TL;DR:
- Making a decision on your next steps after graduating high school can be challenging.
- Many people are discouraging individuals to go into teaching.
- Teaching is a great career that needs energetic, passionate people with a desire for lifelong learning.
- Every career has pros and cons. You need to decide what is best for you.
Senior year!
What an exciting, yet stressful year for young adults. At the age of 18, we expect kids to make big decisions about their future careers. Should they go to college? Should they go into the military or the workforce? Can they get an apprenticeship somewhere? If they go to college, where should they go and how much will it cost? Can they get student loans? What should they major in? Should they still go to college if they don’t know what they want to do? That’s a lot and those are some pretty heavy questions that kids have to make their final year of high school.
Now, what if a kid knows they want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or architect? I bet most people would encourage them. They would help them find a good school, assist them in applying for scholarships and help them on their way. What if a kid wants to go into a trade and start working full-time? Again, I bet most people will encourage them. What if a kid wants to become a teacher? This is where my frustration begins. When a student wants to become a teacher, they are met with discouragement and people telling them to pick a different career. Why?
Students are in our classrooms to learn! We need them to see educators who are active learners that find value in lifelong learning and are always willing to make a change. Click To TweetWhy would anyone go into education and become a teacher?
In particular, I have been frustrated lately with the amount of negative talk coming from educators. I hear educators over and over telling students not to go into education. Current teachers are telling their children not to become educators. What? You don’t want your children to follow in your footsteps?
I know that education is changing…the entire world is changing. Everything evolves, it’s the foundation of life (I really do love teaching biology). Change is not always a bad thing!
New teachers make a difference.
Maybe we need to look at what needs to change in education and find the right people to make the changes. Personally, I feel the right people are young learners that are invested in technology and trying to make the world a better place. We need to encourage good educators who want to continue learning throughout their entire careers. Students are in our classrooms to learn! We need them to see educators who are active learners that find value in lifelong learning and are always willing to make a change.
I want new teachers; young, talented, positive students going into the field of education. They should be excited to learn and make a difference for other kids. Recently, I have had multiple conversations with college-bound students that want to go into education, but are discouraged by their adult role models. We need to encourage every person that wants to be a teacher to go for it!
Let’s look at the pros and cons of becoming a teacher.
Why would anyone want to go into education? I believe everyone has their own reason.
Here are some of the pros I often hear:
- Passionate about working with kids.
- Desire to teach kids, coach, and make a difference in their life.
- Experienced really good teachers and really bad teachers growing up and they want to be good teachers that students remember.
- Really enjoy a specific content area (math, science, music, etc) and want to teach others to love it too!
- My parents were both teachers.
- Lots of variety in your day.
- Summers off! Everyone wants to be a teacher when June rolls around!
Now for some of the cons:
- Politics.
- You have to get a Master’s degree.
- Low pay.
- Expectations and duties keep increasing (teacher, counselor, parent, nurse, etc.).
- Continued education for license renewal.
- Student behavior.
- Burnout.
Here is the thing…every career has pros and cons!
In reality, sometimes jobs require you to work holidays or night shifts. Some careers are dangerous. Others are dependent on commission and pay fluctuates when targets are not met.
Go into engineering, business, graphic design, computer technologies, etc. if that is what you love. Start working after high school and become an electrician or welder…we need you! All of these jobs have pros and cons. No job is perfect. You have to decide what is best for you. Follow your gut and make the best decision for you. If you decide to make changes along the way, do it! If becoming a teacher is going to make you happy, then you should follow your gut and become the best teacher you can be.
To summarize, do not stay away from education because someone told you to. I still love being a teacher! If you want to become an educator, I think you should. I want good teachers for the next generation of students. I’m excited to help mentor new teachers as well as learn from them and become a better educator myself.
Just my thoughts,
Susan Jones
About Susan Jones
Susan Jones has been in education for seventeen years. She spent the first sixteen years of her career as a high school science teacher. This past year, Susan has taken on a new role as the Alternative Learning Coordinator at Ottawa-Glandorf High School. Since 2015, Susan has been presenting at educational conferences such as Ohio Google Summit, SPARCC, and OETC. She also runs district-wide professional development for local school districts. She is a member of the Ohio Blended Collaborative and Powerschool Circle of Champions.
