“I want to be a teacher” is probably one of the most common ambitions we find in high school yearbooks, but in reality, it has slowly become a dying profession.
Seana Deas, once a student under the education program recalled, I nearly spent $30,000 during my last year in college just to fulfill my dream.
The money Deas was talking about was the amount she had to come up within her senior year. She spent them on credit hours at Spelman College as a student-teacher, classroom supplies during the apprenticeship, fees for certification, fees for proficiency tests, and other insurance and assessment fees.
Life of a student-teacher
The hints of the future cost of pursuing teaching start during the sophomore year of a college education. This is the time where several assessments have to be paid for. This separates those who are willing to endure the full term of their teaching dream or to shift into another profession.
A student would come to information sessions, thinking about their possibilities. Then some would say they could not have that kind of money and go into other fields. You have to lay them out the whole run-through of the education program and let them know what to expect. It is daunting but that’s the reality
-Joyce Many, associate dean for undergraduate studies and teacher preparation at Georgia State University.
Student teaching requires the same work hours of a full-time profession, it means, having to be at school before the students and stay up late until every student has gone home. It also includes having to attend parent-teacher conferences and faculty meetings.
We love our Student Teachers from the University of North Georgia! Thank you for helping our BEARS! pic.twitter.com/yAS6NcwIxZ
— Black's Mill ES (@BMES_Dawson) September 13, 2019
I was managing my time on what was important versus what I wanted. I just do not have that spare time to handle other work that generates income or spend time for my social life, says Deas.
Another aspiring story is from DeKalb County Board of Education member Joyce Morley. Morley was finishing her education degree at that time being a single parent.
I was going to school full-time, working full-time and I had a child. I worked during the day as a student-teacher, went to school at night, sacrificing time for my child. But I get inspiration by reminding myself that anything working hard for is anything worth having.
Cost of studying versus salary compensation
Despite the hardships and financial struggle of becoming a teacher, the compensation in the real world is not justifiable. In the last decade, incorporating inflation to a teacher’s salary, it has dropped around 4.5%. Meanwhile, the cost of going to college has risen with a yearly tuition increase, lodging, fees, and other school-related expenses.
Teachers hope that the government will pay attention to their salary to entice more students to proceed with an education degree. Properly addressing this issue will certainly solve the problem with the lack of teachers in the field of education.
