Changing Professions

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Changing Professions
By Mary

With all due respect, Jennifer, it probably is for the best that you have changed professions. From personal experience and from talking to other friends and acquaintances who are teachers, none of us goes into teaching
with the intention of being highly paid professionals. After all, most of us understand that the outside world does not understand our true value in monetary terms. We choose to teach because we love kids and hope to make a difference in their lives in some capacity. From the sounds of your posting, I am led to believe that perhaps your teaching experience left you with negative feelings.

Many of us, myself included, have had to endure rough classes administrators, parents, and community disrespect. No, we don't love it, nor are we masochists who look for more of the same. What we are is a group of dedicated individuals who keep coming back because we believe that next year will be better. What we love is having the chance to see those rare students who *get it*, who tell us and show us that we have helped them become better people. Teaching is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of hard work, persistence, and a willingness to keep going that extra mile even when we feel like throwing in the towel and running the other way as fast as we can. No, we don't do it to become rich because that's never going to happen. We do it to make the world a little bit better.