What This Could Mean to YOU . . .

You spend every school day with many teachers. You are used to being in a classroom and what teachers do may seem easy. But it’s not. Good teachers are in high demand. Great teachers even more so. It is not possible to teach something you don’t know, so states demand that incoming teachers earn a four-year (Bachelors) degree in his or her chosen field. Every teacher must pass a rigorous test in the subject matter he or she will be teaching. After all, to teach someone something, a teacher really has to know the subject material.

The average national starting salary for a teacher certified to teach elementary school subjects is $54,000 per year with summers off and what are probably the best benefits packages (health care and retirement) across many different careers.

But we are not presenting this information to encourage you to be a teacher, although good for you if you want to be a teacher! We have compiled this information so you know that this kind of information is easily found on the Internet — and this kind of information (number of openings in the field, starting salaries, benefit packages, educational requirements) can help you decide which career you may want to pursue.

So, before you pick ANY career, make sure you do your research. Not every career is created equal.