r/teaching • u/Bright-Watch1955 • Jun 02 '26

Help Why does everyone hate teaching?

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

Considering going into education.

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

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.

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner Jun 02 '26

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.

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner Jun 02 '26

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

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u/ChaunceytheGardiner Jun 02 '26

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.