Roland Menestres: Discouraging students to be teachers

Regarding the Feb. 4 news article “Rolls fall at UNC teacher prep programs”: I used to gently point my best students toward the noblest of professions: teaching. Not anymore!

Why would I push young people of valor to bury themselves in debt for an unappreciated position, replete with ever-growing administrative and political mountains of paperwork nobody will read, ever-changing goals and regulations that may have little to do with pedagogy, a general lack of respect (starting with our present General Assembly) and lousy pay?

Sure, we all do it “for the kids,” many of us with the deepest of dedication, but love of children alone does not pay the bills.

So now, with the most agonizing of hearts, I suggest they choose any field but teaching.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Roland Menestres: Discouraging students to be teachers."