This article was written by a student writer from the Her Campus chapter at USF.
Everyone has that An lecturer. The one who changed their lives, showed them kindness, believed in them and cared about them. My teacher was my high school English teacher, who believed in me despite all my faults and took the time to see who I could really be. He is part of the reason I decided to teach, but what keeps me here? Many teachers leave the profession because they feel undervalued and do not receive enough support and payment for the work they do. I have not yet had a single positive response to my decision to become a teacher, which says a lot not only about how society views the profession, but also how uninformed it is about the facets of teaching. This is why I stick to education:
The money
With my six-figure salary as a teacher, I should feel comfortable…absolutely no teacher ever said it. No teacher enters the profession knowing he will live a life of luxury. Many teachers leave college with debt and struggle to keep their heads above water during the first few years. Not to mention the higher your degree, the higher your salary, which ultimately means higher student debt. However, my mother always said to me, “I’d rather you do something you love than spend forever in a career you hate.” If I’m going to spend the money to get a degree, why not do something I know I’ll enjoy doing in the long run. I used to want to work in psychiatry, that’s one thing big salary increase from teaching, but I knew I would just get bored in the long run. Many teachers find ways to get a job in the summer or make extra money throughout the year to support themselves, and I will do the same. My students and my love for teaching make the work worth it, not the pay.
The work
I have loved reading ever since my grandmother showed me Harry Potter at the age of six. Move over Magic Tree House, I was on to bigger and better things. This allowed me to help all my friends sound out words and string sentences together. My teachers figured it out early on and I was always a teacher’s helper or assigned to sit next to the kids who needed a little more help. I never realized how much I enjoyed it until someone told me I should make it a career, and of course I said, ‘Teaching? Uh no.” I was so used to hearing my family, the news, and pretty much everyone else saying that teaching was a thankless job and that I wouldn’t make any money at it. I’ve never thought about all the things I get to do as a teacher. I get to share my love of reading, grammar, writing and more with so many students and watch them develop their own love of English too. I learn new things from my students every day and there isn’t a day where they don’t surprise me. I also really like making lesson plans, which sounds really weird, but it scratches the spot in my ADHD brain. I know that not every day will be great, and that not everyone will love me, English, or school, but that’s okay. As long as my students feel safe, grow as people, and get at least one thing out of my classroom, I’m happy. If you don’t have a passion for the work you do, then yes never make a difference.
The students
Everyone has that An teacher, and I think most teachers have that An student that makes them realize why they teach. For me, it is the senior I have been tutoring every weekday since May. When we first started working together, he absolutely hated school and wasn’t motivated to work. He told me that the teachers he had in the past “always yelled at him” and “didn’t help him.” As much as I love teaching, I’ve never really had the chance to create lessons and schedule them for anything other than assignments. I told him we would get through this and learn together, me how to be a successful teacher and him how to be a successful student. Over the past six months, I have watched him grow into such a wonderful student and learned so much about myself as an educator. I have learned how to tailor lessons and assignments to his learning style while still giving him the standards taught in his online classes and how to manage time efficiently to get as much done as possible. He is now a straight A student of which I am extremely proud! Seeing his progress and knowing that something I did helped him get there fills me with pride and joy, and reassures me that I am in the right profession. Being a teacher isn’t easy, but it’s also one of the most rewarding professions out there. I get to make a difference in someone’s life every day by talking about the things I love and sharing them with my students. The new popular TV show English teacher has a sentence in which director Moretti says: ‘Remember what is important: the love for what you do, the people around you. Good people make good teachers.” (‘Convention’ 14:27). Focus on the good, learn from the bad and keep making a difference!
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