Would you ever consider being a public school teacher? What are your thoughts on Public Schools?

I don’t know a lot about the evolution of the curriculum / dealing with administrators, but I figured it mostly was due to COVID (mask mandates, younger children largely not being vaxxed, dealing with parents, etc.)

Also all things considered we’re seeing massive wage inflation and the great resignation so most teachers are probably seeing opportunities to increase their compensation that they have never seen before.

They literally could not pay me enough. Also kids are extra shit these days because social media and lazy parents. Think about how much different school would've been if growing up you could just pull up the answers to anything and everything on your phone and immediately call out a teacher if they're full of shit/wrong about something? 

I think the public school model is patently inferior, outdated, and in major need of change. So in its current form, hell to the no. Now if it was a school where some of the teachers are also younger baddies and I were taking a year or two of sabbatical maybe. 

There are some 'elite' programs where humanities kids from 'top' schools will teach underprivileged kids. I am not sure how hard they are to get into, or how intense it is when you're actually teaching. 

Can spend a couple years basically hanging out and deciding what you want to do next. 

I went to public schools and my kids went to public schools and would not have it any other way.  If I am going to pay taxes to support the school system, my kids are going to the schools.  The public schools in my area are very good with lots of resources.  I can't say the same thing about most of the private schools in my area.  Unless your private school is funded by Warren Buffett or located in a city like Princeton, NJ, it is likely not going to have the same resources as a public school. 

Public school teachers in my area are highly compensated with lots of time off.  They are not making millions of dollars but they work in a profession focused on educating young people, which is pretty noble in my view. Not sure about this critical race theory stuff but this is not much of a thing in my area.  From what I can tell, kids are mostly learning about math, English, science, history, etc.  

The program as you are describing it is called Teach for America and it’s a tough gig. Know a few people who have been in it. Looks great on a resume, but you get paid the same as any other teacher there, think $30-40k, and are in an incredibly challenging teaching situation. Most people leave Teach of America after their two year contract expires to either do something in the education space: consulting, educational software sales, public policy, or change fields entirely.

All said, I think education is a pretty selfless career but I imagine it’s hard to find it fulfilling unless you can see your contribution is making a difference.

I wanted to be a high school teacher and even student taught for a while and wanted to do Teach for America, and I’m glad I didn’t do it. It’s a hard thankless job and you get paid crap for it. Students are difficult, administration is difficult, you have kids’ futures in your hand and in the state I’m from you get a masters degree to make $38K.

Also I’ll say a lot of people go into the field eyes wide open (as much as you can be before doing it) and thinking that getting to make a difference will make up for the shortcomings of the job, but a lot of times its very hard to make a difference or see the difference you’re making. I tutored students too for years and it can get really tiring emotionally / mentally pouring a lot of yourself into students and (I don’t say this in a blaming way because I understand there are a lot of exogenous factors at play) they don’t care or your effort turns out to be for naught (e.g., the student still fails despite your best efforts). 

It’s not like doing investment banking was easy or stress free, but at least kids futures weren’t in my hands, there’s not much of an emotional connection and I wasn’t getting paid the same as a Circle K cashier for my efforts.

Went to a public school inside the city (unlike financeabc who lives in the suburbs), and I can tell you it is quite the experience from a student, much less from a teacher point of view. Drugs were passed around and sold all the time with many getting busted. Teen mothers wasn't uncommon at all. Kids flunking out of school with no real direction ahead in life. Verbal fights were the norm, physical violent fights were daily. We had a few cops on site who would break up fights and even use tasers if necessary. Drug searches via dogs were not  uncommon. Compare that with the private schools with rich affluent kids who come from UMC+ backgrounds with 2 parent households and a stay at home mom, and you can see why teachers would rather go to well funded private schools than public schools.

Bureaucracy and administration is also a pain for the teachers. I've had teachers tell me how they aren't allowed to discipline anymore. Typically teachers get punished if too many students fail, so they have to pass the kids whether they are ready for the next grade level or not. Curriculum is typically set by higher-ups, so teachers are probably ordered to teach the CRT stuff.  I graduated well before COVID, but can only imagine that those things have made it worse. I knew many kids when I studied who didn't have internet at home. I have little idea how their younger siblings would have made in a virtual environment.

Apart from this the soaring COL, coupled with rising crime has made it financially ludicrous for teachers to stay in the city. While pay varies from state to state, the pay in the same state between city and rural is typically not enough to cover the material COL. I wouldn't doubt many are looking for jobs in more rural locations. 

To answer the title of this question, no I have never considered being a public school teacher. Pay is extremely low relative to qualifications, it is a difficult environment, and typically your students are not that bright. I have thought about being a lecturer at a university before, but that is obviously a much different dynamic than public school teacher. 

I would consider teaching at a public university, never a public HS or anything like that. Kids are crazy. 

Personally no. I would also not want to send my kids to public schools. Private boarding schools are the way to go for me. But not US schools. Preferably Switzerland, UK or Salem (went there myself). 

I went to a global Tier Mount Olympus private/boarding/public school (Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Rosey, Andover, Exeter) and the resources there exceed many US "top colleges". I plan for my kids to attend Eton as well.

Would I enjoy teaching? Yes. Would I force myself to be poor? No. Would I force myself to be exposed to immature and potentially disrespectful children? No.

But I do enjoy teaching. I think a possible future in education could have the possible two trends leading it:

1) Less and less people willing to be full time teachers

2) Students and teachers preferring remote models more and more

If those two trends hold then a new educational model could thrive: Imagine having remote classes taught by real professionals in industry. A Google Engineer could volunteer to teach ICT. A NASA engineer could volunteer to teach physics. Etc.

Of course when I say volunteer I mean make the hourly wage of a teacher which would be way less than their comp but I’m sure many would not mind dedicating one hour every few days to teach a class in a field they love. Maybe to sweeten the deal the state could pass some tax incentives to teach in this model. I would definitely volunteer to teach math. It would be a nice way to forget about the bullshit of the real world for a couple of hours and because it is remote it would not matter if a student is a little shithead. Whoever wants to pay attention pays attention. Whoever wants to browse instagram instead is free to do so. Would be kinda fun. If someone actually managed to get real google engineers, nasa engineers, hedge fund managers, etc. to be teachers, I’d send my kid there. Learn from the actual successful people.

Would I enjoy teaching? Yes. Would I force myself to be poor? No. Would I force myself to be exposed to immature and potentially disrespectful children? No.

But I do enjoy teaching. I think a possible future in education could have the possible two trends leading it:

1) Less and less people willing to be full time teachers

2) Students and teachers preferring remote models more and more

If those two trends hold then a new educational model could thrive: Imagine having remote classes taught by real professionals in industry. A Google Engineer could volunteer to teach ICT. A NASA engineer could volunteer to teach physics. Etc.

Of course when I say volunteer I mean make the hourly wage of a teacher which would be way less than their comp but I’m sure many would not mind dedicating one hour every few days to teach a class in a field they love. Maybe to sweeten the deal the state could pass some tax incentives to teach in this model. I would definitely volunteer to teach math. It would be a nice way to forget about the bullshit of the real world for a couple of hours and because it is remote it would not matter if a student is a little shithead. Whoever wants to pay attention pays attention. Whoever wants to browse instagram instead is free to do so. Would be kinda fun. If someone actually managed to get real google engineers, nasa engineers, hedge fund managers, etc. to be teachers, I’d send my kid there. Learn from the actual successful people.

Shrek2OnDVD

critical race theory, in school mask mandates, dropping standardized tests, etc.

pretty sure it has nothing to do with this. public school teaching just doesn't pay shit and involves a lot of effort and stress. so obviously people are quitting and moving to some better positions.

Why is everybody talking about HS? I read the OP again and it says nothing about HS, just public school in general.

After seeing that teachers spend their time on tiktok bragging about humiliating kids with CRT or grooming them with gender fluidity and other woke nonsense, no, never. Public education should be terminated altogether. It's child abuse and grooming at this point.

I come from a family of teachers so I have considered it. I could definitely not do it full time. I considered putting myself into the substitute teacher pool and the rates they pay are laughable. Like, yes I have other sources of income and I could do it as my own form of "mental exercise" or whatever. But the rates would literally barely cover my gas - it was something stupid like $45 for the day or something like that. I have no idea how anyone can decide that they want to work at that rate. 

Mom taught in inner city public schools in large city. She retired right after 2020 school year but still has friends that teach. 1) Teachers becoming competent in technology. If taught and never had to incorporate a lot of technology in your classroom for 30+ years and all of a sudden you have to run an entire class via zoom that is a difficult adjustment and the main thing my mom wasn't willing to do so she retired. Other common reasons:

Beaucracy in public schools is insane and many of the issues with unions coming to an agreement with districts about what is safe for teachers. Regardless of your beliefs about covid it is a reality people have different ones. So the unions coming to an accommodation for teachers who are immunocompromised has made restrictions for other teachers. 

There is also a lot of politics in their curriculum. Especially in meetings discussing curriculum you cannot hypothetically disagree with a principal who is a PoC about anything regarding CRT. Or if you have a LBTQ+ teacher who wants to incorporate trans/gay discussions into cirriculum it is difficult to disagree. My mom had said that's happened before and the 'are you attacking me because I am a XYZ minority" card gets pulled immediately, even if counterargument is valid.

Now not to mention in a WFH in public schools not only do teachers have to walk a fine line between what they say/how they say it. But then will get complaints from parents who don't agree. Often times teachers don't politically agree with some stuff but have to teach it. Then will get complaints from parents and have to get called into principal office for teaching something they might not even want to teach. 

These are main frustrations and there's many more especially in lower income school districts. But a lot of what my mom had said her teacher friends are dealing with currently. 

Random thoughts on this:

1. I forget where, but they did a study at one point where they asked high school kids if money didnt matter would they would consider being a high school teacher and a high majority said they would. 

2. I hate to say it, because I know teachers and have them in my family, but I feel that the "best and brightest" in our society never become teachers. It's basically become a profession thats for people who don't know what they want to do with their life, or their fall back job. Couple that with most likely a high percentage of kids who don't want to be there, and its a cat and mouse game between students and teachers. Little history, and it is what is it I'm not saying its correct, being a teacher used to be a highly respected job, but when public school became mandated the government had to increase the number of classes to fit all the students, but didn't get an equal increase in funds to pay teachers; to solve this they tried to pitch the idea to women to become teachers because they felt they could pay them less, basically stretching the dollar. 

3. Think about how school was in the 1970s versus how it is now, then compare that to how the world/technology has changed over that time. School is getting worse because its not evolving. 

4. I think parents put way too much on school these days. Decades ago school use to be basically a supplement to things parents taught their kids, now school is almost the sole learning experience. 

5. In some ways, school in America is like voting, the best part is everyone gets to do it, the worse part is that everyone gets to do it. In some ways, school is just public babysitting. I hate to say it, but when kids are 8,9,10, most people could probably fairly predict what they will do in life. Meaning, I look back on my days at school, if you would have picked which 8 year old would have a corporate job and which ones would do other things you probably wouldn't be far off. Not hating on anyone or profession, but it would be the same thing if instead of learning we made every kid in their country play basketball. Some would hate it and only be there because its mandated, and you could probably easier tell the athletic ones from the not. (I also know there are anecdotes about kids who messed up in school and still came out ahead, but those are more anecdotes than the norm.)

6. There's always a debate about public school choice, and good vs bad public schools. I know Joel Greenblatt wrote a lot about it in his last book. At the end of the day, I think raising a kid (if you take out for their individual skills/drive) is 80% parenting 20% schools. Meaning, I feel kids I grew up with in school who had better parents ending up doing better than kids with what we'll call "lower" tier parents. 

So, to answer the question, I think I would want to be a teacher, but I also think about doing it on a part time basis after I retire, one where I would go back to a high school and just teach a class about business, so I wouldn't be full time. Probably would have to be with some type of private school, don't know if I could swing it public. 

First, I really like Hölder's idea of teaching from professionals. Back in high school I was on the engineering track, and both my teachers were former engineers (one with 40 years of experience!). Easily my favorite classes, because there really is a difference when it comes to more technical classes.

I grew up in public school, mainly suburban, and honestly I think it depends on your local school options and how much public and private is emphasized. I have friends from NYC and other NE areas who say public is crap and private is the only good choice for education. In my southern state, public schools are pretty good (huge public school system from elementary to university) and generally have the resources for clubs, sports, and good teachers.

I would not be a teacher right now because of money, but if I hit my number I would consider it. My best teachers, at least in my eyes, were men (almost always veterans) whom I felt better understood me and who I could look up to. I'd be happy to be that person for someone else.

The problem is America just doesn't pay his teachers enough, especially in math and science.

Quant hedge fund manager Jim Simons is taking matters into his own hands.  He is paying exceptionally qualified math teachers 100k in addition to their teaching salary, as well as paying for their Masters Degrees to make it a more attractive profession than say, engineering.

I normally do not contribute to these types of threads because they inevitably end up in unrelated idealogical arguments, but I can't resist.

Ater an internship in banking, I did the math and discovered that as a public employee with a pension plan living in upstate NY, I would have more spending cash per hour worked. 45k per year isn't as bad when you work 1500 hours, don't have to make 401k contributions, and live in an area where houses cost 150k. Undoubtedly, it is an attractive proposition for anyone who values a relaxing life.

But I already find it hard to get through to kids who are even 4 years younger than me due to the infiltration of technology. Layer in other teachers tending not to be the type of people I enjoy spending time with, and the job starts looking pretty dull. In addition, it's a job anyone can trade down to, but teaching calculus to teenagers doesn't qualify me for any of the other fields that interest me more.

So regardless of the politics of education, I am not interested in it as a job. And if I am interested in it as a way to make an impact, there are plenty of better ways to contribute my time (mentorship, clubs, etc.)

can’t really speak for everyone but my school is pretty useless. im a senior and take pretty much all ap classes and do nothing in 90% of them. we don’t learn anything meaningful and are usually expected to self learn the information. also calc is the only class i actually learn something but don’t find it interesting enough to actually pay attention.

I would personally not want to teach in a public school. You can argue that you would have the biggest impact, but there are simply too many kids that are there who don't want to be. Not to mention the lack of flexibility in the curriculum/what you can teach.

A good private school, on the other hand, I would be open to teaching at in semi-retirement. Would also have perks like allowing my future kids to preferentially attend.

Deal with noisy annoying poorly brought-up kids and their dumb entitled parents all day, while getting paid peanuts? No thank you.

I mean I could barely stay awake at my desk at work, I'll never be able to handle teaching kids 

I’ve thought about coming back as a professor, but I don’t think I could hack it as a public school teacher.

I spent the last 10 years working my way up to the trade desk in mortgage, completely untraditional path. I felt like teaching would be a good exit strategy with less stress than finance, and more time off to spend with my toddlers. I started teaching middle school about a year ago. The trade off is to spend more time with my kids but I definitely miss the bigger paychecks. I teach mostly the advanced students but there are definitely some little shits on my campus. I'm not sure if I see myself here long term but I'm at least getting to spend more time with my kids and am looking forward to summer break, I might need to look for some part time remote work. Sucks that work from home is not an option. As far as CRT it isn't something I have to worry about as it's only something that has ever been taught in law school courses. Not something we cover in our US History curriculum.

I was born in the USA and I've lived there all my life, so I went to a regular public school and I didn't see anything wrong with working there after graduation.

Both of my parents are Public School teachers and have been for 20+ years and they said in the last 5-7 years they’ve had relentlessly bad classes.

As a preface, both of my parents still have students from 20 years ago in contact with them, so it’s not an issue on their end. If you’re in education though, and not working at a Spence or Dalton, public school has the best pay/job security and also part of the one of the most established unions.

But you could pay me double AN1 salary and I’d still skip it.

As someone who works in public school education wouldn’t recommend. I say this because public schools have no recourse nowadays. Kids can say and do whatever they want and they won't get punished. And while I do enjoy the process of teaching and learning, I would much more enjoy if I were doing it in the latter part of my life when I am established maybe in my late 40s or onwards, and can teach at a university or high school. I feel like I'd like the age group much much more. From my own experience it doesn't matter what grade I go to - kids are going to be cussing at each other and even directly at me. What can I do about it? Nothing. Disrespectful and idiot kids that don't want to learn don't make teaching enjoyable. Teaching K-8 at least, and at times 9-12, feels more like babysitting than actual pedagogy

I am a part time teacher in a sense. I have been asked by my alma mater if I would be interested in teaching a university course. I agreed and I am in preparation now.

The big downfall I’m seeing is the prepackaged teaching material the book publisher provides. If I wanted to, and I won’t, I could do barely anything and click a few buttons for a course to be created. The PowerPoints, hw, and exams are all ready. However, I wish to make this class my own, realistic, and relevant. Students don’t need to be tripped up on how to calculate cash flows. Understand them and know how to calculate, yes, but know what they mean and how to apply them. It doesn’t need to be a algebra class in disguise.

Also, you wouldn’t believe the academic integrity issues that have came about from the pandemic and everything going online. My non target school had some huge cheating cartels that were kept hush hush. When I inquired about this, they said something like, “don’t be high and mighty, the Ivy schools are having the same problems and they keep it hush hush.”

Maybe I’ll regret this opportunity, but as a lifelong learner, I believe it’ll feel good to encourage and inspire students. Not just read the PowerPoints and print off the canned test banks.

As this is a university and I’ll only be a part time teacher, you’d better believe I’ll go full Jordan Belfort Wolf on them should someone get out of line or be disrespectful. That kind of stuff is not tolerated in industry so you’d better believe I won’t tolerate it in the classroom. If the faculty doesn’t like it, then find a PhD babysitter instead.

I was born in the USA and I've lived there all my life, so I went to a regular public school and I didn't see anything wrong with working there after graduation.

Teachers in public and private schools have the same rights and guarantees in terms of the law. However, in a private school, the teacher has more free time and peace of mind because there is not a lot of documentation.

Depends on peer group.

American schools are rife with the children of freeloading immigrants who teach their kids absolutely zero American values or have a fascination for learning the way of life here.

I don't want my kid learning about K-Pop, developing a  Middle Eastern cuisine fetish, or falling in love with people from a certain religion or developing a fetish for such types.

Went to one of the big public schools in NYC (Stuy/Bxsci/Brooklyn Tech). A lot of the teachers were ex-industry in some form and a lot had PhDs. For instance, my AP Bio teacher worked in one of the big pharma companies for 15 years and did some major research on some drugs/compounds/polymers that are pretty important before going back to teachers masters, Calc teacher was a software developer, AP Eng Lit teacher worked at a publishing house, social studies worked in department of state as a foreign service officer and had lived abroad for 11 years in various assignments and a lot of the gym teachers were ex military (AD was in the marines for 10 years etc.). There were some young teachers but I guess largely because of the school I went to, a lot of them tended to have impressive backgrounds. I think this is partially skewed because my high school paid higher on average to high school teachers in NYC (all teachers listed above made 75k+ which is quite high for a teacher). For the ex industry teachers, I think it was very much just a lifestyle change to an easier "9-5" with much better vacation time.

Absolutely not. Pay is garbage, schools are now woke institutions brainwashing kids, standards are dropping across the board to make the environment more 'inclusive' and to top it all off, you now have ChatGPT. I'd consider being a professor at a college one day but honestly growing more doubtful even that makes sense 

My public high school is a top 400 school right now in the country. About ~60-70% of people went to average colleges and average / subpar careers. The exceptional students who went to semi-targets and better was probably only 20% of the class. Lived in a county where a lot of public high schools are ranked nationally, the best one is around the top 100 national range and the school's placements are miles better than ours (the slightly above average student there could easily get into schools like NYU while at our school you probably wouldn't have a chance unless you were top quartile).

If I can afford it and I have kids later in life, I would send them to those private schools that send half the class to an Ivy.

Teachers at my high school get paid usually 50-70K minimum. Teachers with tenure can clear 100K (department heads back in the early 2010s made ~115K and know one who made 140K, our school made them public online if you looked in the right places). I would never want to be a public school teacher but I do want to eventually become an academic professor part time later in my career. Few of my HS friends did become teachers (almost all girls) but I never found it appealing. One of these girls married a doctor and I don't think she works nearly as much since she's had a kid or two (husband makes 300K+ annually rather easily). Although, her salary decently supported them two before they had kids and he was still a medical resident.