1. Adult: What would you like to be when you grow up?
Me: A teacher!
Adult: Ohhhhhhhh that’s nice….
I like to call this “oh” the “roller coaster oh” because the tone of voice used is just like being on a roller coaster going up the track – it starts off low and then increasingly becomes higher and higher until you know exactly which comment is coming next…
2. You won’t make much money as a teacher.
Thank you for enlightening me. I had no idea that teachers aren’t bringing home the millions.
3. Education majors do crafts for homework, right?
Contrary to popular belief, education majors are not doing crafts for homework every night. Although we aren’t always in our lab coats and goggles doing experiments or crunching out math problems, we write papers, take exams, and read countless numbers of pages in textbooks like everyone else.
4. You want to work with kids???? For the rest of your life???
Yes, I do. Believe it or not, not all children are horrible. The well-behaved students in a class greatly outnumber the poorly-behaved students about 99% of the time. Also, you were a child once and you weren’t all that bad (or maybe you were).
5. You’re so lucky!! You’ll have summers and weekends off!!
Unfortunately, the party does not stop at 2 on a Friday afternoon or on that magical day in June. There is always grading to be done and thoughtful lesson planning to keep students interested in what is going on. When you create lesson plans, they don’t stay the same for the rest of eternity. Teachers consistently have to re-evaluate how they are presenting material to students to make sure they are keeping up with the times and teaching information in current ways.