Is Being a Teacher Worth it in 2025?

Is it being a teacher worth it? It really depends what you’re looking for in a career, and what it is about teaching that interests you.

Teaching is a very rewarding career. It is also generally a respected job, with decent pay and benefits (which varies by region – it pays better in some areas than in others.)

In most cases, I would that yes, being a teacher is worth it – but, only if you are equipped to handle the challenges that being a teacher comes with.

Like any job, teaching has upsides and downsides, and it takes a certain kind of person with particular talents to be able to navigate the downsides of teaching and still be able to enjoy their career.

I worked as an elementary school teacher for almost a decade, and while there were definitely many aspects of the job that I enjoyed, there were also some things that I would caution anyone considering becoming a teacher to keep in mind.

In my case, I found that the work environment of teaching was not for me. I burned out, and decided to move on to a different career, writing. However, there are still many teachers (including good friends of mine) thriving in the teaching profession, and find it to be a worthwhile profession.

As someone who ultimately determined that teaching wasn’t for me, I want to give you:

• balanced, unbiased and brutally honest information about being a teacher
• signs to help you decide if you should become a teacher

This can help you can determine whether being a teacher is right for you.

So, let’s jump in – everything you need to know in order to decide whether being a teacher is worth it.

Is Being a Teacher Worth It?

As a teacher, I frequent many teacher forums and groups. The question about whether teaching is a good career to go into or not, gets asked a lot.

In general, people who are teaching generally seem to fall into one of three categories:

• Group 1: Genuinely enjoy their jobs (will admit it can be tough at times, but would still say that they love it)
• Group 2: Do not enjoy teaching most of the time, and would quit if they only knew what they would do instead
• Group 3: Are not happy being a teacher, but are hanging on until retirement

I don’t want you to fall into one of the first two groups of people. If you don’t want to be in the classroom, navigating both the joys and challenges that come with the job, then teaching is not going to be worth it for you.

What I want to have you accomplish from reading this article is which of two groups you would fall into, by giving you a truthful, balanced view of the good and the bad when it comes to being a teacher.

Reasons Why Being a Teacher IS Worth It

Here is why being a teacher, in many ways, is one of the best jobs in the world

1. The impact you make on students

Teaching is one of the most rewarding jobs, that allows you to impact students and their futures in a positive way. Here is what makes teaching so rewarding:

• You watch the students be able to do things they couldn’t do previously, thanks to your lessons
• As a teacher, you’re a part of memories that students are making that may stay with them for a long time; in some cases, rest of their lives.

If you’re an elementary school teacher and you teach young students, you may end up being spoiled with drawings, notes and cards about how much they love you as a teacher.

It was such a gift to work with such kind, enthusiastic people who told me how much they liked me, every day.

Far in the future, you may hear from some of your students who have grown up who want to tell you what positive impact you made on their lives.

As an adult, I have reached out to some of my old elementary school teachers to tell them how much I’d enjoyed being in their class decades ago, and the positive impact they had on me.

While I didn’t see their reaction because it was in email, they told me that my email had them tearing up. I can only imagine how much it must have meant to them.

The bottom line – being able to impact students is hands down, the most rewarding part of the job, and the reason why so many teachers love their jobs

2. More than average vacation time

I hate to flip to vacation time after talking about how meaningful the work is, but let’s be honest. Teaching, while meaningful and rewarding, is still just a job – and you need and deserve time off from it.

Teachers have more time off in quantity than the average job. According to Indeed, K-12 teachers are the #1 job with the best vacation time.

Having every single summer off is a huge bonus that is rare with any other job.

3. You will laugh

As a teacher, you will undoubtedly work with some troublesome students (which we’ll get into below) – but one of the pros of being a teacher is how funny working with kids can be.

As an elementary school teacher, I had many funny stories to laugh with my husband about in the evenings – cute things that they had said and done. One teacher blogger I read has published books specifically all about funny things that her students have said.

If you have a sense of humour, you will appreciate kids for their honesty, and insights.

4. The job security

Teachers will always be in demand, and they’re in demand all over the world. As a teacher, you could move almost anywhere in the world and be able to put your skills to use.

For a long time, teaching was competitive and hard to get into in Canada where I live, but now, it is moving back to being in demand.

In addition, teaching isn’t really a job that can be replaced with Artificial Intelligence (AI.) Certain aspects of it could be streamlined, but the position itself is irreplaceable, for the foreseeable future.

Bottom line: If you go into teaching, you can feel pretty confidant that you have a job for the foreseeable future.

2. The autonomy

The amount of autonomy you have as a teacher will vary based on where you live and work. But overall, teachers usually have a decent amount of autonomy where they can use professional judgment and be creative with how they go about things.

You get to decide how you deliver a lesson, how you set up your classroom, how you assess students, and provide feedback. There will be certain requirements you need to fulfill, but the rest is up to you.

If something isn’t working, you can change it. If a lesson doesn’t go well, you can make tweaks for next year if you teach that subject again.

One of my favourite things about being a teacher was the ability to constantly assess how things went, make tweaks and improve on things.

3. It keeps you active

You will naturally ‘get your steps in’ from being a teacher. The job will keep you on your feet and moving around more than other jobs.

Many teachers enjoy the ‘movement’ part of the job, and that they aren’t just sitting at a desk all day.

4. The coworkers

I can’t promise you great coworkers. But as a teacher, you are generally working with friendly, educated and inspiring groups of people with lots of great qualities.

I met some great friends teaching, including my best friend who I worked at the same school with.

5. If you plan to have kids:

If you have kids already or plan to, there are some benefits to being a teacher and a parent.

• You have the same vacation time that your kids do. No need to struggle to find summer camps (although you totally can sometimes to get a break – I did)
• You understand the school system better, and may have more insight into the actions of your child’s teacher
• You may develop good conflict resolution skills, which may help your kids with their siblings and their friends

Things to Consider Before Becoming a Teacher

You now have an idea what to expect from teaching in terms of the perks, but as you can imagine, there are also many things to keep in mind. Here are some things to consider in deciding if teaching is a worthwhile career for you.

1. Vacation Time

One of the biggest perks of teaching is the “summer off.” And I can’t lie, it was pretty nice to have those summer months when my oldest daughter was young.

However, its important to keep in mind that a teacher’s vacation time is pre-determined, and depending on where you work, it can be challenging to get time off outside of that time.

For example, if you’re invited to a destination wedding in April, or want to see Europe in the fall? As a teacher, you might not have the freedom to do these kinds of things until you retire.

Bottom Line: While having the summers, Christmas break and spring break off is nice – it also means giving up the possibility of taking vacations at other times of the school year.

2. Student Behaviour

I’ve noticed that one hesitancy that many people have before going into teaching is surrounding student behaviour.

While every situation will be different, behaviour problems in general are on the rise. A quick Google search will yield tons of articles on an uptick in violence in schools, teacher bullying and other behavioural problems.

For those of us who are millennials that grew up in 90s or early 2000s, the classroom environment today can be pretty shocking. 

If you’re between the ages of 18 and 25, then you might already be pretty accustomed to what some classrooms look like today and it won’t be as much of a shock to you.

I will say though, that when you struggle with student behaviour, it can sometimes be challenging to get adequate support from administrators and/or parents of the students who are acting up. This of course, depends on who your principals is, what their attitudes and outlook are, and same with the parents.

Most teachers seem to agree that student behaviour has worsened since the pandemic, along with academic abilities, and managing student behaviour, cell phone use, as well as even violence in schools, is an ongoing struggle. 

Bottom Line: As a teacher, you can likely expect schools to not have the same standards for student behaviour as they did when you were in school. Being a teacher in today’s world means good classroom management skills and navigating sometimes very challenging behaviours.

3. Workload

Most teachers would agree that the teacher workload is increasing. Some of the things you will be responsible for as a teacher include:

• Having effective lesson plans that take into consideration the curriculum requirements and the various needs of your classroom
• Managing student behaviours
• Accommodations and support for students with Individualized Learning Plans (IEPs)
• Assessing and providing feedback to students
• Communication with parents, administration and with other teachers (ie: special education teachers) who work with your students

If you’re lucky, there will be some paid planning time in the region that you teach – but even if there is, it’s not enough time to cover all of the above.

Unless you’re a seasoned teacher who has been teaching the same grade and subject for years, its almost impossible to not have your teacher work spilling into evenings and weekends – especially for the first few years.

I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with some teacher AI tools for the classroom that can streamline some of the more tedious aspects of the job.

The Bottom Line: Being a teacher is an insane amount of work and responsibility. Your workload will vary be position, by grade and by how experienced you are. (As you get further along, you have a better handle on what you’re doing, which makes things easier.) But, the first few years can be tough, with a lot of learning curves.

4. You need to be careful

There is a lot of extra liability when it comes to being a teacher. You are working with the most vulnerable members of society, and your misjudgements can have serious consequences.

Being a teacher is unique in that you are often subject to student’s interpretation. Things you say, and do, or errors you make impacts them – and they can also be misinterpreted, and twisted around.

Working with children in general requires an extra layer of caution and accountability. As a teacher, you are generally under more scrutiny than most jobs and held to a higher standard.

This carries into your job, but into how you conduct yourself outside of work as well.

5. Difficult parents

Handling parents is a stressful aspect of being a teacher. The stakes are high for the parent because it’s their child.

It’s not uncommon at all for teachers to be the brunt of blame from parents who are frustrated and overwhelmed and looking to be angry at someone else for their child’s results.

Handling challenging parents requires being a good listener, and having very strong people skills, but also being able to set boundaries and stand your ground.

This is part of why you need a lot of confidence to be a teacher – and is especially tough when you’re a new teacher, as you don’t have the confidence or experience behind you, and some parents will be even more likely to take advantage of you.

Is Being a Teacher Worth It for the Money?

We have talked about what you need to know about student behaviours, workload and vacation time- what about the money? Does the pay make being a teacher worth it? Let’s discuss typical teacher pay in different countries below.

Teaching in the United States

Teaching in the United States is notorious for being an underpaid profession. However, this varies largely by state – some states pay much less or more than others.

According to this article by CNBC, the states that pay teachers the most are New York, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington -salaries range from $69k – $80k USD per year in these states.

The lowest paid states are Hawaii, Florida, South Dakota, Maine and DC, with annual salaries in the $47-$50k range. It’s not uncommon for teachers in lower-paid states to look for summer jobs, or side hustles to make ends meet.

Teaching in the United Kingdom

Like the United States, the United Kingdom could also use some improvements in how they pay their teachers.

According to this Prospects page, new teachers in England and Wales start at around £28,000 to £34,502, and its even lower than that in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

After becoming more experienced, average teacher salaries across the UK tend to fall somewhere between £30,000 to a max of £56,000 per year.

Anecdotally, I have met many teachers in Canada who spent some time working in the United Kingdom, and said that the nature of the job was much harder there, because of frequent performance evaluations and more behaviours than we typically see in Canada.

Teaching in Canada

Canadian teachers are some of the best paid teachers in the world. Like in the US though, teacher pay in Canada varies by province.

You can check accurate numbers for some of the typical teacher salaries by province here.

In Ontario where I am from, teachers often start at around $50,000 per year -give or take (it depends on their degree, qualifications and experience and they are evaluated for these before their starting pay is determined.)

Every year, our pay goes up and caps out at the 11th year. By then, teachers in Ontario are earning over six figures -just over $100,000 on average. (By the way, I am talking in Canadian dollars here.)

Pro Tip: It’s important to know that teacher pay in Canada varies by province and by school board. So if you know which school board you’re planning to apply to, you can look up their pay scale online – its free, public information.

Having worked for almost a decade in Canada as a teacher, I can shed a bit more light on the details of a. Canadian teacher’s paycheque: Canadian teachers have to pay taxes,  benefit premiums, and union dues which comes out of their paycheque. This usually ends up looking like quite a lot once you look at your pay stub. Often, close to ⅓ of your pay goes towards all the deductions.

However, most of it only benefits you in the long run. Canadian teachers generally have a really good pension package, generous benefits

Why Teachers are Quitting

I cannot speak for all teachers who have left, or are leaving the profession, but from experience, I have some insight into what is going on in the classroom that is causing so many teachers to feel burnt out; quit mid-year, or not return the following year

As a teacher who has quit, and as someone who has communicated with many other teachers who are unhappy and have quit or are thinking of quitting – these are some of the main reasons why teachers burn out or quit teaching:

• Increasing student behaviours, and violence in schools
• Lack of support from admin; not having good school leadership
• Difficult or bully parents
• Increased workload, with not enough time to do it all

Some people have a harder time dealing with some of these challenges than others. How you cope with them may depend on how you interpret things, your past experiences and upbringing, your personality, strengths and weaknesses and other factors.

Let’s talk next about some signs that might indicate that you would be able to survive in the teaching world.

Signs That Being a Teacher Is Worth It For You

It takes a special person to teach and genuinely enjoy both the perks and hardships of teaching. Here are a few signs that you are cut out for navigating the highs and lows of being a teacher.

1. You consider yourself to be generally extroverted, and a ‘people person’.

There are many introverted teachers, but the job can take a lot out of you, depending on how introverted you are.

I recommend taking a personality test to determine how introverted or extroverted you are, as well as what your talents and skills are suited to.

The personality test at 16 Personalities is the free version of the well-known Myers-Bryggs Personality Test. I took it, and it described me, my talents and weaknesses to a tea! I highly recommend taking this test

2. You have a strong, confident demeanour.

You will almost certainly be challenged as a teacher. By students, their families, and your administrators. You will need to be very certain about your stance on things, and have data to back it up.

If you struggle with confidence and self-esteem, then teaching will challenge you because you will face pushback from all ends (students, admin, and parents.)

The reality is, people who have an air of confidence are questioned less than those who don’t.

This doesn’t mean that teaching isn’t worth it, but these potential challenges are something to consider if you don’t consider yourself to be thick-skinned.

4. You’re organized

Being a teacher requires you to keep good documentation and notes, track data, keep record of assessments, and have your lessons planned in advance.

Most teachers I know that are thriving in the profession tend to have some “type A” personality traits. They are organized, with good attention to detail. They have thorough documentation and records. This is an important transferable skill for teachers and many other careers.

If you’re someone who struggles to stay organized, loses things, and has trouble meeting deadlines – then you may face challenges being a teacher.

3. You are interested in special education.

Special education was once mainly the responsibility of the special ed teacher, but with more and more integration under the inclusion model these days, special education is a hat you’ll almost certainly have to wear, regardless of what you teach.

This means that you’ll need to spend some extra energy providing extra support for students at a different learning level than your regular class, or have behavioural difficulties. It can also take some extra time outside of school to program for students with additional needs.

This is something you will need to accept and be on board with if you want to be a teacher.

Pro Tip: If after reading this, you’re thinking you may not be cut out for classroom teaching – that’s ok. There are so many education-related jobs that aren’t teaching in a classroom.

Is Being a Teacher Worth It? Final Thoughts

There are a lot of great things to being a teacher, but it really comes down to your personality, talents, abilities and limitations. Teaching is a rewarding, but very challenging job that can be difficult sometimes even for people who love it.

During my decade of being a teacher, I have found certain personality types to generally seem to thrive more in the teaching work environment than others. My more extroverted, confident colleagues seemed to struggle with the challenges less than I did.

Is being a teacher worth it? It depends on how the pros weigh against the cons. If you are switching to teaching from another career, I recommend some books on career change. If you’re a teacher who wants to leave the profession, read my post on Should You Quit Teaching?

I hope that this article has shed some light to help you determine if teaching is a worthwhile career choice for you – if it would be something that you would be able to devote your life to, and be truly happy with.