I was a child fortunate enough to know what profession I wanted to go into from a young age. I want to be a teacher and every time that I tell someone what my decided major is, I get one of a few answers. These are just some of the reactions that education majors have heard one thousand times. In no particular order, here are 9 things that education majors are sick and tired of hearing when we tell you that we want to become a teacher.

1. Isn’t that nice, but you know there’s no money in teaching right?

This must be the most frequent thing that we hear going into the education major. Trust us, you’re not the first to point this out to us, we are well aware that we won’t be “making bank.” It’s a good thing that we aren’t in it for the money then right? Most of us just have a passion for helping people, and changing kids’ lives for the better. I know that what I want to do.

2. Wow, you must be a really patient person

I have a good amount of patience for my future students. I will try my best to stay calm in all the ridiculous situations that they might put me in in my classroom, but right now my patience is running real low with you and this reaction to my career choice.

3. You must really like kids.

I do like kids; I don’t see any point in going into the field of education if you want nothing to do with kids of any age. There’s no reason to have this reaction since pretty much all teachers like kids, at least when they are starting out. If you’re in this major, chances are you love kids.

4. How could you want to spend your whole day around kids?

Maybe it’s a doctor or an accountant or someone in literally any other field asking you this question. As a counter I say, “how could want to spend your whole day around sick people, or numbers?” It’s the same thing; you chose your profession because you like helping people get better or make more money. I chose mine because I like helping kids reach their full potential and get smarter.

5. At least you get a long summer vacation!

Contrary to popular belief, a lot of us didn’t get into teaching solely because we get a good summer break. Not only are we not going to get paid for those three months, unless we decide to go back and teach summer school, we still have to spend at least some of that time preparing for the next school year.

6. Anyone can teach, it’s easy!

I’m glad that you think controlling a room full of teenagers and trying to get them to pay attention to something that probably less than half of them are actually interested in is easy. Not to mention, it is a miracle if you can get an entire class of high school students to hand in a homework assignment the day that it is actually due. Think back to your time in school and think about all the grief you and your classmates put your teacher through. Yup, that’s what I’m signing up for. Hopefully I won’t get kids that are as sassy as you. If it’s so easy, you do it.

7. That’s nice; you only have to work for the school day.

If you think a teacher’s day is done, then you’ve got another thing coming buddy. I’m about to blow your mind. A teacher generally doesn’t have time during the day to correct the assignments that they collect from their class since they are busy teaching, so look at that, we have homework too. We also have to make lesson plans so that what we are teaching is written down and understandable just in case we need to have a substitute plan. There are days that we will have to come in early or stay late for extra help, we’ll have teachers meetings and parent teacher conferences. Standing in front of a classroom and lecturing isn’t what makes a teacher a teacher. Also lectures are boring, so there’s that.

8. There are enough teachers out there; you know you’ll never get a job

Thanks for trying to discourage me from making the world a slightly better place. There will always be a need for teachers somewhere because there will always be children and we no longer live in a world where people only need an education up to the fifth grade level. I’ll do my best to get a job, if you do your best to stop bugging me, deal?

9. Wow, my kid hates the teacher that they have for (insert your subject here) right now!

Well then I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not that teacher. I’m sure that there are plenty of reasons as to why your child may not like their teacher, such as; they don’t like the work load, they don’t watch enough movies in that class, they don’t care for the subject as a whole, or they aren’t allowed to have their phones out in that class. You’re child not liking a teacher that teaches the same subject area that I want to go into is not relevant to my life in any way, shape, or form. I most likely don’t know that person and their teaching isn’t really affecting me in any way. Thanks for your input though.