Why Teach?

Why teach?  Well that is an easy thing to answer!  Summer vacation, long weekends, Christmas Break, February Break, and April break!  Getting paid all year long and not have to work all year long!  To never give up skiing over winter break or sitting on the beach all summer! 

That does seem to be the answer many Americans think they would get when they asked a teacher, why they picked teaching.  These are the same people who believe teachers are overpaid babysitters and we should cut more funding from our schools.  However, if it is THAT easy and teachers are THAT overpaid...why doesn't everyone do it?  And the answer to that question is because not everyone can be a teacher, most people would not make it to snack time in a 1st grade classroom or past first period in a middle school special education class.

Lets be honest, teaching is hard.  It is one of the hardest profession out there.  How many other jobs are there out there that you have to spend your own money on supplies to do what is required of you at work?  Or sit at home every night and weekends doing work; grading papers, creating lessons, writing IEPs, setting up goals and objects.  Not only that, but to keep your job you have to again use your own money to take classes and course every few years for your entire teaching life.

The burn out rate in new teacher is at an all time high right now.  Many new teachers leave the profession within 5 years and an ever increasing number of teachers aren't ever making it into the classroom for their first year.  With the federal government adding the Common Core  and PARC exams the bar is only being raised with higher standards and amount of work required to be a classroom teacher.    

So WHY do people teacher?  Why is the drive behind it?  If you asked most teachers that questions a common answer would be; "I can't image what else I would do with my life".  While teaching might be one of the most difficult professions, it IS the most rewarding profession.  Every year to have a new set of students in front of you and to see them grow and learn is amazing.  No matter a teacher's impact, he/she always has an impact on everyone of the students he/she teach and that is the reason to teach.  As cliche as it sounds, they are the future and a teacher can impact how that future turns out.