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Why A Teacher?
A Special Guest Post by: The Teacher
Many have asked this all important question to me many times over; why become a teacher?Well this is a loaded question at the least: Why a Teacher? has a simple answer, but is quite controversial in my eyes.
When I think of why I became a teacher, I have to rephrase the question. No one ever becomes a teacher in my eyes. They are born with certain abilities, skills, and desires that no other profession I feel has. If you are looking for a cookie cutter answer, one that is sweet, fun, and enjoyable then stop here. But if you are looking for the truth, the reason I live for teaching, then this answer will be it.
I personally don’t believe anyone wakes up and says “ I think I will teach”. Teachers are born and have an ability to find something in students that no one else can. A teacher didn’t become a teacher for summers off! (Especially since statistics show 60% of all teachers hold a secondary job during the summer to help offset income) A teacher isn’t in it for the money! (If you look at how much a teacher spends to become certified, remain certified, and or recertify, and how much time they spend in training, how much money is spent to gain a masters degree, and compare this to other professions, teachers are grossly underpaid.) Teachers are teachers for one reason and one reason only, the students they affect!
I decided to pursue this profession because in High School I was given an opportunity to help out younger students during study hall. The only reason I went back was the pure joy of having these younger students look up to me, desire my time, and respect me for the things I taught them. So to answer the question of why I became a teacher, the reason is simple: I became a teacher so every year and every day of that year I can stand before a group of students to gain their trust, care for their well being, and model for them what is right and wrong. To train up a future generation to be well rounded, educated, and model citizens. This is why I teach, not the money, not the summers off, but for the ability to affect other lives.
My wife’s blog is titled “Surviving a Teachers Salary” for one reason: we don’t make much as a teacher in our particular area. In fact, if we take home close to the poverty level. This is not to cry poor me, but to gain recognition. I don’t teach for the money, because if I did, I wouldn’t teach the students I teach or in the state I teach in. If I moved to where I grew up, I would be guaranteed minimally 20% higher than my current salary before taxes, pension, and benefits began. If you take these into consideration the percentage increases to 23% or higher depending on the district I live in.If it was for the money I would move, but I have come to enjoy the area I am in and the population of students I teach. I only desire to be given the recognition for that, and I don’t.
In this current situation I am only judged by the scores my students receive. No one cares that in the beginning of the year Jimmy couldn’t read at a Kindergarten level and now he reads at a first grade level, no one cares that Susie couldn’t find page 34 because she didn’t know how to count, but at the end of the year she can multiply 4×8. Instead, I am judged by the outcome of my students based on a single test taken on a single day or two.
If I were in any other profession, I would not want to be judged by a day or two’s happenings. We all have bad days. Look at the professional athletes! How many of them loose their salary because they were injured and couldn’t produce? Or how many of them are fired or docked pay because they blew that final shot? They get their money, their recognition, and play again. Consider this when you think of your child’s teacher. They are in it for your child! If they aren’t they won’t be in it long!
In closing on my musings, I leave you with two lists, each has three points:
Why Teaching Isn’t Fun!
1. Teaching isn’t judged upon students’ success! Only the test matters! If you don’t live in a state where high stakes testing occurs, you still live in the country. In the United States No Child Left
Behind has its grip on every state. Some more than others, but they do, and it is still based on one goal, a test a child took and their results.
2. People who are not trained in Education make all the decisions in Education. As citizens of the United States, we don’t go into the Fire departments and write how they conduct themselves in a fire do we? We let the firemen decide what is protocol, why? Well, they are trained to battle fires, not us. Why is it in the United States, we make decisions on education that have enormous impacts on students when we don’t know anything about the decision?
3. Politics allows everyone to make money on education. Each year I am required to be trained in professional development. From my understanding of our schools budget, this amount of money spent on people to walk into our school, tell me how to teach better, leave, and never help me teach my students, is extremely large compared to teachers. In an actual school budget used to write some papers in my masters program the following is an example of a school discretionary budget and where the money is appropriated:
Grand Totals Per Expenditure Categories
Expenditure Category
Evidence-based Programs(s)/Materials(s)
Technology
Professional Development
Coaches
Other (Tutoring, materials, and food)
Total Budget $517,000
I think the scary part is out of half a million dollars for one school, only 30% goes to actual people. The rest is spent of programs, people to come in and train, etc.
WHY I CAN’T WAIT TO TEACH AGAIN!
1. The excitement when a student gets it and is proud of their accomplishments!
2. The hugs, gifts, and words spoken by my students throughout the year because they love me!
3. The satisfaction to know that for 180 school days I have spent 110% of my energy on those 18 specials students and to know one day they will be the future, doctors, lawyers, police man, fireman, businessmen, ETC.
As a teacher myself working in a low income neighborhood with kids from VERY modest backgrounds, I often get asked why I do what I do, and really, there is no way to make someone understand it if they haven't lived it.
Why do I do it? Because doing anything else (other than being Mama to a precocious almost-2-year-old) just wouldn't cut it.
Thanks for giving a voice to what so many of us feel!
I think many people who are not teachers have absolutely NO idea how hard we work.We often spend our holidays working more hours than them! Thanks for the insightful post and for saying it like it is. Ultimately, the good stuff outweighs the bad by far…on some days it is just hard to remember.
Very nice…thanks for sharing. Amy
Bless you. I am retired after 28 years of teaching, so I understand everything you have written. My husband says teaching is my passion. I had never thought of it that way, but I think that's what keeps us going back day after day. School is about to start for the second year without me, and I still miss it. (My parents needed me, so I retired early.) I hope you have an outstanding year.
Thanks for this post. It makes me feel good that there are teachers like this. So the list "Why Teaching Isn't Fun!" really resonates with me. I find it infuriating to read about the rampant consumerism and overblown salaries when teachers have to spend money out of already empty pocket to buy necessary things for their classrooms. I'm grateful for that and more importantly, the time and energy my kids' teachers spend with them. I had teachers that helped & encouraged and still think about. I owe a debt to those teachers. That's why I spend my own time & energy being a room parent/volunteering and supporting my kids' teachers as much as possible.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
I can so identify with everything you said! I love both of your lists at the end – all so true!!
I love this article. I am an unemployed teacher due to the economy and everyone asks me why I just don;t change my profession….well hello! That is not an option. Teaching is the only thing I enjoy doing and it's the only thing I am successful at (in my eyes).
Love it! I know my husband became a teacher because he wanted to be the one to make a difference in the lives of his students. He wants to be their example of what is right and wrong. I just love the way you put this all, and I hope something can be done about our education system!
Nobody becomes a teacher for the money. They become teachers to spark something in a child. I also became a teacher because of the passion I have for the subjects I teach. Oh yea, and thank God my wife works too.
*applause* Very well said!
Amen!
Very well said!
As a teacher myself working in a low income neighborhood with kids from VERY modest backgrounds, I often get asked why I do what I do, and really, there is no way to make someone understand it if they haven't lived it.
Why do I do it? Because doing anything else (other than being Mama to a precocious almost-2-year-old) just wouldn't cut it.
Thanks for giving a voice to what so many of us feel!
I think many people who are not teachers have absolutely NO idea how hard we work.We often spend our holidays working more hours than them!
Thanks for the insightful post and for saying it like it is.
Ultimately, the good stuff outweighs the bad by far…on some days it is just hard to remember.
Very nice…thanks for sharing.
Amy
Bless you. I am retired after 28 years of teaching, so I understand everything you have written. My husband says teaching is my passion. I had never thought of it that way, but I think that's what keeps us going back day after day. School is about to start for the second year without me, and I still miss it. (My parents needed me, so I retired early.) I hope you have an outstanding year.
Thanks for this post. It makes me feel good that there are teachers like this. So the list "Why Teaching Isn't Fun!" really resonates with me. I find it infuriating to read about the rampant consumerism and overblown salaries when teachers have to spend money out of already empty pocket to buy necessary things for their classrooms. I'm grateful for that and more importantly, the time and energy my kids' teachers spend with them. I had teachers that helped & encouraged and still think about. I owe a debt to those teachers. That's why I spend my own time & energy being a room parent/volunteering and supporting my kids' teachers as much as possible.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
What a great post. So nice to hear when a teacher loves their job that much. I just got certified last year and can't wait to get into a classroom {once they stop laying off teachers here in NY}. It's so upsetting knowing that you are only recognized by test scores. It frustrates me to no end! I wish there was something to be done about it.
I can so identify with everything you said! I love both of your lists at the end – all so true!!
I love this article. I am an unemployed teacher due to the economy and everyone asks me why I just don;t change my profession….well hello! That is not an option. Teaching is the only thing I enjoy doing and it's the only thing I am successful at (in my eyes).
Love it! I know my husband became a teacher because he wanted to be the one to make a difference in the lives of his students. He wants to be their example of what is right and wrong. I just love the way you put this all, and I hope something can be done about our education system!
Nobody becomes a teacher for the money. They become teachers to spark something in a child. I also became a teacher because of the passion I have for the subjects I teach. Oh yea, and thank God my wife works too.
Eric Bloom
Why Become A Teacher
http://www.whybecomeateacher.com