Teachers had to earn their degrees and other credentials. 

And that includes graduate education. Because of that, we understand child development, how to teach both academics and emotional intelligence, and how to work as a team with the parents and students. We plan curriculum and daily provocations, keep up with state standards for both academics and social and emotional development, and observe each child’s growth to make sure that they are thriving and learning exactly as they should be. 

We plan individualized, differentiated instruction.

Our days aren’t spent simply making sure that the kids are fed, watered, and entertained (which is exactly what I did as a teenage babysitter). Teachers are planning and organizing daily, weekly, and monthly throughout the entire year to provide individualized lesson plans and provocations to each and every student. We see that every student is working to meet our personal teaching standards, the school’s standards, and the many, many state standards. 

We work 50+ hours a week.

Even on vacation, I’ll answer parent emails. I’ll stay with a student if their parent is running late. And I’ll worry at night about how their week has been, because a family transition has thrown off their entire world. We have to establish trusting and supportive relationships with the students, their parents, and our colleagues. Teachers work a lot, and we absolutely love it, or we wouldn’t be doing it. 

We undergo rigorous professional development.

In Colorado, that professional development is 90 hours every five years, or about 18 hours per year. On top of that, we also have to keep up with trainings regarding safety, like CPR, first aid, and mandated reporting. So not only are teachers required to, well, teach, but they are also there to make sure that 20+ students remain safe under our care.

Of course, the reality is we get paid less than babysitters.

When I was babysitting in high school, around 2005, I got paid $10 an hour for two children, ages one and three. Say I babysat four or five kids, I’d bump that up to $20 an hour. That means that overall, my rate for one child was five dollars an hour. Currently, I have 15 students for about four hours a day. Fifteen kids at five dollars an hour for four hours comes out to $300 per day. If you split that between my co-teacher and me, we get $150 for four hours and 15 students. As a teacher, am I making $300 a day? No, not even close. 

Have I thought about switching back to babysitting or nannying? Of course, but I like my job too much and know how important it is. 

What are your thoughts when people say that teaching young children is just like babysitting? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, why teachers quit.

Reference: https://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-is-not-babysitting/?fbclid=IwAR0r3zWfgRrVIuttR5sGsjxYbkK5x1_csNv5OfVXA9nhaAlXQ-HnNUSW16M

The celebration of Pride and Juneteenth offers an opportunity for reflection on intersecting identities and highlights the need to support and make space for Black LGBTQ youth.

Pride and Juneteenth both celebrate and honor marginalized communities’ resistance while underscoring a troubling truth: the historical perpetuation and ongoing exacerbation of racism and queerphobia in the United States.

The history of the Pride movement tells us about LGBTQ people who resisted and protested oppression. Through the late 1960s, law enforcement consistently raided queer establishments simply to destroy LGBTQ-friendly spaces. On June 28, 1969, hundreds of LGBTQ people of color, especially Black and Brown transgender women, led a major action against the NYPD in Greenwich Village at the Stonewall Inn. In many ways, Stonewall is an invitation to reflect on the struggles and triumphs of LGBTQ people, especially those with multiple marginalized identities. But Stonewall wasn’t the first instance of resistance.

Even before the Stonewall Uprisings, which occurred over several days in June 1969, we witnessed LGBTQ people, including Black and Brown people, actively resisting government interference, state violence and interpersonal harm. Ten years before Stonewall, in 1959, Cooper Donuts Riot was a relatively small uprising in Los Angeles in response to law enforcement harassment. In 1966, at Compton Cafeteria, transgender and nonbinary individuals resisted police violence after vehement anti-trans harassment. And in 1967—two years before the Stonewall Uprisings—the LAPD entered the Black Cat Tavern, intruding upon an LGBTQ safe space and arresting patrons, which led to an organized protest.

Like Pride, Juneteenth for me as a Black queer person is also an invitation to reflect on the systemic ills of white supremacy and cultural hegemony. With its origins in Texas, Juneteenth is one of the oldest commemorations of the end of slavery in the U.S. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control, nor did it apply to border states. The 13th Amendment officially ended slavery in the U.S. on January 31, 1865, and for Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, freedom finally came on June 19, 1865. However, it is important to note that Black Americans were enslaved in Delaware until December 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was finally ratified.

Pride and Juneteenth both remind us of how government control over the lives, health and autonomy of LGBTQ, Black and other marginalized populations is deeply rooted in the history of this nation. It’s no secret that the Black LGBTQ community is overpoliced, and not just in terms of police and state violence, which we know is a persistent and deadly issue—but in terms of policing our autonomy, our lives and our identities.

On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and held that the right to an abortion is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. Despite the legal right to safe abortion being the law of the land since 1973, this court decided to restrict, not expand, rights. In many ways, this is deeply connected to recent anti-transgender legislation that prevents access to medical care. These legislations disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and other people of color; LGBTQ people; and poor people—communities whose lives and bodies have been, and continue to be, heavily policed. That’s why understanding the Black LGBTQ experience means we cannot silo our identities.

LGBTQ people are not political wedge issues, but real people with real experiences. Our stories intersect not only across struggles, but across the landscape of American history and our united future.  

Despite that, Black LGBTQ people are often told we must separate parts of ourselves to be accepted, or at the very least decide which identity holds more weight. This is a dangerous and false dichotomy. But until I learned about, and fully grappled with, intersectionality, I once fell victim to that narrative. I now enter all spaces as both Black and queer, and it’s the only way I’m interested in showing up. It’s also now what I mean when I say I need my Pride to be Black and my Juneteenth to be queer.

As a Black queer person, I am thankful that I can now say I see the importance of Juneteenth as much as I have seen the importance of Pride Month. It isn’t that I didn’t believe Juneteenth was a necessary day to remember—it’s that I didn’t hear of it until 2018.  Amid protests against anti-Black police violence in 2020 and 2021 and the recognition of a very public discussion about Juneteenth, I pretended I knew all about this day for several years before I did. Black people who believe in freedom and liberation are often expected—or believe that we are expected—to know everything about the Black diaspora, and moments of embarrassment start to reverberate when we realize the world is bigger than the totality of what our brains may hold. Then, I had to give myself grace for why I didn’t hear of this now federally recognized holiday.

The truth is that white supremacy has worked overtime to hide information from Black people and other marginalized communities. Many Black people only learning about Juneteenth within the last couple of years is hardly different from the delayed information communicated to formerly enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. Lack of access to information is not accidental, and this year we are seeing deliberate attempts of silencing play out in real time in ways that harm LGBTQ youth of color.

At the same time laws like “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” were being proposed, we were also witnessing bans on LGBTQ stories and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Challenges to books about sex and sexuality and racial identity are nothing new in American schools, but the tactics and intense politicization are. In 2021, books about Black and LGBTQ people were among those most challenged, which we know can doubly impact Black LGBTQ people who want nothing more than to have their stories heard. It’s important for us to see ourselves represented.

In 2022, The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth, has tracked the filing of more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills, most of which impact transgender and nonbinary young people. LGBTQ youth are listening and watching as these politically unpopular and misguided policies are being debated in state legislatures across the country. And these political attacks are taking a toll on their mental health.

According to a recent poll conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The Trevor Project, 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth—and nearly two-thirds of all LGBTQ youth—say recent debates about anti-trans laws have negatively impacted their mental health. Additionally, our 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide, and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers. These mental health disparities are explained by the Minority Stress Model, which suggests that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide, but placed at higher risk because experiences of LGBTQ-based victimization—and the internalization of these experiences and anti-LGBTQ messages—can compound and produce negative mental health outcomes. This makes discussion of systemic oppression crucial for suicide prevention among marginalized communities.

Support goes a long way to saving LGBTQ youth lives, especially support from parents and caregivers. Supportive actions taken by parents and caregivers were associated with lower suicide risk among LGBTQ youth. Talking with youth respectfully about their LGBTQ identity was associated with over 40% lower odds of a suicide attempt in the past year among all LGBTQ youth. It is especially important to have supportive parents or caregivers at a time lawmakers are trying to pretend LGBTQ people don’t exist.

Even if one isn’t a parent or caregiver, it’s still on all of us to provide space for Black LGBTQ youth. This is not just important during June, but every day of the year. LGBTQ people are not political wedge issues, but real people with real experiences. Our stories intersect not only across struggles, but across the landscape of American history and our united future. 

Reference: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/my-pride-is-black-my-juneteenth-is-queer?utm_source=Learning+for+Justice&utm_campaign=deb422f272-Newsletter-6-22-2022_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a8cea027c3-deb422f272-101991166

Have you ever been spanked? Have you ever spanked kids? It was common here in Taiwan when I was a girl. Now, we promote child protection. We apply positive discipline. We started changing this weird idea of spanking.

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[This post is about the practice of hitting children to modify their behavior, usually referred to as “spanking.” I choose not to use that term here, in part because I feel it minimizes the seriousness of bodily violence against children, and also because the term has been co-opted to refer to a type of consensual sexual play. Instead, I use other terms like “hitting,” “physical punishment,” and “corporal punishment.” Also content notice: There are references to violence and slavery in this post.]

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Almost every caregiver has experienced that emergency that makes them want to impulsively discipline their child. For example, your child chases a ball into the street, directly into traffic, unaware of the oncoming truck. You bolt after them, grab them by the arm, and rush both of you to the sidewalk. You’ve just saved your child from getting injured, or worse. You’re terrified and possibly angry, too. For some adults, this intense activation leads them to strike a child.

“Now, why would you hit them?” Elizabeth Gershoff said to me when we discussed the effects of physical force on children. Gershoff is a professor of Human Development and Families Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. For the past 20 years, along with collaborators at other universities, she has been a leading researcher documenting the harmful effects of hitting children for “discipline.”

“I agree we need to get the child out of the street,” she continued. “But the child is already scared to death. They see your fear on your face and hear it in your voice. You’re already communicating the seriousness of the behavior by your emotional expression, your words, and your tone. Those are the tools you already have to express that they cannot run into the street, that they could get badly hurt, that you’re scared, and that if they can’t keep their feet on the sidewalk, then they’ll have to go inside. There are many ways you can deal with the situation that do not require hitting them.”

“If you have to hit somebody, you have lost control,” she said.

Why do adults still hit children?

Hitting a child is a failure of the adult in many ways, Gershoff told me. Sometimes adults misunderstand a child’s behavior and ascribe the wrong intention to it. They think the child was purposely trying to make them mad, get back at them for something, show they don’t care, or even take advantage of them. But most often, what an adult calls “misbehavior” is actually just a mistake on the part of the child, Gershoff said. For example, a preschooler may not know that it’s not okay to write on a wall. To them, that big, white expanse looks like a large canvas or the easel they use at school, and they were simply inspired to color it. It can be helpful for adults to learn more about what children are capable of at different ages and channel a child’s inspiration in appropriate directions. (See some resources below.)

What many people won’t admit is that hitting a child can provide an emotional release and a fleeting sense of power for the grown-up. An adult may feel frustrated that they’ve lost control of the child, but when they strike the child, the child stops what they’re doing and usually starts crying. The adult feels vindicated by getting the child’s attention, and their pent-up frustration or anger is released. They believe “it worked,” and the strategy becomes reinforced. Many parental feelings are masked by anger—fear, alarm, loss, grief, shock, shame, etc.—and lashing out can momentarily transfer the uncomfortable energy onto the child—a much less powerful target.

Sometimes physical punishment results from an adult’s failure to supervise and plan responsibly—and maybe the feelings of shame and regret that come up when things go wrong. “Our job is to make a safe environment for children,” said Gershoff. “Why was the child near the street to begin with? Why is the pot on a stove in a position where the child can grab the handle? Why is the electrical socket uncovered? We adults are responsible for making a safe environment for children.” Of course, not every misstep can be anticipated; no parent can make the world 100% safe for their child. When accidents do happen, then, it’s the responsibility of the adult to respond in a way that doesn’t involve physical or emotional harm.

Most people who use physical force were on the receiving end of it when they were children. Studies show that children who are physically punished are more likely to perpetuate the practice as adults, believing that it’s not only normal but necessary for raising children properly. Even the small percentage of pediatricians who still support this kind of hitting—in direct opposition to the official position of the American Academy of Pediatrics—tend to be the ones who were hit as children.

“When a child hits a child, we call it aggression.
When a child hits an adult, we call it hostility.
When an adult hits an adult, we call it assault.
When an adult hits a child, we call it discipline.”

— Haim Ginott, Child Psychologist and Psychotherapist

The use of physical force against children has deep roots. Throughout history, children were objectified as sub-human, the property of adults to do with as they pleased. Maltreatment was the norm, and children were “civilized” by routine beatings and worse. In the U.S., it wasn’t until 1974 that child abuse was made illegal. Even then, it was restricted to actions (or failures to act) that caused “serious harm” or death to a child; physical force that did not cause a visible injury, and was intended to “modify behavior,” remained legal. The distinction, though, often falls to the eye of the beholder—a judge or other representative of the state.

Some communities are more apt to rely on physical punishment. Conservative Christians historically believed that children were inherently “depraved” and “filled with the devil,” requiring harsh treatment to become proper adults. Today’s Christian leadership is divided on the issue. James Dobson, therapist and founder of the Christian group, Focus on the Family, advocates the physical discipline of children as long as the adult is “calm” and hugs the child afterward. But two religious denominations, the United Methodist Church, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, passed resolutions encouraging parents to use discipline that does not involve corporal punishment.

A 2015 Pew Research Center survey showed that in the U.S., Black families use physical methods to punish their children twice as often as White or Latinx families. “Black parents have legitimate fears about the safety of their children,” writes Stacey Patton, professor at Howard University and author of Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America. “And the overwhelming majority believe physical punishment is necessary to keep Black children out of the streets, out of prison, or out of police officers’ sight…a belief [that], however heartfelt, is wrong.” She asserts that physical punishment is not a Black cultural tradition; it’s racial trauma.

Charles Blow, New York Times columnist and author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, concurs. He acknowledges that some people believe that it is better to be punished at home by someone who loves you than someone outside the home who doesn’t. But that is a “false binary between the streets and the strap,” he writes. “Love doesn’t look like that.”

Stacey Patton considers physical punishment through a historical lens: “We cannot have discussions about corporal punishment in Black communities without talking about history,” she writes. Many Black Americans are descendants of enslaved people who were abducted from West Africa. According to historians and anthropologists, there is no evidence that parents in West African societies used physical force on their children. In fact, they believed that children were gods or reincarnated ancestors, arriving from the afterlife with spiritual powers for the good of the community. Hitting a child could make their soul leave their body. But the slave trade increasingly stole younger and younger people, and by the time abolition was imminent, the average age of captives was between nine and twelve. It was impossible for young people to carry child-rearing traditions from their homeland, and once they were in America, adults were under tremendous pressure to make their children docile and compliant in front of white people in order to survive. Today, a number of Black parenting experts advocate for families to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and adopt constructive ways to guide children without physical punishment.

Why do people who were hit as children often become hitters themselves?

A common psychological defense our minds employ is to act out the hurt we’ve experienced at the hands of others by perpetrating it on other people later, even with those we love. This happens when haven’t become aware of our painful feelings or fully examined them.

Trauma experts explain why this happens. Children depend on the adults around them for survival. This dependency takes the form of attachment, something I wrote about in a previous post. So when children experience pain from the person who’s supposed to keep them safe, it’s one of the worst kinds of harm they can experience. Their nervous system, designed to keep them safe, begins to get sculpted around the constant threat, creating brain circuitries that are vigilant, reactive, and dysregulated. At the same time, their attachment system needs to keep them in the relationship, so it devises all kinds of excuses: “It’s not that bad;” “I deserved it;” “It made me a better person,” etc. In other words, children dissociate from their feelings of pain and fear.

Hitting children, even for “discipline,” is a form of trauma.

Some adults cling to the excuse that a single swat on the bottom, or one slap on the head, can’t be that bad, and is necessary to “teach them a lesson.”

“Is there any kind of hitting that works to change behavior?” I asked Gershoff.

“There’s no situation that I can imagine where physical punishment is useful or necessary,” replied Gershoff. “It doesn’t teach children to behave well. It’s not effective for reducing aggression, or teaching self-control or prosocial behavior, or any of the things parents hope to teach children. It’s not effective in either the short- or the long-term.”

Physical punishment is one of the most intensely studied aspects of parenting. Hundreds of studies over five decades have concluded that it’s harmful to children in just about every measurable way. Children’s behavior, emotions, intellectual functioning, and physical health all suffer. Gershoff’s most recent 2016 meta-analysis with Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, professor of social work at the University of Michigan, analyzed 75 studies involving 161,000 children. Three important conclusions were drawn:

First, consistent with earlier research, the analysis found no evidence that physical punishment changed the original, unwanted behavior.

Second, there were 13 significant harmful effects of the practice:

• Poorer moral reasoning
• Increased childhood aggression
• Increased antisocial behavior
• Increased externalizing behavior problems (disruptive or harmful behavior directed at other people or things)
• Increased internalizing behavior problems (symptoms of anxiety or depression)
• Child mental health problems
• Impaired parent-child relationship
• Impaired cognitive ability and impaired academic achievement
• Lower self-esteem
• More likely to be a victim of physical abuse
• Antisocial behavior in adulthood
• Mental health problems in adulthood
• Alcohol or substance abuse problems in adulthood
• Support for physical punishment in adulthood

Third, these outcomes were similar to effects of childhood trauma. A landmark set of studies in the 1990s documented that exposure to certain kinds of childhood experiences—including physical and emotional abuse or neglect, sexual abuse, domestic violence, family mental illness, incarceration, and substance abuse—causes great harm lasting into adulthood. And the more adverse experiences a child has, the greater the impact. The effects include increased risk for serious physical diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and COPD as well as early death, mental illness, suicidality, lower educational and professional attainment, and even reduced income. As a result of these findings, a ten-question screening tool known as the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Checklist is now widely used to identify risk for mental and physical illnesses due to ACEs, in the hope of providing early intervention and treatment.

Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor analyzed a subset of seven studies from their meta-analysis that compared the use of physical punishment to physical abuse and found that the impact was indistinguishable. Both physical punishment and physical abuse led to more antisocial behavior and mental health problems in childhood as well as increased mental health problems in adulthood. In a separate study, Gershoff and colleagues reanalyzed a subset of the original ACEs data and also found that physical punishment was associated with the same mental health problems in adulthood as physical and emotional abuse. In addition, it created an even greater likelihood of suicide attempts and substance abuse than physical and emotional abuse alone created.

Brain imaging studies also show a link between physical punishment and trauma. In a 2021 study, researchers showed 147 12-year-olds pictures of fearful and neutral faces while their brain activity was imaged in a functional MRI (fMRI) machine. Compared to children who were never physically punished, children who were physically punished had greater activity throughout the brain when viewing fearful faces. They also had more activity in regions of the brain related to threat appraisal, emotion regulation, and evaluating the mental state of others. Importantly, the pattern of their brain activity was the same as children who had been physically abused. When children have harmful interpersonal experiences, they become hypervigilant to the emotional expressions of others, because fearful or angry adult faces can be a cue that something bad is likely to follow. This study suggests that children who are physically punished are running the same brain circuitry as children who have been abused.

Data like this shows that the attempt to distinguish between physical punishment and physical abuse is no longer legitimate. What we now know is that inside the child, the response is the same. According to Gershoff, “Research like this may help parents understand that when they’re hitting their children, they’re causing fundamental damage to the child’s brain—not because they’re hitting them in the head. They’re hitting them in other places on their body, and it’s causing a massive stress reaction every time. And it gets worse every time it happens. That stress ramps up and ramps up and causes physical and mental health problems.” As a result, Gershoff and colleagues, and many other scientists, call for physical punishment to be identified and screened for as an additional ACE.  

Other countries are far ahead of the U.S.  

Worldwide, three out of four (close to 300 million) children two-to-four years of age are punished with violence regularly, including physical punishment or verbal abuse from parents or caregivers. In some countries, children as young as 12 months are regularly hit, according to a 2017 UNICEF study.

But momentum is growing to outlaw corporal punishment of children in all settings, including home and school. (The term “corporal punishment” is used internationally, and in the U.S. it refers to physical punishment in schools. It’s defined as the intentional use of physical force to cause pain or discomfort, or non-physical force that is cruel or degrading.) Currently, 63 countries have a full prohibition on corporal punishment, inside and outside the home. The map below shows the status of each country. (This link takes you to the interactive map, where you can find more details about each country’s progress.)

In U.S. homes, though, physical punishment remains legal in every state. Even in the case of abuse, some judges will excuse it if it was intended to “discipline” children, under a “parental discipline exemption.”

As for schools, corporal punishment is outlawed in 31 states and the District of Columbia, but it remains lawful in 19 states, in both public and private schools. Gershoff consulted with Congressman Don McEachin and Senator Chris Murphy on a bill to ban corporal punishment in schools, Protecting Our Students in Schools Act. “It didn’t get momentum,” she told me. “I don’t think people realize it’s still happening in schools, but nearly 100,000 kids get paddled with boards each year in school, primarily in states in the South.”

Even without progress at the government level, public opinion and practices are gradually changing. A U.S. study of 35-year-old parents conducted every year from 1993 to 2017 asked the question, “How often do you spank your child(ren)?” The graph below shows the decline in the percentage of parents reporting any spanking at all, from about 50% in 1993, to about 35% in 2017.  

Recently, a colleague and I were facilitating a parent meeting at a school, squeezed into child-sized chairs in a circle, when an older woman rushed in, late, and breathless. After she settled into her chair, she shared: “I’m taking care of my two grandchildren while my daughter is in jail,” she said. “I hit my own kids, and I know that’s wrong. But I don’t know what to do instead.” I was moved by her vulnerability and her determination. One of the most important jobs we have as parents and caregivers is to protect our children from our worst selves. I could see her commitment to stopping the intergenerational transmission of violence.

Parenting is hard. We love our children, we nurture their gifts, and we teach self-control and acceptable behavior. There are many positive, gentle, respectful ways of guiding them forward that begin with our own awareness, education, and self-regulation. This is a larger topic for another post, but as a starting point, I’ve listed a few of my favorite resources below.

“It took us until 1994 to ban violence against women,” Gershoff told me in closing. “Now we look back and wonder why anyone ever thought violence against women was okay. I think we’re in the middle of a similar gradual shift regarding hitting children. We’ll eventually get there, but we haven’t quite had the sea change yet. I’m hoping it will come.”        

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“…There is no ambiguity: ‘All forms of physical or mental violence’ does not leave room for any level of legalized violence against children. Corporal punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment are forms of violence and the State must take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to eliminate them.”

— United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

“Parents, other caregivers, and adults interacting with children and adolescents should not use corporal punishment (including hitting and spanking), either in anger or as a punishment for or consequence of misbehavior, nor should they use any disciplinary strategy, including verbal abuse, that causes shame or humiliation.”

— American Association of Pediatrics

“Physical discipline is not effective in achieving parents’ long-term goals of decreasing aggressive and defiant behavior in children or of promoting regulated and socially competent behavior in children….The adverse outcomes associated with physical discipline indicates that any perceived short-term benefits of physical discipline do not outweigh the detriments of this form of discipline….Caregivers [should] use alternative forms of discipline that are associated with more positive outcomes for children”

— American Psychological Association

Reference: https://www.developmentalscience.com/blog/2022/2/10/hitting-children-leads-to-trauma-not-better-behavior?fbclid=IwAR3vclN6UgvqYnjFn-dGrsthFUOEnpx4JmrDblWkeUorvkx554n1bR-8XuM

As a former school secretary who had a career change to become a classroom teacher, I’d like to say that it is better to interact with kids and teach in classroom.

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As educators, we’re acutely aware of the significant demands of teaching. When we hear people outside the profession refer to teaching as “a little bit stressful,” we can’t help but groan. Education impacts lives—not products—and it’s definitely stressful! Many teachers have opted out of the classroom for the sake of their mental health, physical health, or other reasons. Though no longer teaching in the traditional sense, some still want to remain connected to education. Here are 21 teacher jobs (many suggested by teachers on our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook) that will get you out of the classroom, but not entirely out of the education profession.

1. Educational Policy Expert

If you’re considering leaving the classroom, there’s a chance it’s because you don’t agree with a mandated policy … or 30. Be the change by becoming a policy expert, a person who has hands-on administrative experience with a desire to review and adjust policies within educational institutions.

2. Curriculum Writer/Director

Want to improve the quality of what students learn? Interested in working with teachers? Informing curriculum is a great way to directly impact what goes on in the classroom, without actually being in it!

3. Coach/Mentor

Many districts promote senior teachers to positions where they mentor and coach new and struggling teachers. Some coaches work at only one school, and some travel throughout the district. You’ll get to spend time in classrooms, but not be responsible for your own kiddos. Meghann R. reveals, “I’m a literacy coach for ELA educators. I coach teachers who are new to the profession or immensely struggling with their instructional strategies.” She started her coaching business after seeing how desperate fellow educators had become to simply keep their heads above water. “As someone who personally experienced those same struggles in my earlier years of education, I felt I could make a tremendous impact on others by offering my expertise where some are really struggling.”

4. Educational Consultant

There are several different ways in which an ed consultant helps schools and businesses. Kela L. says, “Lots of Ed-tech and consulting jobs out there that need a teacher’s experience. Think about all the software we used to transition to distance learning. All those companies are booming and may be hiring.”

5. Online Educator

Red tape and pressure still apply, but becoming an online educator has been a game changer for many people, especially now that we’ve all done it during quarantine. The pay, even when salaried, is less, but so is the stress. Kellie T. agrees. “I’m still teaching but virtually on a virtual platform. I’ve been working for a couple of years. I enjoy it because I teach what I want and how I want.”

6. Community Director

Think your local YMCA or youth center. A teacher is the perfect person to organize and facilitate educational and athletic programs and events.

7. Guidance Counselor

Guidance counselors are in a unique position to help students and make improvements to the school. While still working within a school district, counselors serve as personal advocates for students in need and are responsible for organizing programs to help the student body.

8. Education Manager

An education manager typically works within a company to facilitate teaching and learning activities. They may have administrative duties organize educational programs, obtain funding, instruct, and more! Karen L. says, “I’m an education manager for a nonprofit farm to school organization. I create, edit/revise lessons, and teach young adults how to teach garden lessons to students.”

9. Educational Curator for the Public

This role helps manage and implement educational events and programs at places like museums and zoos. Think teaching … along with animal interaction!

10. Work With Disabled Adults

Melissa M. shares, “If you have any medium to large size companies that employ people with disabilities, maybe start there. City and county offices, child protective services need SPED educated folks all the time.”

11. Event Planner

Were you the teacher who liked to plan all the events and functions at your school? If so, extend that passion in the event planning space. You’ll still get to interact with others and lead projects through to fruition.

12. Life Coach

Life coaching is similar to teaching in that you’ll be helping someone find their strengths and work to meet the goals they create. The only difference is you’ll be working with adults outside of a classroom setting.

13. Prison Educator

Many people shy away from this because they fear for their safety. Melissa E. says otherwise. “It’s a great gig! You get the best, most motivated students. They will go out of their way to keep you safe because they value you so much. Go for it!”

14. Freelance Writer

If you love to write and are a hard worker who will do the detective work to land writing gigs, then freelancing is an awesome option for you, and there are lots of education-related publishers looking for contributors. You can work from home, write when it fits your schedule, and make decent money. Susan G. says, “I became a copywriter when I retired after 32 years because I love to write and it combined my English and journalism major.”

15. Editor

If you don’t feel much like writing but still want to facilitate the distribution of content, you may want to look at becoming an editor. An editor typically works with writers to develop content that fits within the editorial guidelines of the publication (whether printed or online). Writing and management skills are a must! And if you worked within a particular subject, you may find your knowledge is even more in demand for editorial work.

16. College Academic Advisor

As a teacher, you’re well-versed at looking at the big picture when it comes to helping students succeed—both academically and personally. Being an academic advisor is often a good match for people who’ve left the teaching profession but don’t want to leave the education sector altogether. Note: Most universities prefer candidates with master’s degrees and relevant higher education experience.

17. Curriculum Service Rep

Publishing companies that create curriculum for school districts often employ former teachers as service representatives. Your job is to connect with and train educators on using the company’s products. The advantages of this position are that you get to use the knowledge you’ve gained as a classroom teacher (which makes it easier to connect with clients), you can usually work part-time, you control your schedule, and you make a lot more money.

18. Tutor

Use your expertise as an instructor and start your own tutoring business. Yes, tutoring jobs are still teacher jobs, but if you can build up your own clientele, you can make serious money, with experienced teachers charging anywhere from $35–$50 per hour. Tap into those good relationships you’ve built over the years and make the transition to working at your own pace on your own terms. Michele T. shares, “I resigned after 20 years of teaching, and I’ve never been happier! My school families started reaching out to me almost immediately to ask if I’d be interested in becoming a personal tutor for their children. I designed individual plans based on their needs.”

19. Librarian

For those who love books and/or encouraging research or a love of reading, this position might be for you! Librarians select books and educational material for schools as well as business, law, and public libraries. Generally, you’ll need a Master’s Degree in Library Science (MLS). China R. says, “Now I work in the children’s department of the local library, and I have never been happier.”

20. Health Coach

A health coach works to be a mentor and wellness authority to assist individuals in making food and lifestyle changes. Wendy A. shares, “I left teaching because I replaced my income within six months health coaching, and I am impacting so many lives. Most rewarding career I have ever had and freedom to work from anywhere.”

21. Interpreter/Translator

Did you teach a foreign language? Why not pivot that skill to being an interpreter or translator? You’ll be working on converting the spoken or written word in at least two languages, so your fluency level must be high.

Reference: https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-jobs/?fbclid=IwAR1IHlq0TCzbNYCGCHuKgZl0UmvByv2TdQ4QLpNvMt6NTWo9epzigR9RgHQ