Why there is nothing in the world like teaching...

Teachers are taking a lot of hard knocks these days. Fighting back does not work. Perhaps this time of teacher-bashing will pass, perhaps not. Perhaps the discussion needs to be re-framed: what is right with teachers right now.
Teachers spend more time with their students than most adults, and most teachers are caring and thoughtful. Most teachers spend some of their earnings on materials for their classroom. Most teachers spend huge amounts of time away from the classroom preparing and worrying about how to do some kind of lesson. Most teachers believe that they have a "vocation", in the true sense of the word: a calling.
Teachers have good lessons and not-so-good lessons. They have confrontations with students frequently, and learn how to cope, how to be constructive in dealing with situations that arise. As the students are older, teachers act as counselors and sometimes confidants, even when they would prefer not to do so. Many students have no other adults to talk to about things going on in their lives.
Sometimes, a teacher gets a letter from a parent - this even happens in high school and in college - explaining how you - the teacher - had had such a positive influence on their kid. You might not really know that - after all, often we as teachers don't see the longer-term results of "doing our job".
Now that there is facebook, I have had the incredible experience of hearing from long-ago students about how I had changed their lives, how they think of me all the time, often of some story I had told, of the examples I had set, of other things that happened in their classes. Often, I don't remember precisely what they are referring to, but it doesn't matter.
Teaching's rewards are intrinsic - you know it when you have done something effective, you just know it. There is no test, no quantitative way to show this, but you, the teacher, just know that you have made a difference. It is what keeps us going.
Today, it is very sad that students don't want to go into teaching. They don't understand what they are missing. It is very hard to be any good at it, but it is so totally worth the effort, in more ways than you can count.
I like to say to all those great souls out there, searching for meaning in their lives: try teaching. We desperately need new teachers, as more than half of the teaching force will be retired within 10 years. Help society, help a few kids, help make a real difference. You will love it.