The Teacher Thread

Thanks for starting this thread. I have never been happy in my career field (marketing) and am considering options for a career change with teaching being seriously considered. My sister and brother-in-law both teach, so I know a fair amount about the field. It's something that I could see far more rewarding then what I do now.

My main hessitation is the income levels. To be clear, I don't care if I get rich or reach the SF norm and can live with the starting salaries as they are. It's the idea of getting into a career field that I could possible work over 10+ years and see little in the way of increased wages that does not sit well with me. Does the fact that years of hard work won't neccisarily bring you any monitary rewards bother any of you?

I know my sister got her Masters Degree and ended up only seeing about a $3k increase to her yearly salary. It just seems like it could get to you after a while compared to most careers were hard work and investments in your education can yeild real rewards.

Public school teacher salaries and increase schedules vary widely depending on district. Where I live, starting levels are very low, but after about 15 years (I think), and with merit increases, the teachers make a pretty good living for this area.

Don't forget vacation. I have about 4-5 months of paid vacation a year due to some very convenient scheduling of our department.

Originally Posted by Rambo

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Absolutely. The person I take care of taught for a few years after being in elem and high for the majority of her time. She said it was the worst of the three. By a wide margin.

ha! my wife taught middle school and high school and said the same thing. Of course, she's 5-11, so her solution was the first week of school to wear the tallest boots she had (this was in the 70s ... girls wore stuff like that). she swore that cut the amount of trouble for the rest of the year in half.

My drunken moron of a sister in law taught middle school for years until a kid threw a battery at her (AA) and she filed for PTSD, which, with the help of the union, she was able to get. She has been on disability for six years now with this, and feels that her pay is not enough.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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My drunken moron of a sister in law taught middle school for years until a kid threw a battery at her (AA) and she filed for PTSD, which, with the help of the union, she was able to get. She has been on disability for six years now with this, and feels that her pay is not enough.

...and your point is?

Originally Posted by imatlas

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...and your point is?
In my experience with teachers, which is pretty vast, she is as close to the norm as the good ones are. Also, I think it is funny.

Seriously? When my wife was teaching, a lot of our friends were teachers and i found them to be on the whole really conscientious and hard-working and willing to put up with much more crap than i ever would. of course, i've spent my life in a newsroom ....

Originally Posted by JMRouse

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I know my sister got her Masters Degree and ended up only seeing about a $3k increase to her yearly salary. It just seems like it could get to you after a while compared to most careers were hard work and investments in your education can yeild real rewards.

Hey, I get an extra $1K pa because of my MA!

Originally Posted by foodguy

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Seriously? When my wife was teaching, a lot of our friends were teachers and i found them to be on the whole really conscientious and hard-working and willing to put up with much more crap than i ever would. of course, i've spent my life in a newsroom ....
Well, she is a little extreme, but I work a lot in the education field (charity side) and I see a lot of bad ****. Worse, my wife spends her life telling teachers how to do better for kids, and meets far more resistance than you could imagine. I am sure your wife is friends with teachers who share her values. I am friends with money managers who share mine. There are many, many others who do not.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Well, she is a little extreme, but I work a lot in the education field (charity side) and I see a lot of bad ****. Worse, my wife spends her life telling teachers how to do better for kids, and meets far more resistance than you could imagine. I am sure your wife is friends with teachers who share her values. I am friends with money managers who share mine. There are many, many others who do not.

Teachers are sometimes the worst students and many aren't open to criticisms on their practice. Mind you, I spend a lot of time going back and forth with a PLN (Professional Learning Network) and they're all pretty interested in improving what they do. It might also be that the work you do is primarily involved with things that are 'broken' rather than things going well? I don't know, am I not focusing enough on how ****** people are in my profession can be to be as jaded as 3/4 of the people here?

Originally Posted by JustinW

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Hey, I get an extra $1K pa because of my MA!

I love when teachers demand they are worth more because they have taken graduate classes

Originally Posted by Rugger

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I love when teachers demand they are worth more because they have taken graduate classes

Interested to hear your thoughts on this, do you mind expanding a bit?

Originally Posted by Rugger

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I love when teachers demand they are worth more because they have taken graduate classes

Not taken graduated classes, but having a degree. Is there anybody who doesn't think they deserve more than those of previous education level they matriculated from? Nobody should expect to make double, but I think it's pretty standard practice to award compensation based on qualifications and experience.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Well, she is a little extreme, but I work a lot in the education field (charity side) and I see a lot of bad ****. Worse, my wife spends her life telling teachers how to do better for kids, and meets far more resistance than you could imagine. I am sure your wife is friends with teachers who share her values. I am friends with money managers who share mine. There are many, many others who do not.

they do get touchy about being lectured to. i've got a friend who is a retired headmaster of a pretty prominent private school down here and he gets pretty apoplectic about "civilians" and their ideas about education. i have pretty definite ideas about education, but to an extent, I see his point. education is one of the few fields where you get can advanced degrees and spend your whole life working in it and still be talked down to by someone who never got out of high school, just because her kid is in your class.