Answer: Advantages:
• Though you won't get rich, you will receive a solid paycheck with a salary in line with other professions
• Benefits such as health insurance and retirement savings, which are often hard to come by in today's job market (and also increase the economic value of your position)
• Work schedule will often matche those of your children, potentially reducing child care costs
• Weekends, holidays, and the summer off
• Opportunity to share your passion and foster it in others
• Knowing that you're making a difference
Disadvantages:
• Difficulty meeting the needs of many diverse students
• Often required to earn a master's degree for greatest job security (this is a perk from my perspective)
• Small school budgets can be frustrating
• Bureaucracy of red tape, guidelines, and managing the changing and often conflicting directives or principals, school boards, and parent-teacher associations