will hate yourself, or grow to hate the very kids you got into teaching to help.
Honestly, go clean toilets for a living. You’ll get plenty of movement, you get to relax at the end of the day, you work hard and see immediate results, and people are less critical and more grateful. Depending on where you live, once you factor in the extra hours you have to put in to become a teacher, it’s not impossible you’ll also earn more.
Anyone who is confused as to why there is a “teacher shortage” has likely never spoken to a teacher (yelling at one doesn’t count).
I thought about becoming one years back. An acquaintance of mine was a teacher at my old high school and offered to let me shadow him for a day so I could see what it was like.
The real revelation was lunchtime. We hung with all the other teachers and he introduced me to a bunch of them. They all joked “are you stupid or something?” or “you should run.” Then they all detailed their plans to exit the profession. Every one of them had made up their mind to go, and had a different path to some other career.
This was exactly my experience. Worked as a sub while considering going into teaching… everyone told me to get out, do anything else.
I became one for a while at an older age. I knew it was shit, but you know food costs money + existential angst.
It’s not just the money, it’s not just the unpaid hours, it’s not just being thrown in at the deep end with little to no training, it’s not just teacher education often being divorced from the daily reality of schools, it’s not just parents, it’s not just behavioural issues, it’s so many things, …
Teaching is (perhaps surprisingly tiring) emotional labour for an often ungrateful audience (students, administration, parents, society as a whole), and because old forms of authority no longer exist (and have been replaced by new forms of authority like online influencers), the odds are high that you become an overqualified babysitter for grown-ass kids who have already failed, know they have already failed, and know the educational system and the political system you work for and represent are responsible for that failure.
And because turnover is so high, and because so many people hate their jobs, colleagues and superiors have often given up on retaining the good teachers and don’t support each other.
You’re setup to fail, and when you fail you will hate yourself, or grow to hate the very kids you got into teaching to help.
Honestly, go clean toilets for a living. You’ll get plenty of movement, you get to relax at the end of the day, you work hard and see immediate results, and people are less critical and more grateful. Depending on where you live, once you factor in the extra hours you have to put in to become a teacher, it’s not impossible you’ll also earn more.