Why teach?

I was just reading through a magazine that I get from my alma mater and it had an article about being an education school. The most popular major at Millersville University is education and it's what I went there for. The dean of College of Education said that he still thinks that their reputation as a teacher's college still stands. But he did note that there has been a decrease in enrollment of the education programs and certifications are also down. He contributes that to the fact that "teaching is not viewed as positively as it once was. A lot of kids today seem to be turned off by the idea of being teachers. Had they been born 20 or 25 years ago, they might be [more willing]."

He has a really great point because teachers are paid poorly for the amount of work they are required to do. A lot of people think teaching is great because they have their summers off but what they don't realize is that teaching is more than an 8 hour a day job. You can't just go to school at 7:30 am and leave at 3:30 pm and think you are done for the day. There's a lot of paperwork to grade and you more often than not are bringing your work home with you.

So do I regret getting a teaching degree? Nope. If I could go back in time and reselect my major it would still be education. I love working with children and don't know what else I would do with my life. Yes it is true that I haven't had a full-time teaching position yet, I have just been substitute teaching. I substitute taught for about a year and then took 3 years off when I had my first born and my second. As I posted recently, I just started subbing again and I'm so glad I did. It's giving me a chance to get back into the education world because I'm hoping to eventually get a full-time teaching job once my kiddos are older.

If you are reading this and have ever considered pursuing education as a career, I highly encourage you to go through with it. We're at a time in education right now where there is a shortage of teachers and even substitute teachers. As the dean of the College of Education and Human Services at MU said "Teachers prepare the next generation of students to participate in our democracy, in our society, and in life." Teaching is so important and if we have no one pursuing teaching degrees, who is going to teach our next generation? Because of all the events going on in this world today, I think there is no better time that we need qualified teachers so that our next generation can be taught properly.