Why I Never Considered Becoming A Teacher

At one point, I briefly considered trying to find a job teaching at a University level (and I still harbor occasional dreams of being a film school professor or having another job where I got to lecture on something that I was passionate about), but I decided that that wasn't for me.

There's no way in hell that I would want to be a public school teacher, simply because I think that having to deal with the kind of kids day in and day out that I had to deal with at that age would just destroy me (I'm honestly afraid of what I might do if I caught some little bastards picking on some poor kid who reminded me of me at that age). My stepmother briefly worked as a High School science teacher at one point but had to quit because she would just about come home crying from having to deal with her students, and this is someone who doesn't seem like an especially fragile person to me.

It is by no means an easy job. What people don't see is that in most jobs, a person goes home & gets to do something else: they don't have to bring half their work home with them & do it then. A significant portion of our work takes place during all that imaginary free time. The school & the school boards provide us with virtually nothing.

For the most part, the difficult part of school isn't dealing with the kids. Even the ones referred to above as 'little bastards' are more often than not victims themselves of some deeply misguided parenting. Dealing with the distorted, ignorant & ego-driven expectations & attitudes of parents is the problem.

The more affluent ones expect you to magically transform their child into Einstein. After all, they see all kinds of signs of genius in their child & think that giftedness is something that they are either entitled to or can purchase. If their child isn't exceptional, then its the school's fault. Middle class parents are so harried trying to remain afloat & hold their lives together that they're often clueless about what their child is even learning in school. With immigration here in QC, many parents lack fluency in either French or English.

Then come the parents of so-called bullies. I've met them & it makes me understand why their kids behave as they do. Not in every case, but in the vast majority. There's often a parent who is themselves a bully. One tried to hold social status over my head as if he was sooo powerful & important that I'd 'never work again' if he 'made a few phone calls'. After an incredulous pause, I laughed in his face. Another was abusing the kid: this boy learned at home that if you're bigger & stronger than someone else, it is only right that you dominate him. Another parent asked about the kid their little saint was alleged to have bullied. When I told him about their child's target, he sarcastically snorted that the kid was practically begging for it. One thing I can say with certainty: I've never met the bullying kid who came from a normal healthy stable home whether working class or affluent, single or 2 parent.

The kids tend not to be the main problem. Teachers in my country have it easier than they do in the USA. Even the worst 'inner city' schools look nothing like the festering dumps I've seen poor children herded into in the US. Since funding for schools is predicated on 'achievement', the cycle of poverty & disenfranchisement is reinforced: poor hungry ghetto/trailer park kids with often functionally illiterate parents (often deeply dysfunctional) cannot compete with their suburban peers.

Another problem is that teaching is still a female dominated profession & America is a deeply misogynistic society (in deep denial of this reality). Religious right wingers are trying to shove women back into the complete patriarchal domination normative in the 1800s. The dance of submission/domination is being re-packaged as a somehow godly thing. In contrast, the university educated women who are teachers are beginning to assert themselves as a professional force just like engineers, doctors & other professionals. We are not martyrs. These are NOT our children & we are not employed as the servants of these parents like their babysitter.

The question is a simple one: does society want children well prepared to function in the professional/working world who are creative, innovative, able to take initiative & drive progress? Do they want the next generation to be informed, knowledgeable, skilled & with an understanding & competence in areas relevant to the emerging world? If so, schools, homes & the gov't need to work together. Putting a kid in school, for some parents, is like putting cake batter in the oven: wait 25 mins & out pops a cake! It doesn't work like that. I can't do my part without funding & under draconian working conditions. If I were to be paid for all the unpaid hours I put in, my salary would nearly double. We earn half of what we appear to.

I always wanted to be a teacher. However, when I hear my teachers about the immense tasks they do, I know they're not teaching but fulfilling some governmental functions. So I will probably be trained in another country's education course (e.g. New Zealand) before really teaching privately. I only want to teach in private schools - public schools are too stressful in Singapore. No wonder not even 600 new teachers a year in Singapore is enough.