Originally Posted by
Aksannyi
Subjective. I went to private school and I have friends teaching at private schools now. And while the bureaucratic bullshit isn't as high in private schools, they're a lot more restrictive to their teachers. The school my BFF from high school teaches at (actually the school we went to) has a laundry list of things she can't do, such as having visible tattoos, having a child outside of marriage, being divorced, using birth control, living with a significant other, being openly gay/bi/trans/etc., the list goes on and on. For some people, those things are okay, but for me, well, I've already checked off at least half of the list. It would feel extremely restrictive to me.
I know that's not really related to the point of this thread at all, but when you said "quality of life" it gave me pause, because that's not the kind of quality of life I want when I think about entering the teaching profession. It's so funny to me, because I've never had a well-paying job, and starting teacher pay in my county is about $14,000 more than I've ever made in my life. And so my thought process is, if I can continue to live modestly with maybe a few more splurges, I'll be perfectly fine and happy making $40k/year, especially doing something that I really enjoy.
I know I'm looking at it from behind an optimistic view, as I haven't graduated yet. The teaching I've done has been limited and with supervision from another teacher. So I know things are going to change, I fully expect that. But I love teaching now, and I'm confident that won't change. Being happy with my job and making that much money, which to me has always been a lot of money (perspective is a weird thing) would be amazing.
And now back to the pessimistic view of everyone else. I'm fully aware that what I've seen is very idealized, though getting into the classrooms has always been a good reality check. So I know it's not going to be sunshine and roses, but even knowing that, I'm still excited. *shrug*