Conception of a Teacher's Job

"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." ~Donald D. Quinn

I came across this quote in a magazine earlier, and I found it really interesting. I don't know about anyone else, but I come across a lot of people who say teaching is the easy way out. They say that I shouldn't even have to go to college o be a teacher, it's just an easy career that one chooses. The "hard" or "successful" jobs are seen as these doctors, lawyers, and dentists. I mean yes they all have extremely difficult jobs as well, but that does not making teaching any easier. It seems that maybe people have these stigmas about teachers because of comparisons of pay with other careers. In my eyes, teachers don't get paid enough for what they do. It seems that teachers do not get enough credit for their job, which this quote points out. I mean as a teacher I am going to have a room with 30-40 students that all learn differently or have a different pace. Yet, I have to find a way to make it work and make sure everyone is learning. Does society not realize how extremely difficult this will be/is? I think that the people who say it is easy don't realize a lot of the struggles and adaptations teachers don't have to make. Which is why I really appreciated this quote. It points out that teachers have to accommodate to a lot of diverse students, and even deal with students who don't want to be there so they act out. All this is done, usually, with no help like these other careers have. I am not trying to bash on other careers, because I know I could never be a doctor, lawyer, or dentist. I wouldn't be able to handle what the do. Yet, teachers have different struggles that I feel I may be able to make work. It's not that I feel teaching is easier, it's that I feel a passion for the job, so I know I can handle the stresses that come with it. Overall, I jsut really appreciated this quote because it pointed out some things that non-teachers may feel to realize so they think this career is "easy." I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but hopefully this quote gives everyone something interesting to think about!