69ý

Opinion
Teaching Profession Opinion

Would You Tell a Student to Become a Teacher? It Depends

Opinions are divided on the messages we send young people about the teaching job
By Mary Hendrie — December 18, 2023 3 min read
Illustration of Elementary school teacher in his classroom with a textured gradient effect applied
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Whether educators would recommend the teaching field to newcomers is more than just a reflection of their own satisfaction with the job; it’s also a question that can have serious implications for the future teaching pipeline. And, earlier this school year, it was a question that sparked fresh discussion on social media. When Larry Ferlazzo’s opinion blog post “Would You Urge a Young Person to Go Into Teaching? What Teachers Say” was shared on Facebook in September, it triggered a substantive, .

If you had to boil down many of those comments to just two words? “It depends.”

Though some commenters jumped in to answer the headline with an emphatic yes or no, many instead reflected on the highs, lows, and in betweens of their profession—nuanced responses that some singled out as a critical approach to preparing future teachers for the job.

“I love teaching, but I have long discussions with my students when they want to be teachers because they need to have realistic expectations in order to be happy,” wrote . “Going in with a romanticized idea of teaching is part of what leads to new teachers leaving so quickly. I want them to know the positives and the negatives as well as how I find personal joy in it. I want them to be able to find joy in the classroom if they do become teachers.”

For students who do answer the call, some may find that the profession has changed by the time they join it. That was the experience of 5th grade teacher George DeVita, who reflected earlier this year on his parents’ teaching experiences that he had seen growing up—and the very different world he found when he joined the teaching force as an adult.

“Now an experienced educator myself,” DeVita wrote, “I have witnessed an unnerving transformation of the profession. Once brimming with passion, creativity, and innovation, the colorful canvas of teaching has been replaced by a sterile landscape of rigidity and disillusionment.”

In fact, educators themselves widely worry that daunting professional demands are keeping the next prospective class of teachers from signing up. In a recent EdWeek Research Center survey of principals, teachers, and district leaders, a full 90 percent of respondents agreed that the high demands on teachers are making it harder to attract people to the profession and retain them.

Despite these challenges, some current teachers still take a rosy view of the profession that the next generation of teachers will find when they enter the classroom. In another popular Larry Ferlazzo opinion post, “Ignore the Negativity. Be a Teacher,” four teachers made their best case for the career.

And it’s not, as former teacher and principal Sharif El-Mekki cautions, a matter of just encouraging or discouraging students but actively modeling for them what empowered teaching can look like. “How we teach students is also how we present the profession to our high school students—classroom instruction is truly the primary recruitment ground for future teachers,” he wrote earlier this year in his essay “‘Never Get Into Teaching’: The Message We Need to Stop Sending 69ý.”

It’s a big responsibility: The actions we are taking today, he reminded readers, will shape the teaching talent who walk in the door a decade from now.

However, that recruitment message may not be reaching every student. Writing in The Principal Is In opinion column last month, El-Mekki returned to this topic, recounting his own delayed journey to the classroom, a career that often fails to invite in Black boys and young men. He himself was well out of college before a trusted mentor nudged him onto the teaching track. “Meanwhile,” he noted, “I’ve heard stories aplenty of white women who received the proverbial tap on the shoulder from the profession as early as 3rd grade.”

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Teaching Profession Opinion Teacher Contracts Need to Change. And It’s Not Just About Money
If we want to retain effective teaches, we should increase teacher compensation—but we need to do it strategically.
Karen Hawley Miles & David Rosenberg
4 min read
Final Piece Of The Puzzle. Two people about to shake hands over trading a jigsaw puzzle piece needed for the solution.
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching Teachers Say the Public Views Them Negatively
The perception coincides with teachers' low levels of job satisfaction.
2 min read
survey teachers static
via Canva
Teaching Profession Download Play Teacher TV Bingo and Spot All the Teacher Tropes
It's trope bingo; spot the common (and often annoying) mischaracterizations.
Image of bingo cards, a remote control, and a television.
via Canva
Teaching Profession Fictional Teachers on TV Can Skew Public Perception
Media tropes about teachers can give incoming educators and the public unrealistic expectations about the profession.
5 min read
Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Quinta Brunson, and Tyler James Williams play teachers on the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Teachers say the show resonates with their experience.
Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Quinta Brunson, and Tyler James Williams play teachers on the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Teachers say the show resonates with their experience, but researchers say many other portrayals of teachers are flawed.
Gilles Mingasson/ABC