How hard, is it really, to be a teacher?

First thing first, I haven't blogged in awhile. New teaching job, in a new content area, taking on my masters, and life . . .  Anyway, to the point of this blog and the title. I was asked this very question over the weekend by someone very close to me. "How hard, is it really, to be a teacher?" I though about it, and I wasn't sure how to answer. Some people believe that teaching pales in comparison to the traditional high profile positions but after the events of this week and discussing this very question with fellow teachers, here is my answer. Teaching is hard. Teaching is wipe myself up of the floor hard. People have this rose colored vision of a teachers life. Teachers work 8-3, they stand in front of students giving them basic skills, grade a few papers, and get to call it a day. Teachers do not work eight to three. We may have to be on school grounds from eight to three but papers don't grade themselves. Those papers often times go home with the teacher and turn into a several hour project, and no, we aren't getting paid for that time. Students grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure doesn't just get better by itself. Mathematical equations, computations, and memorization doesn't happen overnight with a voice recorder tucked under the pillow. The ideas of motion, tectonic plates, the atmosphere, and scientific reasoning doesn't seep in through the bite of an apple. Social Studies isn't learned through the observation of a teacher just standing in front of a classroom. Students don't learn how to sing, read, and play music through the radio. Physical Education isn't learned through hanging out in the backyard. 21st century computer skills don't come hardwired into children, no matter how much we think that they do; and I haven't even touched on the arts.
Not to mention the social skills, life skills, and societal moralistic ideals expected to be taught by teachers. So, how hard is it to be a teacher? How hard is it to make an employee work when they don't want to? How hard is it to teach an employee a new skill? How hard is it to get an employee to complete a task when it isn't something that interests them? How hard is it to teach moralistic values to someone? That's right, think about those answers you just mentally came up with and then remember as teachers we can't fire our students, we can't turn our backs on them, we can't dismiss them. We have to continue on, trying with all our might to, wait for it . . . . . . . .teach. If we fire our students, if we stop trying to teach, we are letting our future down. As teachers we are providing a disservice, not only to the student but to the future society. At this point I haven't even touched the fact that teachers have to answer to state standards, and national standards; all being tested and in some states a contingency on teacher pay rate based on said test scores. Or, the fact that teachers have to answer to the parents, the students, other teachers, the principal, the vice principal, and the super independent. Or the fact that a long with the content areas teachers also teach those wonderful life skills I discussed earlier. What students learn in a classroom is so much more than reading, writing, and arithmetic; so much more than science, and social studies. Teachers are responsible for molding students into who they may become. So you are asking yourselves, why then be a teacher? For those wonderful moments when you see the light bulb come on, when there is an aw ha moment, when you see a student connect the dots, when the one kid who couldn't figure it out all year finally gets it, when a student figures out the moral standing, when someone stands up for themselves, when a kindergartner who hasn't showed any emotion all year quietly takes your hand and whispers I love you, seeing all those little faces still wide eyed and full of possibilities. With all those things laying at rest on your shoulders everyday, being responsible for no less than at least 18 lives everyday, making command decisions, in the moment that will affect those lives in both content knowledge and life skills, forever, I ask you: how hard is it to be a teacher?