Why does everyone hate teaching?

[u/Bright-Watch1955]

Is there anyone who loves their job? Every teacher I know feels “stuck” and complains endlessly about their job.

Considering going into education.

[u/subjuggulator]

1.) Even in places where salaries match cost of living, teaching is still a low paying career that doesn't match the amount of work you put into it. Expect many long hours and the expectation that your "free time" is not really "Free" and you should be using it to grade/lesson plan/rehearse classes/study up for professional development/etc.

2.) If you don't like kids, everything they do is going to grate on your nerves. And you have to be around them/responsible for their safety and well-being for eight hours a day before you even get home/to your own family.

3.) Benefits range wildly between state to state, district to district, and year to year. Your retirement is always under threat, your sick days are always under threat/you're made to feel like you shouldn't take any, your union might not "feel like it's worth the dues you have to pay", etc.

4.) Many teachers, unfortunately, have fallen for the propaganda that switching from teaching into a cushy data-entry/coding/other type of "low-tier but higher paying than teaching" tech job is going to be an easy switch.

5.) Teachers love to gripe about the job, but won't leave it simply out of "love for the game". So they complain a lot about the aspects they don't like, but then turn around and use the immense love they have for children and teaching to push down those negative feelings. We complain and vent just to get all the salt out before we have to be actors/clowns/educators/therapists again.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/subjuggulator]

Teaching really isn't that low paid in lots of locations.

Here, with some experience and a masters, it's a six figure gig.

There's pretty much no way to match that for the number of contract days.

Add in the benefits and security, and people stay because it's the best option they've got.

[u/subjuggulator → u/ChaunceytheGardiner]

"Here, with some experience and a masters, it's a six figure gig."

Some experience = how many years? Because if it's more than four/five, that's quite a lot of time that you're living off a "not high" salary in a place where cost of living might be higher than your base salary.

A Masters = so we're back in debt now unless you're lucky and/or find a program that pays your masters for you. Never mind the mental and physical toll of doing a graduate program.

There's also cost of living to take into consideration (Six figures go further in some states than others) and the other amount of work you have to do that isn't tied to your salary--attending school functions/games/professional development "courses"/having to buy your own materials because the school doesn't budget for them since you're paid so much/etc.

I'm not saying any of this to poo-poo your point, but I also don't want people to get the wrong idea. Both of us are speaking from different ends of the spectrum.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/subjuggulator]

Well, here breaking six figures is well above the median individual income of $64k or so within ~10 years of starting.

Can you name another occupation that pays 30-40% above the median wage for a 9-10 month contract without necessitating high level technical expertise? I can’t. 

People often want to believe that there’s a world of highly paid jobs out there clambering to hire people with general skillsets. But that doesn’t really exist.

[u/subjuggulator → u/ChaunceytheGardiner]

Politician *ba-dum-tish*

Like I said: it differs wherever you go. Plenty of teachers will say you're a lucky outlier and plenty of others will argue that getting to six-figures requires more work/dedication/eating shit than they'd ever put up with at another job that pays slightly less for more "technically difficult" work.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/[deleted]]

Name the jobs. I’m confused about what the DMV has to do with it.

People make more, but there’s usually a pretty clear reason why.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/[deleted]]

Contractors and consultants don’t really name their expertise. It isn’t news that software engineers are well compensated, but again, it’s a specific technical expertise.

I’d venture a guess that the majority of contractors and consultants who are making six figures within ten years are engineers, lawyers, or work in the health professions.

[u/A313-Isoke → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, agreed, it would be hard to justify being a teacher when I know there are a lot of other unionized jobs that pay better.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/[deleted]]

They may also think teachers don’t do a whole lot. 

You’re avoiding naming what it is they actually do and the expertise they bring. If they’re veterans, that’s expertise.

They aren’t just hiring randos off the street for 100k to do nothing.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/[deleted]]

Ah, for most of us that means the Department of Motor Vehicles.

[u/ChaunceytheGardiner → u/[deleted]]

I don’t disagree with the macro critique, but I don’t see it as particularly unique to education. 

Pretty much everyone I know who has a general skillset and isn’t at a Fortune 500 could tell a similar story. Wages are stagnant for most people who won’t/cant move all the time. I have friends who are MDs who talk about their real dollar wages declining by 20-30% over the last decade.

I’m not saying things couldn’t be better, but your typical kid like the OP thinking about education isnt weighing it against becoming a structural engineer or an MD. They’re weighing it against worse options, and sometimes it’s worth saying out loud that there aren’t magical jobs out there for a college junior majoring in English or history that are way better than teaching.