A while back, I received the following message from a reader friend on Facebook:
Hi! I’m 20 years old and I currently attend community college. I am torn between teaching early childhood education and secondary. I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now, hoping it would give me some insight to the high school English teacher life and help me to make my decision. I was wondering if you’d be able to tell me (or make a post even!) about how you knew this was for you, or if you juggled between any age groups like I am…
And here’s how I responded:
Hey! Thanks so much for your message! I’m so glad you’ve found my blog helpful, and I’m super happy for you as you begin a career in education. It is a life well spent. 🙂
To answer your question, it took me a while to admit to myself that I wanted to be a teacher, but I once I finally committed, there was never any doubt that I wanted to teach high school English. I’ve always been an avid reader and writer, and I had fantastic English teachers in high school that really inspired me. To be honest, I don’t think I ever even considered teaching anything else.
Since that may not be super helpful to you (haha), I will say a few things that “confirmed” my decision… Mainly, my mom was an elementary school teacher for 30 years, so I’d seen that life a lot. I valued her work SO much, but just knew I could never do it… I also spent some time substituting at her school while I was getting my master’s, and did NOT love younger kids…. That probably sounds awful, but it’s the truth. (My two are at home are enough for me!)
On the other hand, I was a Young Life leader in college (which is a ministry for high school students), and I knew I was naturally more drawn to high school students – I really like what a formative time the teenage years are, and I enjoyed being challenged by them and being able to have “real” conversations about books and life.
This is probably WAY over simplifying, but from what I can tell, elementary teachers REALLY love kids. They get to know a smaller group of students each year (and their parents) really well and cover LOTS of different subjects and skills. From my limited experience, they are “on” ALL day at work. Elementary school teachers hardly get any breaks during the day and are “needed” by a room full of little kids from 7:30 – 2:30. It requires a lot of energy and a wide breadth of knowledge. The reward, of course, is that you get to see TONS of “lightbulb moments” – kids literally grow up before your eyes – and YOU get to lay the foundation for the education they receive and shape who they will become from the VERY beginning. That’s huge!
High school teachers love teenagers (I, personally, think you have to); BUT, they also love their subject matter. Some might disagree with me, but I think our day to day is a little less draining… We get more breaks during the day (not tons, but usually at least five minutes between classes and around an hour of planning), and there is time during most blocks where students can work independently/ they don’t need 100% of my attention 100% of the time. In addition, while I teach more total students (usually between 75 – 150 students a semester), I have to keep attention for a shorter amount of time (45 minutes – 90 minutes a day or every other day) and can often “re-use” plans from one class to another (most – but definitely not all – secondary teachers have at least two blocks of the same class). THAT SAID, I think I probably bring home more work than lower grade levels; and, for sure, the grading aspect of my job is more time and focus intensive (the difference between a 5-page research paper and a one-page handwriting sheet, for example).
Do either of those things resonate with you more? Ultimately, I really think it’s a matter of what you are most passionate about, where you are most comfortable, and what you see your life like down the road. Both teaching roles are SO important, but very different. I hope this helps a little!! ~E
So, there you go. I’d love to hear from others about how you made this decision – especially those of you that have made a different decision from mine. Do you agree with what I said about the difference between teaching secondary and primary grade levels? How did you choose?!?