Expert: Jeanne Lutz - 9/7/2002

Question
I am 46 and the father of a 5 year old son and a 2 year old daughter.  This is actually my second family.  My others are 20 and 18 respectively.  I have a desire to explore the prospect of teaching young children.  I have aa 4-year degree in business and am a real estate investor.  Financially I am fine and my wife has a good job.  I really enjoy my kids and love to watch them learn and love to help them learn.  I also want them to learn good values.  I could go on, but suffice it to say that I at least want to explore getting further education to become qualified to teach (I think first or second grade).  Is my reasoning sound?  Would it be easy enough to get the extra education to do it?  Can men compete with women in getting jobs teaching the younger kids?  What pitfalls might I expect?

Thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi David,
What you are purposing is possible but would take a bit of planning and several years as you have at least 2 years of education classes to cover plus the practice teaching.
I advise 2 things.  First volunteer at a school.  After a few field trips, one on one or helping in a classroom you will see our real world.  It is far different than being at home with 2 kids.
Then if you still want to go ahead, visit a local college and get the details of what is ahead.  After this make a decision that you and your wife can live with!  It should be a team effort or it will not work!
In the elementary world men are rare so you would have the advantage over a female looking for the same job.  Our little ones need to have more men in the classroom.
Good Luck,
Jeanne