A slight rant.

Looking for a job in education here is cut throat in way that I don't remember in California. Maybe I was just more aggressive in California, and have calmed down enough to feel battered by all the job searching. But it seems that people here require all sorts of ridiculous things from people who just want to be tutors: Long term contracts, bring your own clients so you can get paid more, earn bonuses for good reviews, the list can go on and on. Whatever happened to helping a student because they needed help? Why all the marketing and jockeying for a piece of the tutoring market share(insert eye rolling here)? This is not the silicon valley. It's education in North Carolina. Those are 2 separate things last time I checked.

Somewhere in the last year or two, something happened to the idea that education was a noble endeavor and that children were an investment in our future and not a potential stream of income. I feel slightly nauseous when I think about how former educators and even current ones are advertising for tutors to join them. Its a crass appeal to current and former teachers, some of whom feel jaded by "the system", to earn more money. No mention of helping students, and reminding us of why we all became teachers int he first place, but always a discussion money. Its sickening and our children are suffering for it.

Education is hard core. Being in that classroom everyday for 10 months out of the year is hard. It's not a glorious job. We get trampled on, abused by students and parents, and we are all underpaid. But most of us would argue that we are not in it for the money. When I was in it because I thought I was going to get something out of it for me, I burned out and was a total failure. When I think of teachers with longevity in the field, i realize they were the ones that were constantly pouring themselves out for their students making them better people, and students responded to that interest in them, and learned in spite of themselves. Maybe I am being idealistic, but its sad state of affairs, this whole tutoring thing.