Second Guessing

[Elvira]

Hi everyone

I am just curious how many of you second-guessed teaching. I definitely did. My college professors (non-Education) gave me 'that' look when I told them I wanted to teach. People told me to run for the hills. I saw my very positive high school lay off lots of new teachers due to budget problems, just when the state was trying to pass a law to make it impossible for teachers to bargain with Unions. Teachers were scapegoated and teacher bashing became pretty popular. I had heard the statements like "oh you get summers off though!", but this time around, it seemed vicious.

It dampened my spirits and even my favorite teachers in high school said that they couldn't really recommend teaching to their sons or daughters as a career option.

With that being said, I get a sense of wonder when I volunteer in the classroom (I am a to be teacher). I honestly can't imagine myself doing anything else. I get so excited planning lessons and games. I know there are lots of problems, but I can't imagine not being a teacher. My favorite teacher is retiring this year and she is on her 30th year and loves her job.

How do you calm yourself down when you think about high attrition rates, high stakes testing (which hasn't come to my field yet but I feel like it is coming sometime soon), discipline problems, lack of respect in the community, administration, the notion that good test scores = good teacher?

I apologize for being such a Debbie Downer i really want to teach but I guess I am just afraid of failing at what I love most.

Did you second guess teaching, and would you recommend this career to your loved ones?

[smalltowngal]

I think that we all have days where we second guess whether we chose the right career in teaching, but those are few and far between.

[Peregrin5]

If you like teaching you like teaching. You're probably going to have days where you second-guess your job no matter what type of job you have anyway, so I don't see how teaching is very different.

It's always seemed to me that the good teachers keep their jobs and the poor ones are usually the ones that get laid off, except under special circumstances, so if you love you job, put your all into it, and become an effective teacher I don't think you should have much of a problem. You just need to keep your optimism. =]

[catnfiddle]

I definitely did, to the point I dropped out of the education track in college. My mother wasn't finding full time teaching work, which frightened me. I was feeling far too immature to deal with the responsibilities of teaching while still in college. It took me a decade to circle back and get my certification, but I was ready for the challenges by that time. Glad I second guessed and glad I came back.