My New Career?

After spending a week getting used to my already busy life being filled with three graduate level education courses, I then read an article debating whether teaching is even a career. Well, am I making a career change or just a hobby switch? The article makes the point that a career has upward mobility based on hours and merit. Teaching has no upward movement unless you head into administration…which is not teaching. Also the article made a pretty convincing case that teaching is considered by society as “women’s work”, and therefore disrespected and taken for granted. There were stories of people not wanting to share their occupation due to the humiliation they might receive when around more “professional” people. Points for why teaching is harder than it looks was that you would have to hold it if you had to go to the bathroom, whereas other professions you could just get up and go. I’m not so sure I would have used the same argument.

One story I heard many years back was how to handle a situation if someone says “Teachers are no more than babysitters. So they should be paid the same as babysitters!” Well, I’m alright with that assuming you pay a babysitter something as small as $5/hour…multiplied by 30 kids…for 6 hours a day…times five days a week…for 35 weeks per year and you get…$157,500/year. Sure let’s put that in front of the state legislator and get the ball rolling. I don’t know yet how to handle the situations where people make comments about how anyone could teach…because I do feel anyone can teach. It just takes one heck of a lot of will power, self restraint, and quick on your feet thinking to be an effective teacher. Most people don’t want to work that hard knowing they will not be rewarded for it with money, bonuses, or a better lifestyle. I ask myself this question everyday. Why am I doing this knowing I will not get to live the freedom money provides? Well, lets see if I can put this into words.

Positives:
1) Emotionally I will walk away from each school day knowing I have make an impact on somebody. This will offer me a sense of belonging and allow for the rest of my life to be content, not stressful.
2) Time freedom. Traveling and movie making is a hobby of mine that I do plan to turn into a revenue source as time moves along. Having weeks at a time throughout the year to take trips and put movies together greatly interests me. Plus, I know I will be able to use this skill in the classroom as well as it will allow the kids to use their imagination to come up with short movies of their own.
3) I am a male. This allows me to push the agenda that teaching is not just women’s work. I might not be as nurturing, but I will provide support, attention, and energy for the kids to pull from.
4) My background in customer service (I believe) will help immensely when it comes to dealing with parents, and administrators. “In can understand how you feel this way about our school. Here are a couple options we have to move forward from this and you can tell me what you feel most comfortable with. Is that OK?” I know some parents will act like their own kids sometimes, as this is where the kids pick up their antics from anyway.

Negatives:
1) MONEY. I say I am content with the choice to earn an emotional paycheck. But time will tell. I have yet to face the prospects of looking for a job that will pay less than half of what I walked away from two years ago. I have yet to face the prospect of not getting a job out of the gates and having to pay for loans, children, and normal daily expenses. It will be hard and I know it. I will state that I haven’t the faintest idea how we will make it if worst case happens…but I have hope it will all work out.
2) I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth a couple seconds too late. My biggest fear is that I am going to do or say something that someone will find offensive and I won’t have a clue what I said. I will get fired for it, my name will show up in all the newspapers and I will go back to the career I left with my head down in shame…but still not sure what I did. I think everyone has this fear when they start teaching…at least I hope they do.
3) The thought I might not be respected for the occupation I have chosen. Actually this is more of a positive as maturity tells you that attitude is not one you want to surround yourself with. A lesson that is very much teachable to kids who are beginning adolescence.
4) The thought that I might not want to teach after a couple years in the “system”. I am a strong person but if after three years in the classroom my financial life is a mess, I might ponder if it is all worth it. Luckily I have control over this. I just have to keep it as one of my priorities.

I’m sure there is more but at this point I still feel content with my decision. It seems the teacher gains respect individually by the work they do and find a way to either live within the financial constraint afforded by the district, or find a method of revenue that allows for experience beyond the classroom…individual growth.

I do have a beef with the women’s work idea. Looking back on it, some of the best teachers I had were men. This could just be because I was a boy, but I think it is good to have more men in the classroom to offer the boys more of a chance to relate…by simply having a male as a teacher.