46 year old wants to switch career to teaching (principal, demand, stressful)
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My 46 year old DH is considering going into teaching. He wants to teach elementary school. He has an MBA in Finance and is miserable at his current job. His current job (in a corporate environment) pays well and the benefits are rich but it gives him anxiety and a lot of stress.
He loves children and felt that for the first time in his life, he is being honest with himself about what he wants to do. He refused to listen to him mom or sister after college to go into teaching.
My question is - is it even realistic for him to do this at his age? With his MBA, how long does he need to get certified?
My 46 year old DH is considering going into teaching. He wants to teach elementary school. He has an MBA in Finance and is miserable at his current job. His current job (in a corporate environment) pays well and the benefits are rich but it gives him anxiety and a lot of stress.
He loves children and felt that for the first time in his life, he is being honest with himself about what he wants to do. He refused to listen to him mom or sister after college to go into teaching.
My question is - is it even realistic for him to do this at his age? With his MBA, how long does he need to get certified?
Is there a way he could step it down in his current career and then try substitute teaching to see if he'd like it? I think that it's a radical career change. People do it, and many succeed. But he needs to know what he's getting himself into. It might give him a chance to get to know other teachers and see what their experiences are.
Depends on the state re. the licensing. What does he think he is going to teach? An MBA does not qualify him to be an elementary school teacher. I think he is going to have a difficult time of it as there are many more already certified teachers than there are teaching positions. Also, can your family and bills survive a massive pay cut?
I would start with the licensing agency for your state to see what the requirements are, whether they have provisional licensure, etc. I would also speak to the principals or assistant principals of local elementary school to see what they think about the idea.
My wife retired last year after teaching elementary for 30 years. She complained bitterly about all the silly counterproductive bureaucratic nonsense that's been accumulating since the NCLB act became law about 10 years ago. In other words, teaching today bears little resemblance to what any current adults recall from their school days. It could well be worse than your current job. Seriously.
My 46 year old DH is considering going into teaching. He wants to teach elementary school. He has an MBA in Finance and is miserable at his current job. His current job (in a corporate environment) pays well and the benefits are rich but it gives him anxiety and a lot of stress.
He loves children and felt that for the first time in his life, he is being honest with himself about what he wants to do. He refused to listen to him mom or sister after college to go into teaching.
My question is - is it even realistic for him to do this at his age? With his MBA, how long does he need to get certified?
You need to contact your State's certification board and find out what he needs to qualify to be a teacher. Each state is different. I doubt that anyone on this forum actually works there and knows all the correct answers.
It's probably realistic, depending on your state's criteria for certification.
I would caution that there is anxiety and stress in teaching...perhaps of a different type than that to which he's accustomed. But beginning teachers are often surprised by what sorts of things end up causing them anxiety.
I have worked both as a teacher and in fields outside of education, and each come with their own sets of pressures.
My 46 year old DH is considering going into teaching. He wants to teach elementary school. He has an MBA in Finance and is miserable at his current job. His current job (in a corporate environment) pays well and the benefits are rich but it gives him anxiety and a lot of stress.
He loves children and felt that for the first time in his life, he is being honest with himself about what he wants to do. He refused to listen to him mom or sister after college to go into teaching.
My question is - is it even realistic for him to do this at his age? With his MBA, how long does he need to get certified?
BTDT and I want a do over. I started on the path to become a teacher when I was about your dh's age. It has proven to be the BIGGEST mistake in my life by far. Education simply is not what those on the outside invision.
For example: I had a parent, last semester who called me to ask that I sit with her son during class and work with him one on one, that I take his binder from him and organize it for him then give it back to him, that I move him to the front of the room, after I moved him to the back to take his audience away because he was disrupting class who wrote the angriest letter I've ever read and took it right to the superintendent asking that 1) her son be taken out of my class and 2) I be fired. Unfortunately, she has clout so they've "suggested" I look for another job (I've been informed that with parents complaining to the school board, I cannot tenure so I will end up beind denied tenure and dismissed.). All it takes ONE parent if it's the wrong parent.
I once worked with a guy who taught for 6 months then a girl who didn't like her grade accused him of touching her. She recanted, immediately, after he was fired but it was too late. Career over. Last I heard he was working on the line in a factory somewhere.
We do not teach to standards we cater to egos. Both those of the parents and the students. Your admins will throw you under the bus to appease a parent even when you are in trouble for doing what they told you to do. For example, I was told to shift away from lecture style teaching and towards a student talk model. So, I do fewer examples and have the kids work in groups more. Now I have parents complaing that I don't teach the kids and the kids are teaching themselves (which, when you think about it is fantastic). Do you think they'd tell these parents that I was instructed to do this??? Nope.
I have never seen such immature political nonsense in my life as I've seen since becomming a teacher. Tell your dh to RUN the other way. IF he can even find a job, he'll be stressed out and miserable and all he'll ever hear are complaints.
My 46 year old DH is considering going into teaching. He wants to teach elementary school. He has an MBA in Finance and is miserable at his current job. His current job (in a corporate environment) pays well and the benefits are rich but it gives him anxiety and a lot of stress.
He loves children and felt that for the first time in his life, he is being honest with himself about what he wants to do. He refused to listen to him mom or sister after college to go into teaching.
My question is - is it even realistic for him to do this at his age? With his MBA, how long does he need to get certified?
Does he have kids? He'd be working everyday all day with young kids. There are things you take for granted while working with adults that don't apply when working with children.
Nothing is as anxiety-ridden and stressful as teaching elementary school. Plus, when I worked in elem school, 60-70 hours a week was the expectation. Less than that led to targeting and persecution by the administration, who treated everyone like children and basically acted like bullies. It was horrible, stressful, demeaning work. I would never go back.
If you like kids, it's the last place you want to be. All you do all day is find ways to manipulate them into doing boring test prep so they can score high on the test and you can keep your job. When they can't do the work, you can't help but feel frustrated and angry with them. After a while, they are just walking test scores and your job depends on their cognitive development, mood and motivation on test day.
Having said that, men are in great demand in elementary classrooms, and I'm sure he can certified without too much trouble through some alternate licensure offered in your state. Check the state ed website, then local colleges and universities. Our local CC has a 16 week program that leads to provisional licensure, for example.
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