A good honest living. They are very under paid for what they do if you ask me. And please dont preach your political views to your students. Just stick to the coriculum.

Best.

I love teaching and I'm good with kids!

it seems like the only want to teach the kids who are easy to teach!!

From a teacher: "If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I'll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home."

okayy. as long as i was a kewl teacher.

i feel sorry for teachers, they ain't paid enough

another honorable profession right up there with policemen and firemen

i can't teach other people well

Totally awesome!! Teacher's are great - hopefully I'll be one :P!

i love to learn

luv it already!

underpaid, underappreciated, but good work

Kids can be so mean.

i love kids and i have a lot of patience too

A formerly honorable profession, but not anymore. Society has abandoned the teaching profession.

I would hate to be a teacher because all the kids would drive me stupid!

If I was a cool one, then sure.

only if I could teach V's (V is for Vendetta)message in a civil way...no violence >_>

I had a teacher one time say that if you weren't in her class to learn, to get the --- out. Might have sounded a little harsh, but she took her teaching job very seriously. I admire a good teacher.

Yet another underappreciated, underpaid profession. You need patience, compassion, and a true desire to help others in order to make a good teacher. It's a great profession, and we need more of them!

I think this is tough to rate. I wouldn't put up with the job for a New York minute, and I have some admiration for the dedicated folks who love the job.

There are, however a lot of folks who took the job on because it pays ok, and you get 2 months holidays every year.

Some of the latter type have taught my kids. Fortunately, some of the former type have too.

I think a teacher is a noble profession. It's very hard yet very rewarding. The idea that you can educate, help, and inspire is priceless!

I wouldn't want to be a teacher.... Save us all from Numbah, the Super History Teacher!

Great teachers are going to be back soon. Why, you ask? Because I'm gonna teach. That's right, say hello to Mr Numbah, your history teacher. Think of all the young minds I'll corrupt!

Another underpaid profession. They sometimes spend more time with kids than thier own parents so a good teacher is very important to shaping an individual throughout the most important yeasr of development.

The k-12 teaching profession has to have become the most over-sanctified over paid position in our society. Yes, there are good teachers and they deserve the salaries they get. But give me a freaking break... teachers work 190 days a year with 10 sick days and 5 personals thanks to the strongest union lobby in America. Their days start at what? 7am and end at 3ish? with periods off and lunch breaks. Not to mention the requisite major of education is easily the easiest of all degrees to attain. I personally know many teachers and am literally floored by how inadequate their knowledge of simple history is. In NYC and NJ the average teachers are making 45k per plus obnoxious pensions and early retirements. I have all the respect in the world for good teachers but the profession has been progressively watered down with nimrods seeking tenure who bilk the system while students pass along learning little of what is needed to succeed in society. The American education system is a complete failure and the teachers deserve most of the blame.

I've had some wonderful teachers in my time.I went to a public school and the best of them have been a guiding light throughout my life.Of course,there are some who NEVER should have been allowed to teach.We need to take a bigger interest in our society in rewarding excellent teachers-our children are the most important part of the future.

Teaching is a profession of the utmost importance. Yes, there are some really great teachers out there, without a doubt, but there are also many teachers out there who are completely worthless. The worthless teachers are those that got into the profession for the wrong reasons.

It is one of the most important jobs in any form of civilization and if you base the rating on that then it deserves a 5 stars. That being said it is the one of the most thankless jobs I can think of with a very high rate of burn out. I admire any one who trys to or does this job but it does not get the respect or support that it should.

Are we kidding ourselves? This is the highest rated occupation, yet the nation generally seems to have a problem finding people to do it. Hmmmm...could it be the fact that the money isn't generally there, the prestige? Sure, people says it's fulfilling. Maybe. However, have you ever tried to get a child who really doesn't understand a concept to understand it? Not how I really want to spend my days.

I work as a teacher's aide right now and I really love it. I work with kids who are in Elementary Special Education and I really enjoy teaching them and watching their personal accomplishments. It may not pay too much, but it feels like a very rewarding job to me.

While I was in college, I always found it amusing when students would hold protests on behalf of their instructors. I've also seen news accounts of this occuring at the high school level. Kind of a de facto teacher strike, without the teachers ever having to leave their break room. Each side is leveraging the other: the students seem to expect a more generous grading curve, and the teachers a more generous benefits' package. At least, that's been the developing fad here in trend-setting California...

Rating being a teacher is a tough call. As another comment noted, there is a big difference between teaching small children and those in middle and high school. I do not think I would have the patience to work with elementary students, probably getting frustrated. At the higher levels, a teacher (no doubt) gets into more complex subject matter, and the interaction would be rewarding (as well as seeing young minds see the world as a larger place). Unfortunately, I believe I would have trouble teaching the less gifted students even at the post-elementary level. Moreover, the profession has gotten so bureaucratic over the years, and that would not sit well with me. As for compensation, there are so many people who are willing (and perhaps able) to teach, that the laws of supply and demand keep monetary compensation low. Nevertheless, the non-monetary compensation is substantial (eg more time off, pension and health benefits, etc).

More people would do it if they weren't under the iron fisted rule of the teachers unions. They whine and complain, and certainly don't represent the rank and file. It's a great gig, summer vacations, two weeks for Christmas, two for Easter, a dozen paid holidays and you pay virtually nothing for health care.

Underpaid babysitters from 8-3, but seriously one of the hardest professions, they deserve more money and more respect. The teacher plays so many roles to the child, and becomes one of the childs most important influences. Great teachers don't teach they let the guide and let children discover for themselves.

I'd never want this job. For one thing, You have kids disrespecting you all day and you have to deal with their parents and the majority of the time, You work and never get to relax, seemingly. And if you're a big disciplinarian, The kids will hate your guts. Not my idea of a good job.

A fine profession, although about 5 -10K underpaid. . .I feel sorry for teachers because they have no disciplinary powers over today's kids. Modern parents have raised a generation of fat, lazy kids who can't read or write and blame teachers who have to work in a system where you basically have to pass kids.

Why is it all of the history teachers I know tell completely false stories about World War! They say there was no holocaust or concentration camps! They try and tell us Franklin Delano didn't put the Japanese Americans into Internment camps! Our teachers are liars!

i have a lot of respect for teachers. look at what they have to go through everyday! dealing with kids, parents, correcting papers, etc. they deserve more respect.

Teachers make good money as it is , but they are always ready to up and strike for more cash

Our most important person in the society who is only given lip service to their true importance.This should be a min. of a 100K position in each school,then maybe we would have the best and brightest as teachers.

Not just anyone can be a teacher. You have to have patience and a love for knowledge and children. There are some teachers out there who need to consider another profession- I have had some. However, most teachers are very dedicated who need to be respected a bit more for the true effect that they have on our lives. They are the building blocks of education, and education is the building blocks of our lives. Without teachers, we would be a society of idiots. These men and women, like fireman and cops, are very, very underappreciated, and they need higher pay. Higher pay would draw more people who are qualified to teach into this profession. In the final analysis, teachers have a lot to put up with (i.e. snobby and disrespectful kids and parents), but most of them try their best and are truly unappreciated.

Once I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger. Not now. teachers put up with too much. Frankly I think it would be too much of a risk to be a teacher now. Unruly kids you do not dare try and make mind. some parents who are uninvolved and do not seem to care. I am aware there are some great teachers and some bad ones. Over the years since I have gone to school and now my kids have been in school. I can think of some wonderful teachers I will always remember and some lousy ones who should have quit years ago.I would not want to put up with what teachers go through now a days. More and more burn out and who can blame them? when I was kid, you would not have dared to talk back or act up{thats not to say there were problem kids when I went to school}.Now the attitude some kids give teachers is awful, and they usually have parents who do nothing about it. except to say "stop picking on my kid" I am glad i did not follow trough and become a teacher all the money in the world would not be worth it.

You couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher. It's a thankless job and teachers are basically just glorified babysitters in this day and age. They don't get any backup from parents. If anything, a lot parents are an obstacle. My brother is a teacher, and so are several other relatives, and they all say they will eventually get into another career.

This is an extremely noble profession. I think teachers have one of the absolute hardest jobs out there and they should be making double what they are paid. Especially in today's public schools with apathetic parents, constant misbehavior, and a lack of much needed corporal punishment.

I sure as heck wouldn't want to be one, but I highly respect teachers. They put up with so much, for so little (in some cases, being paid a salary that is near poverty level! How screwed up is that!), and they are incredibly valuable. So many teachers get mistreated by both the students and the school system (Some systems have forced teachers to give students a passing grade when the student refused to do any homework throughout the entire year, just to avoid a lawsuit). Yes, there are some bad teachers, that happens in every field of expertise, but most of them know what they're doing. They're underpaid and underappreciated, they deserve so much more.

I have a suggestion to all those who have negative comments about teachers. Let every school close down for one year, all over the U.S.at the same time. Think about it.

Only #22 on the list? Teachers, along with police officers, firefighters, doctors, and nurses, ought to make up the top five! Teachers are the backbone of our society. Think about it: where would we be without them? Yes, there are some bad apple teachers out there. I've had quite a few. But there are also a lot of great teachers out there and they never get the respect they deserve.

Being a teacher would be fun. Yelling at kids, making your own teaching methods, etc.