ALT-9 What you need to know before you become a Teacher
When a person considers what they want to be "when they grow up", there are always certain things to know ahead of time. Some things to consider for a teaching career are:
1. The education that is required. In the U.S. all teachers for public schools need at least a bachelor's degree (four years above high school). College can be very expensive time-wise as well as money wise.
2. The pay may be lower than many other vocations. This fact may need to be considered as a cost efficiency matter about the level of education required. In other words, how many years would a person have to teach in order to earn what it cost to attend college?
3. What grade level of children are preferable to work with? Some people love the little ones, helping to mold their minds before they are too set. But, can you communicate well with little ones? Do you have the patience to work with them. Can you be creative enough to keep their attention? If the decision is to teach older students, can discipline be maintained? What subjects should be pursued?
4. Where is the best job market? It is not true that it is always easy to get a job as a teacher. In the higher grades, English and Social Study teachers are a dime a dozen in most areas. Math and Science teachers are always in demand. Special subjects such as music and art are often subject to budget cuts.
5. Teaching is not an 8:00-3:00 day job, five days a week. Lesson planning, correction of tests and homework papers plus many extracurricular activities take up a lot of evenings and weekends.
6. It sounds nice to have eight to ten weeks off in the summer and extra time over holidays, however, remember the pay may be tailored to those schedules. That means there may not be a paycheck over the summer.
7. The teacher-student ratio in a particular school may demand extra work. Many upper grade teachers have between 100 and 150 students to deal with.
8. What are the administrative views on discipline? Everyone wants a quiet, cooperative class, but may not be willing to back the teacher when it comes to discipline. There is nothing like trying to discipline a young man who towers over you by six inches and weighs 230 pounds!
9. Research what the administrative view is on the purpose of teaching, also. Because of financial pressure, some administrations have fallen to the level of keeping the children in school no matter what. (Schools are generally paid per filled chairs.) This means suspensions and expelling are discouraged. Holding failing students back may mean drop-outs, so students are socially promoted. Under such circumstances teachers are hostage to the worst of the students. Other administrations are interested only in obtaining high FCAT or similar scores, thus restricting teaching methods.
10. What is the failure/success rate? Many have an idealistic view of helping wonderful students learn things they need to know. Know, however that today's classrooms are full of children who come from broken homes, may be addicted to drugs or have parents who are. "Crack babies" (children born of a mother on crack at the time) have many mental and physical health issues. Don't forget the ADHD kids who may be bouncing off the walls. Then there are the gang members, the police patrolling the halls, the security entrances. I could go on.
I know I am making it sound like teaching is the worst job in the world! Take heart. All the good things we like to think of being connected to teaching are there. Usually young people select jobs based on their ideal view of what it may be like. Teachers need to go into the school system with their eyes wide open, prepared for the problems that are there these days. Perhaps teaching is one of the worst jobs in the world, but it can also the best-everything you want it to be, if you can take the bad with the good.
