I am an education major. I have a serious passion for seeing that lightbulb go off in a child's mind when they finally grasp a difficult concept. No matter how cliché it sounds, I believe that I can make a difference in the lives of children.
When I tell people about my major, though, I see the look in their eyes. They look at me with worry and skepticism. Many of them bring up random statistics they’ve heard about job prospects and retention rates. Many throw numbers and percentages at me, and others just give me a vague anecdote from an article they once read. Although this information can scare away many prospective teachers, I have to say that they don’t scare me. I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.
One of the statistics I hear most often sounds something like, “Almost all new teachers leave the profession in their first five years on the job.” Well, if we’re being exact here, in 2013 data revealed that somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers left within their first five years on the job, and 9.5 percent of them left before the end of their first year as a teacher. This data was gathered in a 2003 study by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. This data also pointed toward the fact that teacher turnover rates were 4 percent higher than turnover rates of any other occupation.
However, in the last two years, new data has shown that this number is much lower than we had originally thought. When researchers looked at the national data from the 2007-08 school year through the 2011-12 school year, they found that only about 17 percent of teachers left teaching within their first five years on the job. So, almost all teachers don’t leave within their first five years. But even if almost all of them did leave, it still wouldn’t scare me away.
What about job prospects? People always tell me, “I wanted to be a teacher, but I knew I’d never be able to get a job, so I didn’t do it.” I never let those things bother me, though. I knew that everyone thought teaching jobs were hard to come by, but I didn’t mind listening to everyone worry about me because teaching is what I love. Are teaching jobs really that hard to come by? Will it really be that hard for me to get a job? Turns out, the answer is no. The United States is actually going through a teacher shortage right now. According to one study, it’s estimated that U.S. schools were short around 60,000 teachers in 2015. It was also estimated that unless these trends change, these numbers could continue to increase to more than 100,000 teachers by 2018. So, the job market for teachers is actually wide open right now and will continue to open up over the next few years. However, even before I knew about the teacher shortage, I wasn’t worried about becoming a teacher.
I am not a statistic. I am not defined by numbers and percentages in a study somewhere on the Internet. I am a person, a student, an educator and someone who cares. I didn’t go into education for the money, the benefits, or even the job security. I went into education because I have a genuine passion for teaching. I have a genuine passion for helping students succeed. I don’t flinch at the sound of teacher statistics about retention rates and job prospects. I don’t get angry when people throw statistics and uncertainty at me. I take a look at what I can do with my career and I see all of the children I could help, and that’s enough to keep me invested.
Many people will say that I won’t always be this passionate, or that I’ll get burned out eventually, but I am optimistic. I believe that this is truly something I want to pursue and always will. I have had the pleasure of working with kids from all walks of life, and I don’t even have my teaching certificate yet. I have already had the opportunity to help children in many different circumstances, and I like to think that I will do so much more in my future. And take my word for it -- no statistic is going to change that.
