- Summers off (mainly a big deal because other professions have very little paid leave, not like the 4-7 weeks + holidays common in Europe)
- Very friendly to taking time off to start a family (thanks in large part to unionization. See previous item for why this is a big deal in the US)
- Health insurance usually good (Only matters because our healthcare system is so broken, see previous two items)
- Decent to good retirement, assuming politicians don't find a way to raid it.
- Consistent job market—most cities have about the same teacher/population ratio. i.e. you don't have to move to a certain place to find a job.
- You get to help kids learn (sort of, see last item below)
A lot of the appeal comes down to gaining European-like worker protections and services (effectively, though from the employer in this case), which is sort of funny. Something rarely considered when promoting mandatory vacation to all workers, universal healthcare, and protections for maternity/paternity leave: these would have a huge (negative) effect on the numbers of people going in to teaching, absent some substantial increases in pay or other perks. Not that that should discourage anyone from promoting those things.
The down side:
- Little respect/demonized by politicians. Relatedly, many benefits above under constant threat.
- Worse pay than a talented person, especially in STEM, could make elsewhere.
- Constant stupid pointless methodology churn that approaches the level experienced in programming, but to less purpose and possibly generating even greater stress.
- Maybe 75% of your work is basically secretarial, and a fair bit of that isn't directly helpful in the classroom (much of it's not helpful at all, to anyone—yay bureaucracy!) which can be discouraging if you went in to the profession because you wanted to teach.
Source: watched my wife go through an elementary ed. major and several years in the classroom, friends with lots of teachers.
Whoa - which U.S. state are you in? Most of those benefits are not really as good as you make them out to be.
My dad is a teacher and just announced his plan for early retirement this week. With the stripping of teachers' collective bargaining rights there have been severe drops in take home pay and changes to their benefits. He actually makes a little more money if he retires now than if he waits five years for some of the planned changes.
The benefits of being a teacher in the US:
- Summers off (mainly a big deal because other professions have very little paid leave, not like the 4-7 weeks + holidays common in Europe)
- Very friendly to taking time off to start a family (thanks in large part to unionization. See previous item for why this is a big deal in the US)
- Health insurance usually good (Only matters because our healthcare system is so broken, see previous two items)
- Decent to good retirement, assuming politicians don't find a way to raid it.
- Consistent job market—most cities have about the same teacher/population ratio. i.e. you don't have to move to a certain place to find a job.
- You get to help kids learn (sort of, see last item below)
A lot of the appeal comes down to gaining European-like worker protections and services (effectively, though from the employer in this case), which is sort of funny. Something rarely considered when promoting mandatory vacation to all workers, universal healthcare, and protections for maternity/paternity leave: these would have a huge (negative) effect on the numbers of people going in to teaching, absent some substantial increases in pay or other perks. Not that that should discourage anyone from promoting those things.
The down side:
- Little respect/demonized by politicians. Relatedly, many benefits above under constant threat.
- Worse pay than a talented person, especially in STEM, could make elsewhere.
- Constant stupid pointless methodology churn that approaches the level experienced in programming, but to less purpose and possibly generating even greater stress.
- Maybe 75% of your work is basically secretarial, and a fair bit of that isn't directly helpful in the classroom (much of it's not helpful at all, to anyone—yay bureaucracy!) which can be discouraging if you went in to the profession because you wanted to teach.
Source: watched my wife go through an elementary ed. major and several years in the classroom, friends with lots of teachers.