All of my carreer as a Historian, I was asked: What are you going to be when you graduate? a Teacher? And I would say, yes... but not of little kids. Another question is: What can you do besides being a teacher? Well, many things and I would continue with the discourse that in my university teachers have said to me. People, including my family (many of them are teachers... oh yes), were terrified at the vision of me being a teacher: I was going to die of hunger.
The thing is: What is the problem with being a teacher? All of the people say: It its a beutiful job, but, you are not going to be rich. Well, let me tell you someting: I studied history, I'm not going to be rich unless I own a university of something like that. Historians are not rich.... they are happy. Yes, I was, and still am an obsesive with data and work and reading and schedule, etc, etc... But I am happy, and most of my teachers who have work so hard reading and writing and all of that stuff, are happy.
You see, history is about passion, about that love that makes you hate that subject. Yes, I know, it is weird as hell. But that's who historian are. Obviously not everything is a paradise, not everything is passion, you have your ups and down... but is worth it.
I spent 4 years and a half in university, I started when I was 16, almost 17, and I saw the people change carriers constantly until they arrived in the right one: the one that his/her heart told them to study because they love it. Some people were even of 40 or 50, and after a lifetime of being in a profesional carreer, they just wanted to follow their true passion. So, as you can see is all about passion.
But, returning to the main subject (teaching it is), in my university time, I was bombarded with the idea that teaching, specially in school was the living death of a historian, that we should be researchers and writters or university, but Herodotus forbid that we took the path of school teaching. So obviously when most people, intrigued by my carreer choice, I would be frightened of answer that I wanted to be a teacher.
But life is incredible, and I ended up being a teacher. And I was a preschool teacher and a primary teacher, and my life changed, and my vision changed. Yes, I kind of died, because it was not academy, but the thing is that: you are the one that can say what is dead or not in my professional carrer and, the thing that I learnt in my 9 months as a teacher of the little ones, I would not change that for a million books and the time to read it.
So, this is for the all soon to be teacher: It is as beautiful and horrible as it sounds. Prepare yourself, and surround yourself with information and love. You will need it. And I hope to enlight you in the following months with my little knowledge. It's been 1 year and 5 months since I started being a teacher. And you learn if you want to, if not... resign and do something else.
GOOD LUCK.
