Teaching is a beautiful profession that encompasses life-long learning and self-development. A teacher has to have the patience to deal with all kinds of students and be humble enough to keep learning. Because a true teacher knows that there is never an end to learning. Be it a tuition teacher, or be it a school teacher, the challenges of teaching remain just the same; just that the context and setting might be different.
Here are some of the highs and lows of teaching and this will give young teaching-enthusiasts an idea of whether it’s the right career path for them!
The Love For The Subject
Firstly, you get to pursue a subject that you are interested in. There may be a few of you reading that may be really interested in a subject and just want to keep learning more and more. This thirst for knowledge can be solved by becoming a teacher as most of your time will be used up in teaching and at the same time learning more about your subject of expertise.
The higher level of education you teach, the more you learn. This is especially true for professors as they generally do their own research projects on the side while teaching lectures.
A Special Bond
Throughout years of teaching, you will meet all kinds of students and although you will go through many batches of students, you are the only teacher they learn from for that subject. Teachers leave a lasting effect on students and many students are inspired by their teachers. Even after graduation, many students still put in the effort to come back to meet and reminisce with their teachers and buy them gifts for memories.
It will be extremely rewarding to see students who originally struggled with the subject become much better at it due to your guidance and teaching. Teachers are renowned as being heroes as they are inspiring the future of the country.
An Irreplaceable Job
Teachers are always of high demand and even in this technologically advancing world, this job is irreplaceable. Lessons may become more online oriented but teachers will always be employed as teaching requires a special connection between the teacher and the student for it to be effective.
A robot cannot discipline or reward students appropriately based on their behaviour as effective as a teacher. Although you may get transferred from school to school, you will still be well protected by the institution you are working for.
Overwork
At minimum, teachers have to teach lessons for about 6 to 8 hours a day. Outside of lessons, teachers have to grade papers, update curriculums, attend meetings, set questions for assessments. Moreover, to be able to teach effectively to allow students to understand teachers will also have to prepare for future lessons.
Taking all of this into account, teachers may work more than 50 hours a week and may even work 60 to 70 hours on certain weeks. This is a lot more than an average desk job worker’s week. For the amount of work teachers do, they are not paid as much as people think. No one can become rich just based on the salary from teaching.
This is why those without a passion for teaching tend to switch to other careers due to the stress both mentally and financially they face after a while.
A Variety Of Students
Teachers have to deal with all types of students. Every batch there may be a few students who completely put in zero effort to study, never attend classes or come late to classes and even if you focus your efforts on them, they simply do not appreciate it. This is one of the most defeating moments for a teacher when they are unable to help a student improve in the subject they are teaching.
Most of the time, it is the students’ fault as they do not care to put in any effort but it will still feel like your fault as it is your job to make sure everyone learns. Moreover, you will always face ill-disciplined students who make a ruckus during lessons and ignore everything you say which may end up affecting others who are trying to learn. Even worse, some may rally the class on their side making everyone else as rowdy as they are.
You may feel helpless at these times especially if the administration side does not help you with the discipline of the students. However, as time goes by, every teacher will come up with a method to combat this problem, whether it is to become a good cop and play nice or become the bad cop and discipline them yourself.