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An older cousin of mine taught in one of those upper middle class highly rated suburban Boston school systems. She now says nothing when someone asks her about the teaching profession because she doesn't want to influence them one way or the other.
But she tells me because I was a teacher in Massachusetts too. No matter how highly rated the town is, you will be treated like trash by the administrators and maybe by the parents too.
Before there were teachers' unions, the administrators were your friends. They backed you up if a parent complained. But the unions pitted teachers against administrators.
My last job was as a library media specialist in a large middle school. That was somewhat better than having a classroom but still, the teachers would send their problem kids to the library for me to deal with. The kids who seem okay out of school get dragged into the mire by the disruptive students and you get fights and things being thrown through the air. My assistant got hit in the eye with a book as she walked over to tell some kids to settle down.
And, for the most part, you are not allowed to do anything about it. The kid can swear at you but what are you supposed to do? Send them to the office? They'll get sent right back. Write them up? Doesn't do any good.
BTW, you've got to enjoy sitting through endless after school meetings. And they're usually not about education. They're about how to recognize gangs or how to tell if a kid has a weapon.
In the 1950s there was a movie about teaching called Blackboard Jungle. It portrayed a rarity in those days. Today it would be the norm.
Most people who find they don't actually like teaching leave the field within five years of starting.
Those who leave later aren't leaving because they hate to teach. They're leaving for reasons that have to do with things other than the educating of students.
You want us tell you how wonderful it is to only work 5 hours a day for only 9 months a year?
That we have golden parachute-type retirement plans?
That the benefits are equivalent to the President's?
That the kids love and respect us and never show us a moment's worth of disciplinary issues?
That we never have a single issue with parents or society?
Everyone has a very large misconception of what an educator's job is like. This misconception comes from the idea that, since they were students and sat on the student side of the desk, that they know all there is to know about what goes on on the other side of the desk. But what students see and experience in their self-centered world of their own education is not remotely adequate enough for a full picture.
Why do you think so many rookie teachers quit within the 1st 5 years?
Because this job was not what they thought it would be.
Because they had a completely different picture of it based on their experiences as a student.
And maybe they would have appreciated someone giving them a heads-up before they wasted 4-5 years of education.
We experienced teachers are only trying to paint an accurate picture so you go into this with your eyes open, leaving you niavity behind.
I like my job. I'm good at it. But it takes a special mentality to do it well. Even then, the stress can wear a person down. I watched my dad run into burning buildings for a living. You can be very good at that, but you can't do it forever.
Thanks for info.
Teaching probably seems like a good option to me because I don't need to go back and do a ridiculous amount of school to get into it ... such as say, nursing or even worse physical therapy.
I'm probably barking up the wrong tree. I have an engineering degree and a Masters (though not in engineering). How hard would it be to find a teaching job in NJ/NY/PA?
The ones who are teaching IN SPITE of the stated conditions do it BECAUSE they like their jobs.
Not always. many of them are in so deep they cannot do anything else. Teachers are the best at thinking they can do so many other jobs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jobaba
Ironically, I am also an engineer and was thinking of switching to teaching.
That to me is discouraging. I don't really care about money or working hard or extra hours or politics. My current job has all those things. The thing my job lacks is meaning. A lot of teachers don't really seem to find much meaning in their job either I guess.
Is that true? Or maybe you guys dislike your jobs for practical reasons like compensation relative to other professions. Either way, it's discouraging to see how many teachers slam the profession.
Honestly, there are several things at play. One is, many of the moan and groan crowd teach outside of California, NY, CT, NJ or Washington D.C. The pay drop substantially when you are not in one of those 5 regions. When you hear teachers are underpaid, it usually means the rest of the country.
#2, the people in those regions who complain often more than likely teach in the inner city and get constantly harassed by ill behaved kids who don't wanna do any work and will insult you at the drop of a hat without any repercussions except a write up. Or they are working in a really high end area where the parents are a major pain in the pooper.
Here's the real deal, most students hate Math, & science classes except for a few here an there. Many (not all) like Phys Ed, tolerate English & History, and don't mind a language class if they speak the language already because it tends to not be a stressful class for them. The flipside is teaching Math & science promises more job security because people quit.
For me, i'm just fine. Its a second career for me so i have a different perspective as opposed to someone who has taught and done nothing else. I work in the LA area, less than 10 years in but I still make over 70K, will be up to 80 in a few years, and my days end roughly at 2-2:30. I had a bad start teaching English which almost made me quit but now I teach the disabled kids and I love it. None of the nasty , gang, primma donna attitudes, small class sizes, job security and it doesn't matter if I work in an affluent area or a ghetto,... a kid in a wheelchair is a kid in a wheelchair.
It comes down too choosing the right subject, and learning to have patience. Also gotta pick your battles. If you plan to try and confiscate every cell phone, good luck with that. I will agree with other who said you should substitute first because after my first day of doing that in an inner city school, i nearly quit the whole thing.
I'm probably barking up the wrong tree. I have an engineering degree and a Masters (though not in engineering). How hard would it be to find a teaching job in NJ/NY/PA?
You would need at least SOME education classes to complete the certification requirements for those states.
Middle school was my FAVORITE age group, besides the low-income high-school seniors I used to teach who worked night jobs and often tried to sleep through my first period class at 7 am. They were all sweet, though. But everyone has what it takes to deal with middle-schoolers day in and day out.
OP, are you good at reading people?
Do you have good interpersonal skills?
Are you good at non-verbal communication?
Can you communicate concepts clearly to people at all ability levels?
Are you patient?
Do you have a real moral drive to help kids learn? You will need it to motivate you through a job that is woefully underpaid and underappreciated and thoroughly bogged down in politics.
Teaching is about MUCH more than just the subject area. The classroom management and interpersonal aspect of the job have to be in place before you can teach kids anything about science or math.
I would say that my interpersonal and communication skills are above average will all types of people.
Thanks for all the replies. They have been most helpful and insightful. I have given this decision a lot of thought for some time, and I intend to go forward with the transition. Hopefully, I'll have a teaching job lined up by this time next year.
With a master's look into the CC's here in TN. With TN Promise, there has been a big influx of students into the CCs so they are searching for instructors in all fields. The local CC is actually advertising for a job fair which is not something they've typically done in the past.
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