Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
"The thing is, there's something about the job. Life satisfaction cannot be boiled down to a formula of good money + chunks of vacation + security = happiness."
That's interesting af. Like, you would think that formula would be reality, but I accept it isn't.
So what is it, I wonder?
I imagine a part of it as you get to be our age (I assume we're at least similar in age...maybe you're a few years younger?) is people just get sick of the grind regardless of what you do. A difference for teachers, though, is they have a huge contingent of colleagues doing the EXACT same thing as them, which is unusual for adults in our society. This allows them to belly ache to each other and amplify their gripes. Basically a little sewing circle of complaining about their unique problems, but I don't think they generally have a very good perspective about the work world outside of education.
I would say basically every other professional works harder, works longer hours, has fewer vacation and less job security.
I think the intangible thing that is leading to the dissatisfaction is just teachers working themselves up.
To concede some challenges unique to teaching, I think it would weigh on me somewhat feeling trapped in the job. It's basically golden handcuffs, though, so I will temper my sympathy. They're trapped because if they stay they have a bottomless bucket of money that refills automatically every month until the day they die. Like, there's no such thing as a retired teacher living in poverty. They have nothing to worry about for their entire lives if they can just stick out a career.
But not loving their job and feeling like work is, well, work? Idk, I feel like that's everyone except most people don't have a crazy pension and three months off a year.
Having said that, life isn't easy for anyone. Do I think it's generally an easier career than anything else? Yes, I do. Do I also think it's hard and has stressful challenges? Yes, I do.
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Re: the bolded... You really don't see what single factor teachers deal with that differentiates them and their level of job satisfaction?
Other. People's. Kids.
I've got a bunch of my own, and they're all young and they're all busy, so I
think I'm probably exposed to more 'other people's kids' than average. And in general, to varying degrees, they suck. And that's just from the perspective of brief, casual interactions... I don't have to be responsible for them for six hour stretches, every day of the week.
Don't get me wrong, the vacation time and pension sound great, but you literally could not pay me enough to be a teacher.