How hard is it to be a teacher?

It is not difficult. Most teachers have never worked another real profession with responsibility, so they aren't qualified to answer this thread.

I taught for 18 years and wife is a nurse. Not even comparable.

Hello.

Please allow me to add one item, one modifier that might put some things that have been said about teaching:

"Good teaching."

By that I mean performing the job according to best practices.

By that I mean investing yourself wholly into the elements of teaching that take into account Learning, social responsibility, high expectations and work ethic.

Doing the job with the success of the students in mind not the relative comfort and satisfaction of the teacher.

To be that you have to do that. You have to put in the time, keep ahead of your field of study and learning, and practice classroom management and healthy psychology a safety/health. You have to be learning more than your students, working harder than them and putting in the time on preparation, monitoring, and supporting them Full Time. Not just riding the gravy train. Teaching.

It depends. I know a 75 yo dude that teaches ceramics for $100k + in California. He sits in his office all day while the kids listen to music. Students who make 2 or more ceramics get As, 1 gets Bs, and everyone else gets Cs. He says he can't come up with a reason to retire.

I haven't come across many threads titled "teaching is the hardest job" but very often threads ridiculing teachers are started. As a previous post stated it's harder than non teachers suggest but easier than many teachers state.

Every job has pros and cons.

I was a teacher early on in my working life, and while I wouldn't say it was "hard", dealing with parents is very challenging.

Someone said dealing with parents is like dealing with clients. Um...NOPE! Parents can and do get a bit crazy when it comes to their children. Their kid is the next coming of Albert Einstein...it's just that he doesn't do well on tests...and other BS like that. I had a parent once demand to see the tests...not just the test scores, but the actual tests that the other students in the class took. Um...nope! That's crazy time.

Teaching is a weird experience. You call the other teachers Mr. or Mrs. or Ms., and they call you that, sometimes even accidentally when no students are around. I wouldn't call it hard, and once you get into a rhythm, it can be a pretty sweet gig, but it's not as easy as many non-teachers believe either. It's also not as hard as many teachers say it is (with grading, etc.).

The teaching profession is the most ungrateful because many people do not appreciate their merits as much as they should. Teachers help children gain new knowledge and are therefore essential people in this world. My sister is a teacher, and she really enjoys this job because she is excellent with children and knows how to raise them to be respectful and understanding individuals. I think this job is part of the life of tutors who are also trying to do their best to pass on knowledge to children.

https://www.getutor.com.hk/

Summers off, tenure, pensions, life-long health benefits? Difficult? LMAO

Teachers are now playing the roll of psychologists. Many of the kids and their parents have mental health issues. The teacher is in direct shot of those issues. If it was just telling a kid that 1 + 1 = 2 then yes it is a cake job. However, dealing with these peoples socio-emotional issues wears you down.

If teachers didn’t have all the vacation time they wouldn’t be able to mentally handle it themselves. Actually even with it we’re seeing a shortage in teachers. By the end of the decade I foresee many schools having to close due to a teacher shortage. Something has to give.

Wuss alert wrote:

Summers off, tenure, pensions, life-long health benefits? Difficult? LMAO

Very original. Why don’t you go volunteer at a school for a week and get back to us.

Teachers are abject failures at what they. They don't get fired for it. How is that possible?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/opinion/education/579750-many-of-americas-black-youths-cannot-read-or-do-math-and-that-imperils-us%3famp

I’m a teacher, and it is a very easy job.

Wuss alert wrote:

Summers off, tenure, pensions, life-long health benefits? Difficult? LMAO

Yeah, it's so cushy that a few schools around the country are closing because they can't get enough people to do it.

coach wrote:

It's not hard but it is emotionally draining. I suspect that most people on this board are young and don't have kids. Many parents can't wait until summer is over and their kids go back to school. If dealing with your own kids is tough imagine dealing with 30+ kids who aren't necessarily motivated.

Having recently retired after 30 plus years at the age of 60 I can't complain.

+1

7:30 to 2:45 wrote:

It is not difficult. Most teachers have never worked another real profession with responsibility, so they aren't qualified to answer this thread.

I taught for 18 years and wife is a nurse. Not even comparable.

I have done both. The time requirements before were horrendous, which causes me to appreciate the time we get off. However, in my previous job, I had the authority to fire problem employees to improve the atmosphere of the workplace. My boss called me the weedeater because I was always weeding out the bad apples. With teaching, you get bad apples and have no recourse to get rid of them, which makes them spoil the other apples. Still, I will take that and have my freedom in the holidays, because those were my hardest days before this job.

Oh no. People make crazy or stupid requests. Yes this never Happens in any other jobs. Especially clients or bosses never do that in a buisness.

Teachers are lazy whiners. You are Not employed by the parents. Just deny them

Weekends off.

Holidays off.

Spring break.

Christmas break.

Personal days.

Sick days.

Snow days.

ALL summer off.

While I'm not suggesting teachers have it easy while at work, the reality is that they're off more than they're at work. I've been dating a teacher for a couple of years, and I found myself getting resentful of the ridiculous amount of time off she has. You don't see nurses, cops, paramedics etc. with that kind of time off. I'm putting in literally 60-100 hours a week, and she's off constantly. She worked out of her living room a couple of hours a day, 3 days a week during Covid, and made a full salary. That's why, when teachers complain, many people don't want to hear it. To be fair, it's not a job many people would or could do, especially these days - but the obvious perks are significant.

HRE wrote:

Wuss alert wrote:

Summers off, tenure, pensions, life-long health benefits? Difficult? LMAO

Yeah, it's so cushy that a few schools around the country are closing because they can't get enough people to do it.

LOL, yea right. Teaching is a breeze. Did it myself at the college level (ivy league university) for several years without the protections public school teachers enjoy. The students were dumb and juvenile. Just take a look at the literacy rates (math/science/English) around the country. The percentage of students with on-target literacy score by grade are woeful even in the 'best' public schools. It's clear teachers can't/don't teach, many teachers shouldn't be teaching (because they're morons themselves), grade inflation is the crutch and passing/graduating kids is the underlying motive. The US needs to move toward the European system of rigorous testing to separate the wheat from the chaff and only graduating the top percentage of each class to higher education.

Youre absolutely correct except that teachers aren't complaining. Others are complaining about teachers. Teachers don't start threads about how difficult their profession is. Nurses, cops, and firemen can have great hours too. They can get overtime easily and even have 2nd jobs too.