When choosing career you will always hear that is important to choose something that you will enjoy doing. I have always wanted to be an English teacher. When I was a little girl I played with my sister pretending to be a teacher and she was my student. I taught that was the best job in the world. It had all. Work with children, each day would be different and you played a big role in someone’s education. My parents tried to talk me out of that decision but I was persistent. I didn’t want to listen to them. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I finished the university, became an English teacher and started to work in primary school.
Now, after ten years of career I regret that only factor for picking my career was my imagination of that job. I can not say that I do not enjoy working with children. I have to admit that there are days when tasks are challenging and I think that I can’t pull that off but everything works fine in the end. During these ten years a lot of things have changed. Children changed, parents, whole society. Attitude towards school changed. My proffession from respectful one became a proffession where people look down at you. Teachers receive less respect than ever. Parents and their attitudes have changed. If you got into trouble in class when I went to school, not only were you disciplined by the teacher but you got it double at home. That’s not always true today. Now many parents start with the assumption that their darlings must be right, and therefore the teacher must be wrong. So they attack the teacher who had the temerity to discipline, or even give a poor grade to little Anna or Peter. And the system works against teachers. Teachers often get physical assault from either the parent or the student, threats of a lawsuit and charges of assault. This means that the motivation for teachers to discipline at all approaches zero.
There is also financial side. Nobody goes into teaching for the money but all over the world teachers are underpaid. You get feeling that you are penalized for chosing this profession. If I can’t go to holiday once a year or buy myself some basic things, is this job worth it? Jobs that require a similar amount of education have much higher starting salaries and provide much more room for growth. In addition, teaching is a difficult job that requires lots of energy and dedication. Teachers often have to do a lot with limited resources and will often spend their own money buying teaching supplies.
In my family we come to the point when my sister is choosing her career. Before she makes a decision I will sit with her and talk about all factors. Yes, you must love your job. There is nothing worse than going to work everyday without any enthusiasm and seeing that job as endless suffer. But, you also have to think about other things. Monetary side is also important. Will you have enough money to have normal life or will you struggle every day to survive? You have to decide if you are going to be happy with basic things or you want more for yourself. Also, think about your future job from the aspect of proffesional growth. Do you want to spend whole working life in one position or you want to be promoted one day.
What ever you choose do not let yourself to feel overworked, underpaid, unappreciated, and misunderstood because there is no worse feeling. Decision is in your hands. Take all things in consideration and hope for the best because it is once in a life time decision.
