People choose a career in teaching for many different reasons, and if you are thinking of getting into teaching, you will have reasons of your Own. You might be a pushover for kids; you might think that a mind is a terrible thing to waste; you might love the academic life; or you just might not have a burning desire to do anything in particular and teaching seems like the easiest way to go.
Every reason for becoming a teacher–with the exception of the last, because you will be in for a rude awakening if you really think teaching is easy–is as worthy as every other, but all of them should be rooted in an unbridled enthusiasm for being allowed to participate in the emotional and intellectual maturing of others.
If you know you have that unbridled enthusiasm, there are some suggestions which will get you started on your way:
1. Just in case your unbridled enthusiasm is more a product of you imagination than your real-world experience, start taking every opportunity you can to work with children. Hire on at a summer camp; be the neighborhood babysitter; be a public pool lifeguard; help with the local Brownie or Campfire Girl troop. Try to spend time with kids of different ages, so you’ll find the group for which you have the best affinity.
2. After you know the age group with which your style is most effective, you’ll have a better idea of whether you should concentrate on elementary or secondary education. To teach any age group through middle school, you would get a degree in elementary education; for high school you should get a degree in the subject which you would most enjoy teaching.
3. Do some research on the teacher certification requirements for the state in which you’ll be teaching. While all states now require that their public school teachers have bachelor’s degrees, not all states have the same teacher certification standards, and some of them will even let you qualify for a teaching credential after you have begun your teaching career.
4. While you are an undergraduate studying for your bachelor’s degree, work as a teacher’s assistant or, if you can swing it, a substitute teacher. There is nothing like classroom experience to give you a very clear understanding of what teaching entails and whether or not it is the career you’ve been imagining it to be. And the experience will look great on your resume.
5. Teaching jobs can, in spite of what you may have heard, be hard to come by, especially in some well-funded school districts. You will find your college’s campus career counseling service invaluable in helping you do job searches for teaching positions and hooking you up with school districts conducting interviews.
