Should I Teach?
Published January 25, 2004
Get in a situation now where you can work with students: subbing, if you qualify; pre-student teaching; volunteer work at a school; after-school activities such as coaching or community service. Find some excellent teachers and observe their classes. Don’t rely on your memory of what it was like to be a student. You need to re-experience what schools are like ASAP.
Part of my answer in the affirmative—that you should try teaching—hinges on the school in which you would start your teaching career. They run the gamut. You must find a good place to teach—with good leaders and a good staff. Finding such a place is not so easy because the schools are also being selective in whom they hire—I came close to settling for a job in the middle of nowhere in a school that did not match my teaching philosophy (what a mistake that would have been—I would have been miserable). You need the freedom to teach in the style that suits you. New teachers need to be in a school where teachers collaborate and share and are helpful. Depending on what you want to do, you might want to find a place that isn’t known for controversy. In my six years so far, two teachers whom I liked and respected were fired for “questionable” behavior. Several other teachers have been fired for other reasons.
Depending on where you teach, you might not be making relatively much. I’m okay with the money that I make, but I don’t have to support a family. The benefits and time off are certainly enticing. I idealistically said that money was not a factor. Once I settled into teaching, though, I heard all sorts of complaints from teachers about money. And we are getting gypped every time contract negotiations come up. Our raises are not keeping pace with inflation.
The subjects that you majored in have a ton of possibilities. I would love to teach sociology. In fact, I incorporate some things that I learned from sociology classes into my English classes (we connect group psychology and dynamics, culture, social patterns, ethnicity, discrimination, etc.). You can be quite creative in this area. The same can be said for political science, depending on how flexible the curriculum would be.
At my school, all kinds of personalities are evident in the teachers. There is no, one right personality or methodology to be a good and content teacher. On some other level, teaching is for some people, while it is not for others. Don’t assume either way. There is only one way to find out. You have to experience it.
I will say that it is definitely worth a try--even if you quit after a year. Teaching offers some experiences, both good and bad, that I don't think you can get in any other field of work. No matter how much time you might spend teaching, you will have all kinds of memories to draw on for the rest of your life. Somehow, I think that if I worked in a typical office environment, the experiences wouldn't even come close. And if you teach some students to be critical thinkers, then you will have made the world a better place.
- Should I Teach?
- Published: January 25, 2004
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Dirtgrain
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Very generous and honest appraisal, Dirtgrain. I haven't taught at the high school or elementary levels, but I know people who have or that do. I have taught at the college level, which is much easier going. Let me second your opinion that it's not just the students that color the experience but also the administrative staff and the rest of the teaching staff.
That was pretty good Dirtgrain. One question, what grades do you teach?
I teach composition and literature classes to students in grades nine through twelve.
Cool. I just wanted to know. I'm a high school freshman.
I am reading your book lives on the boundry and I am woundering if I could email you sometime.
I'm not Mike Rose.
You're right - it takes all kinds. Glad to have you aboard, Dirtgrain.
I know that you wrote this forever ago, but I want to say thanks for writing it. It has helped tremendously, and I will make arrangements to sub:)
Thanks Brenda. I just re-read it, and I wouldn't change what I wrote. I'm in my tenth year now, and I still like it (and suffer with it at times).
People tend to see substitute teaching as something negative. I think we can all remember when we had a sub in one of our classes--and a lot of kids planned on taking advantage. While I did have some tough subbing experiences before I became a teacher (and I still sub now and then during my planning period), I also had some great experiences. Even some of the bad ones are memorable.
I once subbed for a special ed. teacher at a middle school. In one class, I saw that she had three students. "Three students," I thought, "that's going to be easy." I was mistaken. The three students, Larry, Willie and Joe (sounds oddly like the Three Stooges), were the most foul-mouthed, delinquent seventh graders I have ever seen. They had to be escorted by a teacher from class to class. I was told to call immediately to call for help if they gave me any trouble. As soon as the escorting teacher left the room, these three kids start putting swear words together in combinations that I had never heard before. One of the kids walked right up to the window, picked up a book and threw it out the window. I didn't call for help. I was too stubborn. So, I did my best, and by the end of the hour, I had managed to get the kids to sit at the table and talk a bit about the assignment that they had. Nothing else was thrown out the window that day. I was shaken and drained after that one class period, but I felt a degree of success. That was my toughest substitute teaching experience.
A more positive experience came at another middle school, where I subbed for a music teacher. She had left me pages and pages of typed, single-spaced notes and instructions. It was ridiculous. I couldn't even finish reading them before class started. Before I knew it, I found myself in front of an orchestra of about twenty five girls, conducting them as they played through several pieces of music that they were working on. I had no experience in conducting an orchestra--only my own experiences as a choir student in junior high school. That didn't stop me, and while I made some mistakes (there's nothing quite like a group of twenty five middle school girls simultaneously getting pissed off at you for messing up on telling the bases when to come in), it was a great time for me. I don't think I'll ever get an opportunity to conduct an orchestra again.
I am currently going to school to become a teacher. I have encountered some difficult times that have made me second guess my decision. I've read books that are supposed to inspire me to become a teacher but they've achieved only the opposite. They encourage teachers to become revolutionists and to fight the system. That is not my intentions and your words have helped to light the flame under my feet again. I appreciate your honesty and your writing style. You should write a book... Thank you!
I have been debating whether or not I should go into teaching i've been thinking about i for a whole year. Today, I googled the question "should i teach?" and you're blog popped up. I received an answer. Although teaching has it's negative points, i believe your description is true and refreshing. Thank you for being honest and giving me a heads up as I continue the path to teaching! I agree with the previous comment. You should write a book if you haven't already:)
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This is heartfelt, practical, honest and overall outstanding. Thanks! We need teachers, but we need them for the right reasons.