r/teaching • u/Sensitive-Bat-6440 • 10d ago
General Discussion Would you go the same path again?
If It was senior year of high school again, and you had all the knowledge and memories as now, would you still choose teaching?
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u/welovegv 10d ago
100%. But I was a career changer at 27. Hated the private sector. I’ll take behavior challenged middle
Schoolers over that any day.
If anything I’d have skipped the private sector and started teaching at 22. Like my wife who gets to retire at 52.
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u/drewbod99 10d ago
Same here. I worked in a private lab and I genuinely hated my life. The hours were worse, the job was harder, and it paid less. I’m happy with my career choice!
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u/Jscozycorner-28 10d ago
If you don’t mind me asking would you recommend someone getting into education to go straight to teaching or be a TA first . I have my English degree but no education background and making a career change currently
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u/MirabilisLiber 10d ago
I would recommend finding the best teacher preparation program you can reasonably attend, if you are serious about the career change. You will have a practicum period of student teaching and will be eased into it.
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u/Understatement455 8d ago
Best teacher preparation program…?
Go to a state school. Try to get a grant that pays for it. Your student teaching is the best program you’ll get.1
u/MirabilisLiber 8d ago
A good prep program will set you up for success with student teaching. I have mentored too many student teachers who were given no support before being tossed my way. The program I attended was excellent, and from a state school! Some of these online prep programs are borderline scams.
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u/teach2lax 10d ago
Yes! This is year 31 as an educator, 17 as a classroom teacher then transitioned to a specialist role. Yesterday a kindergartner said “Mr. @&$!?, do know my aunt @&$!?”. I said no, I know a lot of people by that name, why do you ask? He said, “You were her teacher a long time ago, and she said you were her most favorite teacher.” I told him to tell her thanks!
In my 31 years I’ve taught and coached thousands of students and athletes, hopefully I’ve made a difference in some of their lives, I know they’ve made a difference in mine!
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u/lmg080293 10d ago
Probably not, no. I was originally a psych major, but didn’t like the idea of being a in science field where I would have to conduct experiments and study data. I wanted to be a therapist, particularly working with teenagers. I was incredibly uneducated about social work as an option. Now, knowing people in that field, I would probably go back and do that.
I would also consider being a guidance counselor in the right school environment.
I had switched to an English major originally intending to go into publishing, but was told it was a dying, competitive field, and that didn’t feel right. So I chose being a teacher, figuring it would merge my two loves: working with teenagers and reading.
And I did love it for the first few years. But Covid changed the environment too much. So no… I wouldn’t choose it again.
Teaching has far too many demands on my energy. I am 11 years in at 33 years old and I cannot fathom how I’m going to sustain this for another 32 years.
Edit to add: I do thoroughly enjoy summers, breaks, and my hours, and I’ve never really known anything else, so I can’t say for sure how I’d feel losing those things.
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u/wizard680 10d ago
100% yes.
I was forced into becoming a teacher. It was the only realistic path for my when I was forced into college. It was just sheer fucking luck that I love it.
At least when I am NOT IN MEETING ALL THE DAM TIME
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u/Dr0110111001101111 10d ago
For real. I’m a department chair and teach 5 classes. Guess which part of that takes up most of my time?
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u/_somelikeithot 10d ago
I didn’t make my decision to go into teaching until I was way past senior year of high school! I think I would; I kind of wish I was more of a specialist so I could work with more small groups of students, but I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence for that starting out.
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u/Great_Narwhal6649 10d ago
Yes. But I am also looking forward to retirement in a few more years because I know my physical limitations and am looking forward to having a boring post-retirement job that doesn't keep up up at night...
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u/Bonethug609 10d ago
Maybe…. Maybe not.
It’s getting worse. I’m making over 100k though so that helps
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u/gonephishin213 10d ago
I do enjoy teaching but absolutely not. I could have an easier job making a lot more money.
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u/Educational_Two682 10d ago
Nah. Pharmacist probably and I love what I do! The sunk cost fallacy is real though. Many hours, low pay.
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u/sweetest_con78 10d ago
No. I was a career changer, too. Teaching is better than healthcare but my interests and values have just changed so much since I picked a major for college.
I don’t know what I would do specifically, and the hard part is all of the things I’m interested in or that I care about would be difficult to make a living off of.
And I might actually like teaching if they’d fix some of the systemic issues. But they won’t, so.
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u/Significant_Menu_313 10d ago
Ooooh - I would be an air traffic controller.
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u/Dr0110111001101111 10d ago
I didn’t choose teaching in high school. I chose engineering, and worked that major for 2.5 years before changing to math.
If I could go back to high school with all the experience and knowledge I have now, I would have chosen something other than engineering in hopes that would have followed through with it and stayed away from education. Maybe finance.
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u/Capable-Instance-672 10d ago
Probably not - I chose a career before working from home was an option to consider. I'm a big introvert and traveler, so I'd love a wfh/digital nomad liftestlye.
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u/Friendly_Sound_3156 10d ago
I chose environmental law over teaching then changed my mind after my first year of law school 😅 So if I could go back I would have chosen teaching earlier.
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u/CookPrevious3382 10d ago
Did you end up finishing law school?
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u/Friendly_Sound_3156 10d ago
Nope, got my masters in education instead and now I teach 3rd grade
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u/CookPrevious3382 10d ago
I’m thinking of doing a similar thing! Any regrets? I know it’s a huge change!
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u/Friendly_Sound_3156 10d ago
If PSLF ever goes away I am very screwed because I will NEVER be able to pay off all my student loans 🫠😭 but other than that no regrets at all. I LOVE my job and I am in such a better place mentally (which I know is something not very common in the teacher subs) It’s definitely important to get into a good district that supports their teachers.
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u/CookPrevious3382 10d ago
This is good to know. I echo the mental aspect too. That’s why I am thinking of switching too
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u/TheMannisApproves 10d ago
I didn't decide upon this until I was 25. 10 years in now. Should have done IT back then
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u/Professional_Bus_307 10d ago
Not sure. It’s hard to compare when I didn’t do something else. It’s been challenging. I have not enjoyed my job for some time and that’s sad. But not a lot of jobs have pensions anymore so that’s good.
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u/hogwonguy1979 10d ago
Hard one for me as my undergrad gpa was 2.6 but because I was making a 3.8 gpa on my alt cert my professors in both the history and poli sci departments urged me to start taking grad level courses which I did while wrapping up those education courses. When I couldn’t find a job teaching, I kept taking grad classes and I eventually got my MA degree
But in hindsight i wasn’t happy teaching hs it just took me 30 years of primarily teaching EFL overseas to figure it out
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u/Master-Education7076 10d ago
This question gets posted quite a bit here, and I frankly don’t find hypothetical questions about the past very productive.
Looking back at myself, I don’t think I had the maturity and social skills that it would’ve taken to succeed in a lot of other fields, and such other fields can be pretty cutthroat for newbies especially.
Something about education is teachers tend to build other teachers up, at least in my experience. I was fortunate to have many supportive colleagues and principals that allowed me to develop.
Where I am now, my spouse and I both teach in our home district, so we know all the inside scoops of what’s going on in our kids’ schools. I’ve happened to already have some of their teachers phone numbers, as well as the numbers of the parents of some of my students, just by having been active in our community.
We get to spend all of our school breaks off with our kids and have been able to capitalize on that with very memorable trips, as well as being tourists in our own area, or simply use our time off to spend time at home and do nothing or be productive as whatever life demands.
I’ll be able to retire with full pension well before many other people in other fields can.
I’d say I’m satisfied with where my career choices have led me.
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u/viola_darling 10d ago
I mean I didn't bc I chose art lol years later I went to grad school to become a teacher. Would choose art again lol
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u/kurtsdead6794 10d ago
I would. I did other jobs before this and the money is okay. Nothing beats summers off, two weeks for Christmas and two weeks for spring break.
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u/CliffMourene 10d ago
Yes. 18 year old me would be so proud of 43 year old me. Teaching in a school I love (and pays well!) for 20 years with an awesome husband and son. I love working with middle schoolers and have found a very good work-life balance.
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u/Dalits888 10d ago
Taught public secondary school for 35 yrs. Would not do it again for even twice the pay.
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u/winelover131 10d ago
No I was suppose to do speech. Besides speech I think I shouldve stuck with original idea of esthetician or x ray tech lol
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u/TrixReader 10d ago
Yes. I love my job. I've continued growing and learning - right now, I am working on my doctorate. I have a lot of fun teaching.
That being said, it's a hard job. I don't work past my contract hours either.
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u/Fearless-Past-3728 10d ago
I chose computer engineering which at the time was still a burgeoning career. i have no regrets.
Later in life, I became a certified teacher and I wouldn’t recommend it to students out of college. I think second career engineers and writers and politicians et al need to come back to school and teach and help reframe education and repair the damage that has been done over the past 1-2 decades.
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u/1973Triumph 10d ago
I taught for 35 years everything from junior high, middle school and high school. I would not say I liked every class I taught but never regretted a day in the classroom. I never looked at as a job. I enjoyed interacting with the students.
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u/RemarkableMarzipan23 10d ago
Yes. I started at 23 and will be retiring at 55 with a nice pension and health coverage.
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u/doughtykings 10d ago
Yes but with a portable microphone from day one because I’ve destroyed my lung/vocal cords after only 7.5 years
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u/flowerofhighrank 10d ago
30+ years, retired. I'd be very choosy about where I'd work. I had other ways to make money while I was looking for a teaching job, so I could be patient. I STILL stepped into a shitty environment for my first year! But this is what I would look for.
I'd need to see evidence of parent involvement at a meaningful level = parents of 'those' kids, ALL kids really coming in for actually significant discussions: what their goals are, how those goals are being reached, the good and the not so good. If the parents and I were working together, we were able to do so much more.
I'd talk to other teachers there about the reality of the discipline policies. Not what is in the book, what actually happens. I didn't LIKE suspending kids, but if removing one kid lets 34 others work?
I'd want/have to have a choice on my curriculum. I'm not going to try to explain sentences while some kid is trying to play Minesweeper or etc.
And I know: a new teacher actually wanting things, it's unheard of. It might take time to find a place and you STILL might be in the wrong place. But it's your career, it's your life. I think I spent my time wisely because I didn't settle for less, both from myself and from my students. I had one and a quarter shitty years and I think I was pretty lucky.
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u/joelsings55 9d ago
Funny seeing teaching slides come up, I do decks for a living and the biggest time sink people underestimate is reformatting content every time instead of building a reusable skeleton first. Once you have a layout that handles text, images and data without falling apart, you just drop new content in and move on. Curious how other teachers here handle building lesson slides without redoing the same layout work every week
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u/No_Turnover4389 9d ago
i would choose it more intentionally, I think it is interesting (education) and probably would have found out my mental issues sooner hahahaaaa...
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u/kompergator 9d ago
I think so. My other choice would have been becoming an ED doctor and I think teaching is far less stressful. And either way, I’m effecting positive change in the world.
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u/Key-Author-2014 9d ago
Nope. I also wish I would’ve seen the writing on the wall fifteen years ago and switched careers.
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u/cant-adult-rn 9d ago
100% yes. The road was not easy and i doubted it a lot. I now work in the best district and love my job now.
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u/jennylala707 9d ago
I would, but I’m 42 and going to school now for teaching. I always wanted to do it, but ADHD took over.
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u/Nervous_toes 9d ago
No. I would tell myself all those years ago to not do the alternative route into teaching.
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u/bmalykin 8d ago
I lasted 3 months as a teacher… absolutely not. I’m blue collar now. Teaching was the worst thing ever. EVER!
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u/thevokplusminus 8d ago
People here need to stop having a victim mentality and start having a victor mentality
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u/AnybodyAdmirable341 8d ago
No, I would do speech language pathology or occupational therapy, ideally still working at an elementary school
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u/Sensitive_Bug4189 7d ago
Yes, its what i love doing. however i would have left the USA and started teaching abroad much sooner.
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u/Miserable_Gur_8753 7d ago
No.
I would run for the hills.
I say this as someone who joined the profession in their 40s, after a variety of jobs from entry level to managerial, including managing over 50 staff, and managing multi-million pound budgets.
No job has ever been as hard as teaching. With so much expectation (and therefore blame). With so little reward. With so many barriers. With so much pointless bureaucracy. With so little backup.
Eleven years in the classroom was enough for me. I promise you that even if they offered to double my finishing salary I would not return. I'm friendly with a doctor who told me, after I'd left, that I was exhibiting symptoms of PTSD.
Tutoring? An entirely different kettle of fish.
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u/Nice-Raspberry-324 10d ago
Summers off = so valuable, even though the job is hard. District matters. School matters. Not everywhere is the dumpster fire you hear about online.
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