To ask who would be a teacher?

[hatchibombatour]

I am a senior manager in healthcare and in my mid 40s. It's something I fell into, I'm not actually qualified to do anything - my degree and MA are in non-vocational subjects. I have been unhappy for a long time and want to get out. I'd like to do something meaningful and 'real'. I've often thought about teaching, it's often been suggested to me, but been put off.

I've read threads on here where teachers warn against joining teaching. I'm not afraid of hard work, I work hard at the moment, and long hours. I know I've got transferable skills. I do volunteer reading at a local primary school and love it, love spending time with the children and seeing how they improve, helping them to improve. I appreciate teaching and volunteer reading are entirely different things, and I don't know if I would want to do primary or secondary (I have an absolute passion for English language and literature).

I've had a recent lightbulb moment, thought JFDI! Would I be completely nuts?

[Nectarines]

I'm in the minority who love teaching. There's a lot of crap sides to the job but they're outweighed by the positives.

[Redsrule]

Love it, again secondary English, but have seen so many peoples' mental health destroyed. I am HOD in an outstanding secondary and seldom work less than 60 hrs a week. During exam season I was in weekends/ half term and the marking load was horrendous. It is a big decision but the good times are amazing!

[ScarletSienna]

What Somewhatidiosyncratic said really sums up why I had to leave state sector teaching:
'Entering the profession in the early 2000s, I knew it wasn't an easy option, and being a new teacher the planning was laborious, but what you had to do was pretty well connected to the job. Now the paperwork and back covering has exploded. Everything has to be created on powerpoint because the textbooks are decrepit, out of date and out of fashion anyway and the printing/ photocopying budget minimal. Classroom stationary has to be supplied yourself as there's no budget for it. Hard earned benefits such as restrictions on cover on planning time have been eroded by academisation and lack of funding.'

I taught in state primaries for 10 years and then for my mental health, family life and general happiness, I left. Two of the main reasons were data targets I was being set were mathematically not achievable and so few of the hours I was working outside of school to fulfil SLT demands seemed to have any impact on the pupils.

None of the friends I made when teacher training are still teaching full time (apart from those in the independent sector) and out of all teachers I previously have worked with, only three still are.

I do love teaching. I ended up hating the job.

[Twofurrycats]

I loved teaching - the actual teaching bit with children. The rest became more and more of a nonsense. I left due to taking over a family business and was glad to after 20 years. I recently met up with my old colleagues - they are all looking for a way out. Supply, private, other jobs, anything.

[Barbie222]

I've been teaching since 2001 and have managed to invent a few shortcuts along the way so perhaps I have a bit more time than others do but it does mean working every evening after the kids are in bed if you are full time. I'm not sure I work that hard in the holidays though - I have three young DCs so can't do as much as I used to. It's definitely taught me a few things about how to manage your time!