Is Choosing a Career in Teaching Right for You?

Teaching is a Noble Profession

While many people are turned off by the perception that teaching is a low paid profession, it is a noble profession that provides a great lifestyle and many significant benefits to its professionals.

Teaching occurs in a variety of environments. In terms of professional occupations, teaching includes elementary, secondary, and post-secondary opportunities, that will be reviewed here, as well as other great opportunities in specialized areas including special education, early childhood education, continuing education, training organizations, and other niche areas.

Elementary education generally consists of Kindergarten through fifth or sixth grades. Teachers who teach at this level generally have a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and they may have a teaching certificate if required by their state. Educational requirements vary a lot by state.

Essentially states monitor supply and demand of teachers and attempt to find the most qualified people available while filling their needs. Midwestern states including Iowa and Wisconsin are often big exporters of teaching talent as supply is greater. Trained educators from these states sometimes flee to more in demand states like Texas that might pay more to get qualified candidates. Teachers with advanced degrees are rewarded with greater pay as pay scales include growth for education and experience.

Junior and high school teachers sometimes have education degrees. Often, however they have specialized degrees and a teaching certificate. This mix indicates a specialization in a specific field, as well as an ability to teach within that field.

Whereas elementary age teachers have a broader education degree and teaching all of the basic subject matter, junior high and high school teachers focus on a subject area such as business, math, science, social studies, and the like. Elementary teachers usually are interested in developing younger children while secondary teachers often are driven to provide focused training and growth for young adults.

As noted, one of the big reasons for a shortage of qualified teachers in many states is the relatively lower pay compared to other professions. Many states are realizing that teachers are an underpaid profession considering the specialized training and talent required.

As the US has worked to improve its standing in the world of education, many states have attempted to boost teacher pay. In fact, several states, including Iowa that are below the national average, have increased government funding for teacher pay or provided special concession supplements.

Although teachers often work beyond typical schools hours grading and planning, there are many positives to choosing a career in teaching. Many people are driven to teaching for the strong psychic rewards associated with helping young people grow and having a potentially significant effect on their long-term growth. Lifestyle benefits are also a big draw for many. Taking into account the fact that most teachers do not work in the summer while school is not in session, and get similar holiday breaks as students, the pay for work does not seem quite as low. Work days often run from 7:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon.

Even while teachers do plan and grade sometimes on their own time, they rarely have work requirements on evenings as weekend as is required in retail and other industries. Also, many teachers are able to increase overall pay by taking on extra work or teaching summer school. As mentioned, those with advanced degrees and experience can make very reasonable incomes. Benefits and retirement options are often plusses for the profession, although some states struggle with budgets to provide as much as others.

Many people forget about post-secondary teaching options when exploring career possibilities as young adults. Although research based colleges and universities often employ PhD types to do more research than teaching, there are many great opportunities to teach at the college level. Community colleges and less research-based four year schools employ full time instructors.

College teaching positions offer several great advantages. Colleges have fewer contact days than the other educational levels discussed which means less overall work time. Many college teachers do not have specific hours they are required to work. Some prefer the opportunity to teach and work with a more mature age level and help students preparing for a career.

Requirements to teach at the college level vary greatly by state. Some states require teaching certification for college instructors. Others have degree or work experience guidelines. Some states have faculty improvement program requirements that require college level instructors to participate in growth training and activities in order to maintain their teaching positions.

Along with legislative requirements, supply and demand dictates the level of qualifications sought by colleges in many states. As college instructors are trained in specific fields, the amount of qualified candidates and the student demand for programs indicates how selective colleges can be.

For well supplied disciplines and for full time positions, colleges generally expect candidates with advanced degrees and certain hours or years of field related work experience. However, some high demand, low supply disciplines and some adjunct teaching opportunities only require a bachelor’s degree and reasonable work experience, if that is in line with state law. College level teachers usually work on a slightly higher pay scale than their elementary and secondary counterparts

Choosing a career in teaching should be viewed as a very noble and respected choice for a profession. Although total pay is often low, it offers great lifestyle and family benefits. Many teachers find summer or part time job supplements. Others teach during the summer. The benefits of teaching are what appeals to most that choose the profession. Teaching provides an opportunity to impact hundreds, or even thousands of lives.

Thank you to Neil Kokemuller for this "Choosing a Career in Teaching" article.

Neil Kokemuller is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Des Moines Area Community College in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He has a MBA from Iowa State University with a specialization in marketing. His parents each have over twenty-five years of experience in public education.