America faces a shortage of teachers, especially in fields such as math and science.  Yet, despite the fact that people are fleeing the profession, school districts continue to make prospective teachers jump through more hoops in order to obtain employment.

Because of the shortage of teachers, school districts have made it easier for people to become teachers through lateral entry.  This occurs when a person wishes to become a teacher but did not go to college to study education.  These people are college graduates and will require more classes to meet the specific requirements to obtain a teaching license.  Teachers from other states have also found it easier to move to another state and obtain a teaching license through reciprocity, a process that may entail one or two specialized classes for the new state to obtain a teaching license.  This is a good way to get new teachers into the profession and decrease the shortages but, it does not address the enormous hassles required to become a teacher.

For anyone, whether you attended college to specifically become a teacher, been a teacher for many years, or are moving, laterally, into the profession there is a lengthy application process, which deters many from applying.  Often, newly graduated teachers see the process and decide that it is not worth the hassle to jump through the numerous hoops only to be underpaid, under appreciated, and overworked for the rest of their lives.

The process starts as any other job.  You must fill out an application.  This, depending on the school district, is done online or by paper.  You must also send in your resume.  This is where the redundancy begins.  The application has the usual name, address, universities attended, etc.  Then there is the awards, recognitions, qualifications, endorsements, student teaching, references, etc.  Your resume already lists these items, yet you are required to duplicate this information.

The next part of the application is the questions.  These range from 5-15 handwritten questions asking you about how you would approach a particular subject or problem, how you deal with students, and why you want to teach in their particular school.

There is also the criminal background check authorization and the fingerprint card.  Every teacher has to have a background check to make sure they aren’t dangerous to students.  You must also have your fingerprints taken by an authorized member of law enforcement.  You must pay the fee ($10-20 depending on the state) to have your fingerprints taken.  Then, you must pay another fee ($85-100) so that the school district can investigate you.  These fees must be paid in each state that you apply to, regardless of the fact that the FBI already has this information from your last teaching job.

More frequently, schools are moving to an additional online questionnaire, aimed at getting to know you better.  There are typically 25-40 questions and range from how you act in the classroom, to conflict resolution, to gaging your personality.  There is no particular right or wrong answer to these questions.  They are completely subjective to the school you are applying to.  Many of these questionnaires you take once and then give all the schools in a particular state access to them.

One school may be looking more towards an authoritarian type of teacher, while another school may be looking for someone who excels at conflict resolution.  You may be a dream teacher in one district and a nightmare in another.  You also never find out the results of the questionnaire, nor do you know how a particular school district scores or what kind of person they are looking for.  The only thing you can do is answer the questions honestly and hope for the best.

If this hasn’t deterred you from becoming a teacher, there is still more to the application process.  After you have finished all of the above, you’ll get a call for an interview.  Your interview will consist of more questions, some are identical to the handwritten questions you already completed.  Now you must answer them, and more, in front of the hiring committee.  The hiring committee has 3-5 members of the school and can include principals, vice-principals, teachers, and sometimes superintendents.

Once you have finished this, there is the mini-lesson that you must perform.  This consists of a typical daily lesson plan, shortened from the usual length to about fifteen minutes.  Those interviewing you will pretend to be the students while you conduct your lesson.

By this point, you are exhausted.  You hope that you only have to do this once but, more typically, you will do this many times as you interview at school district after school district.  This is only the beginning as you learn that, by the time you’re hired and the next summer comes, you’re too tired from jumping through even more hoops all year long, being away from your family, and spending 50-70 hours per week at work to enjoy a proper vacation.  You just want to sit on the couch and sleep for several weeks so that you can refresh yourself and gear up for another school year full of hoop jumping.

You never actually got to teach your students all they should know.  Instead, you pushed them through, like cattle to a slaughter house, with cursory knowledge that is “good enough” to pass state exams so that the state can get more money from the federal government.

At some point during the summer, you start to think, “Why the hell did I ever pick this as a career?” and you seriously debate a career change where you can actually have peace in your life for longer periods of time other than the eight weeks you get off in the summer, a summer which is spent entirely in finding your sanity again.