Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

How do you feel when you tell people what you do for a job?

I am proud to tell people that I’m a teacher. I think I’m proud to say that because I know the teaching is a job that not everybody can do. I’ve always been proud to be a teacher, but I think ever since Covid, I’ve been even more so. I think when a lot of American parents saw their students working virtually during the pandemic, they gained a new deal of respect for what I do.

But the pay sucks

Yes, it’s true. Teachers are underpaid. At least, here in America they are. But the truth is, I didn’t get into teaching because I thought it would be a “upwardly mobile“ career track. I got a teaching because I love to read and write and talk to people about it and share what I’ve learned with others. I love seeing that lightbulb go on over a students head when they have learned something new.

And the fact it is, everybody has stories about teachers they’ve had, good or bad. When are people like to admitted or not, certain teachers stay with a person forever.

Yeah, but you get summers off 

Yes, I know. Teachers get summers off for summer vacation. But many people in my profession take up a second job. Often times, teachers in need this summer to decompress us, especially from a particularly stressful school year.

I think it’s also important to keep in mind that teachers don’t have the ability to just leave for work early one day because I feel like it. And I can’t just roll into work late with the intention of staying later in the day either. We have a set schedule. While teachers can get substitute to film for them, in all honesty, it’s probably more work to prepare for a sub than it is to occasionally suck it up and grind out a school day when you’re feeling a little bit under the weather.

I think one thing that a lot of people don’t understand about teachers is that we really don’t have the opportunity to speak to her coworkers throughout the day. Yes, we’ll occasionally have meetings together, and engage in some small talk in the hallways. But the fact of the matter is, we spend most of our days socializing with adolescents or young children. with all due respect to the younger generations, communicating with young people all day as a mind-numbing activity.

But I love it. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything else in the world. Well, maybe being a baseball player would be cool. But I worked an office gig once. While doing some of the things that I could not do as a teacher were nice, there was a lack of continuity over the course of the year. Days rolled into weeks. Weeks rolled in the months, and months rolled into a year. At least with teaching, there is a sense of continuity with the beginning of the school year, the middle and the end.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Rob and the 100% Policy (Season 2 Premiere)
• 12 Years Later: The Low, Quiet Hum
• Season Two Trailer is Live!
• When “Fine” Isn’t Fine: Armor, Bullshit, and the Strategic Lie
• The 60 Minute Myth

The article “I love my job” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob