As parents, we often spend a lot of time thinking about education. Not only do we think about the kind of education our children get directly, but we also think about how our schools operate and sometimes what we could do to improve them. As such, you might be thinking about education enough that you’re considering a career in that sector, and you might find that your experience as a parent can benefit you, just as an education career can help you be a parent, too.
You Start to Value the Building Blocks of Education
This is especially true of those who work in kindergartens or elementary schools. When you have a chance to see how education works from the child’s perspective, you also start to get a greater appreciation and grasp of the skills that can help your own children excel later, such as spelling, writing, and maths. As such, you can take from the classroom what you need to help your own children get a love of education as well. You can also offer some insights on things like how they socialize outside of the home for the first time in their life. You can prepare your children with an advantage that most should have.
A Great Way to Get Involved with the Local Educational Community
Not only do you get to see the other side of the coin when it comes to how our children are educated in the classroom, but you also get a better idea of how parents and teachers/educational administrators can work together from the side of the faculty, too. Some of the perks of working in the Department of Education can include the opportunity to take paid leave to work on volunteering for youth, education, and community activities, which your family may benefit from. You also get additional time off to go to your kids’ own teacher conferences. It only makes sense that the education sector values the education of its staff’s children.
You Can Help Schools Run a Lot Better
When we think about a career in education, it’s only natural that our thoughts go first and foremost to the notion of becoming a teacher. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. If you don’t have the energy to work as a teacher, you can take a backseat role and perform the administrative and organizational duties that help it run a lot better. As Bradley University shows, you can get an Ed.D instead of a P.D. and help to solve the political, organizational, and other difficulties that schools often deal with. As such, you can help increase the quality of education in the local area. Naturally, this can have a positive knock-on effect on your kids’ education too.
They’re Reliable Sources of Income
Let’s be real: as parents, we’re looking for ways to provide for our family, from feeding and clothing them to paying for their college tuition. In many parts of the country, teachers are not paid as much as they should be. However, there are plenty of career paths outside of teaching in poorly funded public schools. You can teach in private schools or work your way up through an administrative career. However, it’s important to know that working in education means investing in a very stable career with excellent job security. As such, unless you do something terribly wrong, you don’t need to worry about losing your income, which is becoming a guarantee that many industries and sectors can’t meet anymore.
The Benefits Aren’t Too Shabby
While your pay as a teacher or in education can vary greatly depending on the specifics of the role, the sector tends to offer a vast range of benefits much more broadly. Some benefits, such as pension plans and health insurance coverage (which can include your family), are becoming much rarer. According to Harvard Business Review, these are some of the most highly in-demand benefits right now. When you work at a school or college, however, you can rest assured that these benefits are almost always going to be part of the package. Furthermore, teachers and school admins tend to get sick days and other such benefits. This can help cut the cost of living for you and your family.
A Lot of Room to Grow Your Career
Whether you’re working as a teacher or in an administrative capacity, there are plenty of skills you can learn to further your career. While the offerings of private schools may differ greatly, they are likely to meet the kind of training and career development on offer from the Department of Education. This can include training in computer learning, accounting, career planning, project management, team building, time management and much more. As such, not only do they offer training for the skills that can help you work your way higher up in your educational career, but these skills also provide a lot of career flexibility. They’re not just for teachers and educational administrators.
The Breaks and Vacations
It might sound a little indulgent, but as a parent, you should be able to find a lot of value in the fact that you’re going to be able to spend your summer breaks and all the little vacations that are in the school year at home. They might not always be true breaks; you might have plenty of work to do at home, for instance. But four times a year, you’re going to be able to take school holidays. As such, this means that you can spend a lot more time with the kids when they’re off school as well. You don’t have to worry about paying for childcare while you’re still in the office, for instance.
You Share a Schedule with Your Children
It may differ a little, what with you having to do a little work after or outside of school in many cases. However, if your children are in school, then working in a school is going to mean that your daily schedule is very close to their own. As such, you will leave home when they do, and get back when they do. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to fit everyone’s commute on one trip. Otherwise, it just makes it a lot easier to plan a family life when you’re all-around at the same time, especially when it comes to the costs of childcare.
You Will Understand the Path to College More than Most
If you work in a high school, then you will soon see that they are mostly geared to helping prepare students for college, as shown at Great Schools. As such, as a parent, you will get to know that process very intimately. This means you can ensure that your kids get the college counseling they need, do their research, and set reasonable (but high) expectations for what work they should do and what results they should get if they plan on getting into college. Of course, how applicable this is will depend on whether or not your kids actually want to go to college, but that’s a conversation you need to have with them.
A career in education, even outside of the classroom, can be demanding. As such, it’s recommended for those who are able to handle their work-life balance, even in the most testing of times. If you can, however, then there’s no denying it can be some of the most rewarding workarounds.
