To Teach or Not To Teach

This is a debate that I've been having with myself since I was old enough to think about what I want to be when I grow up. I have always been told that I should work with kids, and teach elementary school, but right now, I'm in a program that is teaching me about being any of the people on a college campus other than faculty. I like the things that I'm learning, and they are certainly applicable to the classroom as well. However, I'm still trying to decide what it is I want to be doing.

Teaching sounds wonderful, but there are a few things that have made me reluctant to pursue it. At the primary and secondary level, their are two scary factors. The first is parents. They often seem to have the best of intentions, but to use the forest for the trees metaphor, they sometimes can't see the classroom because of how much they love their kid, or they can't see their child because of the ambitions that they have for them.

My hypocrisy plays in here a bit too. As much as I don't want parents telling me what I should be doing to teach their special youngster, I have problems dealing with parents who are having a negative impact on their own kids. I taught a girl at Sonshine who was really a sweet kid. She had no self-esteem and she got into trouble, but she seemed to be drawn to it and rarely the instigator of it. Every time I saw her with her mother, she was being told that she was a pain, trouble, annoying, too loud, a problem, or in the way. She was a great kid, but she didn't know it because that's not what she was being told. It breaks my heart to see those things happen, and I know that I would want to speak up if I had a bigger role in their life.

The second thing that bothers me is the kids that will hate me for no reason other than because I am an authority figure. I can't imagine how I would deal with that. I suppose eventually I would figure it out. Some more education classes might even teach me a couple possibilities, but it is something that I know I will loose sleep over.

Of course, that concern extends into teaching in higher education, but what bothers me more is tenure. Don't get me wrong, job security and academic freedom sound great, but politics and the games to get there don't sound that great to me. I'd like to do research, and I'd like to publish, but if I was teaching, it would be because I want to teach. I would prioritize my class over my journal article and that could doom me to being adjunct forever. I haven't experienced it, but I have heard rumors that being adjunct after a certain point in your career keeps you from gaining respect.

To top all of that off I don't know what subject I could teach, but that is not much of a barrier. To teach at the university level I would have to get another degree anyway, and to teach primary or secondary I would want some education courses before I tested for certification. I am be a good teacher. People tell me it all the time, and I know that it is true, but I am good at student services too. I am good at Public Relations, and I'm sure there are other things I could be good at. I just have to decide what it is that I want to do.