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I will have a degree in elementary education a year from now. I am a male in my mid 40s starting a second career.
By the time I'm in my 50s I would have been teaching only about 10 years. True that may seem like forever these days, but it isn't. I would like to continue teaching elementary level well into my 60s, God willing.
I regret not having entered the profession before now. But as some may say, better late than never.
Awesome. You are to be commended. School districts are government entities and I just don't see how they can be ageist. Seriously, isn't there a whole push to get new teachers...and a push to get some to come over from others lines of work through making the credentialing process easier. Am I wrong? Will someone chime in on the late entry issue and how people work around it?
I think it would be cool. In my line of work, we got to go to an elementary school and do a "show and tell" about our work to the students. We had to return a couple of times over a 3 week period. They were all very interested (5th graders) and wanted to ask questions, speak their minds, get my attention. As I was packing my things to leave, one 5th grader said "When are you coming back?" It made my day!
Teachers shape lives. Good ones are needed. Keep us informed on your thoughts and progress.
If your heart is in it 100% go for it and don't look back. I would not worry about retiring in your 60's. Just be grateful you can retire to begin with. I know guys in there 60's who work in industrial construction in the freezing cold and sweltering heat. You'll be just fine. I also agree with the poster on the first page who said people over 40 have more life experiance.
I'm sorry to go a little off topic. But I always seem to get conflicting information about getting a job in teaching. Some say tearchers are in demand and others say they can't get a job. What gives?
I
conflicting information about getting a job in teaching. Some say tearchers are in demand and others say they can't get a job. What gives?
It's true that school systems prefer to hire young teachers fresh out of school. They don't have to pay as much for them as for experienced teachers and some systems are dealing both with high teacher turnover rates and budget constraints.
Male elementary teachers are in very short supply, therefore, in high demand, and that will help your job prospects a lot.
Teachers are both in demand AND it's hard to get a job. There's a shortage of math, science, foreign language, ESL, and sped teachers. Those teachers are in high demand.
My spouse has taught in three different schools in the same system in eight years. In all three, the math teachers were Africans, two from Nigeria, one from Ghana, here in the US on HB-1 visas, because there is a shortage of qualified American math majors who can teach high school math.
There's a surplus of English, history, social studies, art, music, phys ed teachers. Those subject areas it's harder to get and retain a job.
Also, the US economy is contracting. Schools don't have the money to hire as many teachers as they want or need. They increase class size or drop subjects instead. That makes it harder for teachers to get jobs, and layoffs of experienced teachers are more common.
I have found lately that teaching is like any job....you have to know someone to get the right job. I've just recently "transitioned" into teaching certificate after being a sahm and hopefully will get a job this summer for fall. I've had to abondon hope of teaching @ my local school b/c it they are desirable and positions are gone b/f they are open to outsiders (not w/i the school district) ....I'm having to open myself up for schools a lot further away. I;m sure some areas/subjects are in higher demand than others.
Thank you all for the encouraging words. I am really looking forward to getting my degree and start teaching somewhere (prefer Michigan, but if not oh well, I have student loans to pay off). The old saying to me holds true, "love what you're doing and you'll never work a day in your life". Teaching to me is hard, but the rewards, hopefully (I am confident) will be worth it.
I applaude YOU! You are very brave and courageous to start this new career, I think you will be GREAT! Life has molded you into what your students will need.
SAL, try not to second-guess what your heart tells you, you want to be doing with your life. Even if you get into the profession, and it wasn't what you thought, or you only do it 1, 5, 10 years, you will be none-the-worse for the wear, and however many children's paths you cross may be much better off.
Being older, and a parent, should almost be prerequisites for teaching. It is a rare 22-year-old coming straight from education courses who truly understands children. I taught at the former JR HS, and then HS level, for most of my teaching career, and what saved me many a time as a too-young, too-inexperienced teacher was having an open mind and a sense of humor.
After I had been teaching 15 years or more, I went back to school to become certified to teach K-6. I was in my 30s and Mommy to a kindergartener, and I could have told you exactly who in my EDU classes was really going to have a hard time of it.
If you like little ones, see learning as 'play' and can make it fun, like doing creative things, and getting on the floor or out on the playground with them, you'll enjoy the job and probably be very good at it. Being older will actually be an asset. I never had any child in school complain/comment about my age, but my daughter pointed out to me that I was "an o-l-d Mommy," and much to her chagrin, I pointed out that had I had her in my 20s, one of us would be dead.
Good luck. Have fun. If you are truly cut-out to work with elementary children, it will seem so much less like work and more like play (until you have to deal with some of the adults around you, and the BS from the school system).
I don't think it's crazy, b/c I'm thinking about doing the same at 48. Unfortunately while I have a college degree, I have no teaching classes, and it seems like not a good idea for me to go back to college when I have 2 teenagers getting ready to go. So I might just keep subbing, though that is hit and miss with hours. Did you get enough hours to suit you? How many school systems did you sign on with? I'm assuming that if you do it long enough and they like you, you get called more, but I'm still new at this. Love it though--even middle school.
If I was in charge, I would make a law that says nobody younger than 40 could become a teacher. I want to see teachers that have real life experiences in the real world to help them teach.
I have a real problem with kids that go from highschool, to college, straight to being a teacher. They have never been in the outside world to see what it's really like. They can only teach what somebody else has written in a book. How can they prepare a child for the real world when they have never been there themselves? They don't have any real experience to draw upon. Forty years of life beats four years of college any day.
For those that fit this description, and are about to throw a hissy, look at what it says under my name in the top left corner. I will counter anything you have to say with, "Up yours. I have underwear older than you".
People like you thoroughly anger me.
I went to six years of school and I'm 23 years old. I'm just as qualified as anyone else to teach. I have to pay bills, eat, and live, and teaching is what does that. It's what I went to college for and paid over 30,000 bucks for.
So what should I do? Wait 20 years and work in a factory so I can get "real experience" in life?
And your only counter will be "I have underwear older than you?" You have NO room to talk about maturity.
Who are you to assume we haven't had any "life experience" just because we're younger?
You need to grow up a little and come back when your "real experience" in life allows you to have an opinion that isn't founded on complete B.S.
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