Top 8 Reasons Why Non-Teachers Can Never Really Understand Our Job

5. Our job is really serious. – When there’s a mistake or a problem, it’s often heart-breaking and important. In the corporate world, a glitch might mean a spreadsheet needs to be redone or a little money was wasted. But in education, the problems go much deeper: a child lost on a field trip, students lamenting parents in jail, a little girl sexually assaulted on the walk home from school, a boy being raised by his great-grandmother because everyone else in his life abandoned him. These are true stories that I’ve had to witness. The pure human pain gets to you after awhile, especially if you’re a teacher out to fix everything. We can’t fix everything and that makes the problems we witness hurt all the more.

6. Every hour in the classroom is at least an hour of work required outside the normal school day. – Sure, school only lasts 5-6 hours per day. But that’s all we’re paid for and the job is constant. Our homes are cluttered with work and we stay up til all hours grading papers and preparing for future lessons. Many of us take phone calls and emails from parents during our “personal” time. The problems of the day weigh heavy on our minds all night and all weekend.

7. There is zero flexibility when you’re a classroom teacher. – When you work in an office, you can simply call in sick when you wake up unexpectedly ill on a given morning. But, it’s extremely hard to be absent from work when you are a teacher, especially if it happens without notice or at the last minute. It can take several hours to prepare the lesson plans for a substitute teacher which hardly seems worth it when you’re only going to be absent for five or six hours of classroom time. You might as well just go teach the class yourself, right?

And don't forget the last one...

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