One thing this made me think about is how teaching is one of the few jobs where things going slightly wrong can still become part of the work. I’m an experienced teacher and I still make mistakes, lessons don’t always go to plan, and explanations don’t always land first time. But I’m still amazed by how often good learning comes from struggling through something alongside the students, despite your best intentions. I’m not sure you can say that about many other careers.
Yes! I especially love writing with them and showing my thought process, my mistakes, my wonderings. The classroom is a like live performance that can change on a moments notice. I love that about it!
I love struggling with my students - as we all try to piece together a larger problem, or all crowd on the elevator to check to see the changes in their weight on the force plate. There's so much good that can come from students seeing teachers want to learn as well.
I always tell my students they shouldn’t mess with me because I decided that I want to wake up every day and come to high school for the rest of my life. That’s the kind of crazy you don’t want to mess with haha!
I just began my master’s degree in education and we discussed this essay in one of my classes. Your words spoke to every teacher in the room. Thank you for writing!
I really love how you described this job. I am currently at English Philology with Teaching Specialisation (Master's) and on one of the subjects (Pedagogics) we talked about that when teaching not all the outcomes will be visible right away (especially when it comes to teaching values, moral rules and so on). You earned yourself a subscriber❤️ Hope to find more Substack posts about how to teach like this one
Tomorrow is the first day of school where I teach, I have been sitting in front of my laptop for a few hours already with the intention of creating a PowerPoint presentation, but for some reason I just couldn’t find the motivation to start. Then, I decided to open this app and I came across this majestic piece, and somehow somewhere along the lines, I found myself again. Thanks for this wonderful piece! This helped me in ways I didn’t know I needed. 💗
I liked it a lot. Just a comment for your point that teaching should be your first choice: i became a teacher after several years in science (post-docs) and I think it made me approach teaching differently from the „career“-teachers. Many of whom only ever knew school, some Uni and then back to school. They lack the perspective of competition and collaboration at work. I have very little abstract knowledge in pedagogy, i make it up as I feel, but i always take my students serious. As people who can make their own choices and who deserve to be taken serious. Many of my colleagues „guide“ them. Anyway, it want to stress that there are many ways to become a good teacher, sometimes not the direct route.
I apologize if I gave that impression - teaching was somewhere in my plan, but wasn't the first thing I did. I got at this later in another piece, and I 100% agree with you - people coming into teaching laterally, with life experience, are often amazing.
Beautiful post. I’m a teacher, and recently added a masters in school counseling. Next year, I’ll be in a role that combines both. At the same time, I’ve created a substack newsletter on the side (Wine Notes) that I wonder how I’ll sustain next year when I try to balance all of it; I’m grateful for what you shared about taking care of ourselves (making the job fit us) so we can keep showing up for our students. Please keep writing!
Nailed it. So many layers. I just read your article aloud to my fellow-30-year-educator husband and we paused nearly every sentence connecting to moments across our careers - until he’d say, “ok- keep reading!” Thank you for so beautifully capturing the lived experience of becoming a teacher.
thanks for sharing that. I'm glad it connected. I just felt that after seeing us all get beaten up so much, honestly, by all sides, I wanted to give a full-throated defense of why you should do this job.
Had my father not said, “You can do better than that,” when I said I wanted to teach English as a 17 year old heading off to college, I would not, 40 years later, still dream about teaching. I am taking steps to do it now as I wind down a career as a lawyer — pay I still need to get kids through college. But I plan to make it my second career. For many of the reasons you describe. And I will now be following you!
Sometimes I think about becoming an English teacher. I notice that a lot of kids in my class aren’t interested in writing and I want to get them interested in it.
I'm wrapping up year 34 of teaching English and have agreed to come back next year for year 35. My wife teaches as well, though she started later than me. She's coming back too. We were just talking animatedly about what we're planning to do differently next year. I relate to and feel the truth of everything here. One of my early years of teaching involved students who told me they wanted to get me to quit or get fired. I didn't love the job then. I don't love the job every day now. But when it works, there is nothing, absolutely nothing like it. And if you're doing it right, there is endless opportunity to keep getting better at it. Thanks for writing this piece! It makes me feel like I'm not crazy for returning again - despite being old enough to retire now!
You're so not crazy! I think I said somewhere in this thread that I came in lateral entry at 40, so my age cohort is starting to retire, and I feel like I'm just getting started. The kids, man - they keep you young.
I’m in an undergrad education program now and this sums up my reasons for wanting to be a teacher. It’s one of the only career paths I’ve seen myself taking. I’ve been told that an English/education degree is “useless” (by a professor no less.) or that I could “do so much more” as if that’s a conclusion to a persons assumed intelligence and influence. I know it’ll be hard, I know there will be challenges, but knowing I can touch a few lives and give them skills to build on to make a better world one day is amazing. Teaching gets such a bed rep sometimes (or honestly most of the time) but I think there’s more to it than what meets the eye. Even if I don’t teach for life, that’s just fine because I know I had a hand in something bigger than me.
Oof - that last line. Yeah - that's the stuff. We just watched The Martian in my chemistry classes, and when he thinks he's going to die (for real this time) Watney says the same thing. It's a good reason to work at anything.
One thing this made me think about is how teaching is one of the few jobs where things going slightly wrong can still become part of the work. I’m an experienced teacher and I still make mistakes, lessons don’t always go to plan, and explanations don’t always land first time. But I’m still amazed by how often good learning comes from struggling through something alongside the students, despite your best intentions. I’m not sure you can say that about many other careers.
Yes! I especially love writing with them and showing my thought process, my mistakes, my wonderings. The classroom is a like live performance that can change on a moments notice. I love that about it!
I love struggling with my students - as we all try to piece together a larger problem, or all crowd on the elevator to check to see the changes in their weight on the force plate. There's so much good that can come from students seeing teachers want to learn as well.
I always tell my students they shouldn’t mess with me because I decided that I want to wake up every day and come to high school for the rest of my life. That’s the kind of crazy you don’t want to mess with haha!
I am stealing that right here, right now.
I just began my master’s degree in education and we discussed this essay in one of my classes. Your words spoke to every teacher in the room. Thank you for writing!
Wow! Thanks for letting me know about that - glad it made an impact.
I really love how you described this job. I am currently at English Philology with Teaching Specialisation (Master's) and on one of the subjects (Pedagogics) we talked about that when teaching not all the outcomes will be visible right away (especially when it comes to teaching values, moral rules and so on). You earned yourself a subscriber❤️ Hope to find more Substack posts about how to teach like this one
We plant seeds of the trees under whose shade we’ll never sit.
Tomorrow is the first day of school where I teach, I have been sitting in front of my laptop for a few hours already with the intention of creating a PowerPoint presentation, but for some reason I just couldn’t find the motivation to start. Then, I decided to open this app and I came across this majestic piece, and somehow somewhere along the lines, I found myself again. Thanks for this wonderful piece! This helped me in ways I didn’t know I needed. 💗
Wow. Don’t know what to say - thank you, and good luck. You got this!
I liked it a lot. Just a comment for your point that teaching should be your first choice: i became a teacher after several years in science (post-docs) and I think it made me approach teaching differently from the „career“-teachers. Many of whom only ever knew school, some Uni and then back to school. They lack the perspective of competition and collaboration at work. I have very little abstract knowledge in pedagogy, i make it up as I feel, but i always take my students serious. As people who can make their own choices and who deserve to be taken serious. Many of my colleagues „guide“ them. Anyway, it want to stress that there are many ways to become a good teacher, sometimes not the direct route.
I apologize if I gave that impression - teaching was somewhere in my plan, but wasn't the first thing I did. I got at this later in another piece, and I 100% agree with you - people coming into teaching laterally, with life experience, are often amazing.
One of the most interesting jobs on a daily basis. No two classes are the same. No day is the same. Everything is in flux and developing.
it keeps our brains young!
Beautiful post. I’m a teacher, and recently added a masters in school counseling. Next year, I’ll be in a role that combines both. At the same time, I’ve created a substack newsletter on the side (Wine Notes) that I wonder how I’ll sustain next year when I try to balance all of it; I’m grateful for what you shared about taking care of ourselves (making the job fit us) so we can keep showing up for our students. Please keep writing!
Balancing is the tough thing, and I am to keep writing. Congrats on the new position!
Nailed it. So many layers. I just read your article aloud to my fellow-30-year-educator husband and we paused nearly every sentence connecting to moments across our careers - until he’d say, “ok- keep reading!” Thank you for so beautifully capturing the lived experience of becoming a teacher.
thanks for sharing that. I'm glad it connected. I just felt that after seeing us all get beaten up so much, honestly, by all sides, I wanted to give a full-throated defense of why you should do this job.
I'm 49 and studying pedagogy.
Had my father not said, “You can do better than that,” when I said I wanted to teach English as a 17 year old heading off to college, I would not, 40 years later, still dream about teaching. I am taking steps to do it now as I wind down a career as a lawyer — pay I still need to get kids through college. But I plan to make it my second career. For many of the reasons you describe. And I will now be following you!
Thanks for the kind words (and the follow) - so glad this resonated with you and hope your path to the classroom is as smooth as it can be!
Sometimes I think about becoming an English teacher. I notice that a lot of kids in my class aren’t interested in writing and I want to get them interested in it.
Go for it! Teaching kids to get good at human expression and passing their thoughts down through the years? What's bad about that?
Beautiful! I’m going to read this to my seniors tomorrow.
How'd it go?
I'm wrapping up year 34 of teaching English and have agreed to come back next year for year 35. My wife teaches as well, though she started later than me. She's coming back too. We were just talking animatedly about what we're planning to do differently next year. I relate to and feel the truth of everything here. One of my early years of teaching involved students who told me they wanted to get me to quit or get fired. I didn't love the job then. I don't love the job every day now. But when it works, there is nothing, absolutely nothing like it. And if you're doing it right, there is endless opportunity to keep getting better at it. Thanks for writing this piece! It makes me feel like I'm not crazy for returning again - despite being old enough to retire now!
You're so not crazy! I think I said somewhere in this thread that I came in lateral entry at 40, so my age cohort is starting to retire, and I feel like I'm just getting started. The kids, man - they keep you young.
I’m in an undergrad education program now and this sums up my reasons for wanting to be a teacher. It’s one of the only career paths I’ve seen myself taking. I’ve been told that an English/education degree is “useless” (by a professor no less.) or that I could “do so much more” as if that’s a conclusion to a persons assumed intelligence and influence. I know it’ll be hard, I know there will be challenges, but knowing I can touch a few lives and give them skills to build on to make a better world one day is amazing. Teaching gets such a bed rep sometimes (or honestly most of the time) but I think there’s more to it than what meets the eye. Even if I don’t teach for life, that’s just fine because I know I had a hand in something bigger than me.
Oof - that last line. Yeah - that's the stuff. We just watched The Martian in my chemistry classes, and when he thinks he's going to die (for real this time) Watney says the same thing. It's a good reason to work at anything.
I would advise against this in 2026