Pay, licensing and outlook figures below are mainly for the United States; "Around the world" shows how the job works elsewhere.
What the job actually is
A schoolteacher plans lessons, teaches a group of students, checks what they've actually learned and adjusts. Alongside that, they manage a room full of young people, communicate with families and look out for students' wellbeing.
Three common misconceptions:
- "Teachers just stand at the front and explain." Explaining is only part of it. The rest is planning, marking, managing behaviour, adapting work for students who are struggling or racing ahead, writing reports, meeting parents and doing paperwork.
- "You get summers off." The BLS says many teachers work a 10-month year with a two-month summer break. But teachers often spend evenings and weekends grading and preparing, and many use summers to plan, train or teach summer school.
- "Anyone who knows the subject can teach it." Knowing chemistry and getting 28 teenagers to understand chemistry are different skills. The second one is trained, practised and still hard after years.
The path in
United States. Public schools require a state teaching licence or certificate for the specific grade level you teach. The BLS says the usual requirements are a bachelor's degree (often in education, or in your subject plus teacher preparation), a supervised student-teaching placement with a mentor, a background check, and passing a general teaching test plus a subject test. Many states use the Praxis tests run by ETS, but each state sets its own rules. Private schools often don't require a licence.
Alternative routes. The BLS says every state offers an alternative route for people who already have a bachelor's degree, and some let you teach straight away under supervision while you finish certifying. Career-changers often come in this way. Programmes such as Teach For America recruit graduates into classrooms with the aim of widening children's opportunities.
Elsewhere. In England, state schools generally expect Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). You usually get it through postgraduate teacher training such as a PGCE, or a salaried school-based route, after a bachelor's degree. There are also routes for people without a degree, including a teacher degree apprenticeship. Teach First, a charity, runs a well-known route into schools where the need is greatest. In Mexico, teachers for basic education are trained mainly in the escuelas normales, which have been able to award licenciatura degrees since 1984. The global Teach For All network has partner organisations in 63 countries, including Enseña por Colombia and Enseñá por Argentina.
Knowing your subject is the entry ticket. Getting twenty-eight different minds to understand it is the job.
A typical day
One plausible day for a secondary (high school) science teacher:
| Time | What's happening |
|---|---|
| 7:15 | Arrive; set up equipment for the morning practicals |
| 7:45 | Staff briefing: a fire drill today, and two students who need extra support |
| 8:00 | Period 1: Year 9 chemistry |
| 9:00 | Period 2: Year 11 exam revision |
| 10:00 | Break duty in the corridor |
| 10:20 | Period 3: the lab sheet with the typo |
| 11:20 | Free period (on paper): marking 30 lab reports, one parent email |
| 12:20 | Lunch, partly spent with a student catching up on missed work |
| 1:00 | Periods 4–5 |
| 3:15 | Department meeting or after-school club |
| 4:30 | Home; another hour of planning or marking most evenings |
How it varies. A primary (elementary) teacher usually teaches one class every subject all day, so the relationship with each child is deeper and the planning broader. A secondary teacher teaches one or two subjects to several classes, so you may see well over a hundred students a week, and the subject knowledge goes deeper. Special education teachers adapt teaching for students with disabilities and often work in small groups. Teaching in a well-resourced suburban school, an under-funded city school and a rural school can feel like three different jobs.
Where it can take you
O*NET's sample of reported titles includes classroom teacher, primary teacher, math teacher, science teacher, English teacher, art teacher and music teacher.
| Direction | Example roles |
|---|---|
| Classroom specialisms | Special education, English as a second language, a subject specialism, early years |
| School leadership | Department head, instructional coach, assistant principal, principal |
| Beyond the classroom | Curriculum designer, education researcher, school counsellor (extra training needed) |
| Adjacent sectors | Corporate training, instructional design, educational publishing, ed-tech, museum education |
In England, leadership pay ranges and allowances for extra responsibilities show how the career ladder works inside schools.
Who thrives, who struggles
Thrives: people who get energy from other people, who like explaining something in five different ways until one works, who stay calm when a plan collapses, and who can be warm and firm at the same time. Good teachers also tend to be organised, because the paperwork never stops.
Struggles: people who need quiet, control or a predictable day; people who take students' bad moods personally; and people who expect the job to finish at 3 p.m. Teaching is also hard for people who love their subject but don't enjoy young people. Students notice.
Money & outlook
- US median pay: $72,040 a year for high school teachers and $63,820 for kindergarten and elementary teachers (May 2025, BLS). Half earn more and half earn less.
- Projected growth: 0% (little or no change) from 2025 to 2035 for both groups. Even so, there are many openings, about 63,500 a year for high school and 99,400 for kindergarten and elementary, because so many teachers retire or leave.
- England comparison: from September 2026, qualified teachers in state-maintained schools start on at least £34,069 outside London, with higher minimums in London (up to £41,729 in Inner London) (Department for Education).
Pay varies enormously by country, state, district and school type, so check the salary schedule where you'd teach.
Around the world
A room full of children looks much the same everywhere, and so does the core of the job: plan, explain, check, adapt. What differs is the gate (a degree, a licence, an exam or a state-run training period), who employs you (very often the state) and how the pay compares with other graduates.
| Country | How you qualify | Who licenses / regulates | Pay in context | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | A bachelor's degree, supervised student teaching, and state tests (often Praxis) | Each state licenses its own teachers | Medians $72,040 (high school) and $63,820 (kindergarten and elementary) a year (BLS, May 2025) | Every state offers an alternative route for graduates |
| United Kingdom (England) | A degree plus Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), usually through a PGCE or a salaried school-based route | Department for Education | At least £34,069 to start outside London from September 2026 (DfE); UK secondary teachers' full-time median £49,492, against £40,911 for all full-time jobs (ONS ASHE, year to April 2026, provisional) | A teacher degree apprenticeship lets people train without a degree first |
| Germany | A teacher-training degree, then a practical training period in schools (Referendariat) that ends with a second state exam | Each of the 16 states (Länder) sets its own rules and runs its state schools | Upper-secondary teachers earn an average €80,163 a year (OECD Education at a Glance 2026, 2025 data, as reported by Euronews) | Among the highest teacher salaries in the OECD, though they stagnated or fell between 2015 and 2025 (OECD) |
| Mexico | Mainly a licenciatura from an escuela normal | The education ministry (SEP) | Graduates of primary-teacher training average MX$18,193 a month and of secondary-teacher training MX$19,479, against MX$17,795 for all graduates (IMCO Compara Carreras 2026, from INEGI survey data) | Secondary-teacher training is one of the few fields where graduates' real income hasn't risen since 2020 (IMCO) |
| Brazil | A teaching degree (licenciatura) | No national licence; states and municipalities hire public-school teachers through competitive public exams (concursos) | A national minimum salary for public-school teachers, updated every year (Law 11.738/2008); amount — | The same law caps classroom time at two-thirds of a teacher's hours, leaving the rest for planning and marking |
| India | A D.El.Ed. or B.Ed., then a Teacher Eligibility Test (the CTET for central government schools) | NCTE sets minimum qualifications under the Right to Education Act (2009); CBSE runs the CTET | — | CTET certificates now last for life; they used to expire after seven years |
| Philippines | An education degree, then the Licensure Examination for Teachers | The Professional Regulation Commission's Board for Professional Teachers (Republic Act 7836) | — | Teaching is one of the 46 professions overseen by the Commission's boards |
Moving abroad. Teaching licences rarely travel automatically. England asks teachers trained elsewhere to apply for QTS before they teach in its state schools. In the US, each state sets its own rules and assesses qualifications from other states and countries. Everywhere, you'll need to teach in the local language, and that's often the biggest hurdle.
The honest downsides
- Workload. Marking and planning spill into evenings and weekends, especially in the first few years.
- People leave. A 2017 Learning Policy Institute analysis found US teacher attrition was about twice that of high-achieving systems such as Finland, Singapore and Ontario, and that about two-thirds of the teachers who leave do so for reasons other than retirement.
- Emotional load. You will know about students' hard home lives and won't be able to fix most of them.
- Little control over the big decisions. Curriculum, testing and funding are often decided far above your classroom.
Try it before you commit
- Tutor or coach. Volunteer as a homework tutor, sports coach or youth-group leader for a term. You'll quickly find out whether explaining to young people energises you or drains you.
- Teach a ten-minute lesson on something you know to a younger sibling or a friend's child. Then ask them to explain it back to you.
- Get school experience. In the US, ask a local school about observing classes or volunteering. England's Get Into Teaching service lists school-experience options.
- Read Why Don't Students Like School? by cognitive psychologist Daniel T. Willingham, a readable guide to how learning actually works.
- Ask a teacher in their third year, not their twentieth, what surprised them most.
The takeaway
Teaching is planning, explaining, checking and adapting, all while managing a room of young people and a steady stream of paperwork. In the US the route is a bachelor's degree plus state certification, and every state has an alternative route for graduates; in England it's QTS. US openings stay high even with flat growth, because many teachers leave. If explaining things energises you and you can stay warm and firm under pressure, it's one of the most meaningful jobs there is. Go in expecting the workload.
Try this: volunteer to tutor or coach for one term before you apply to any teacher-training programme. Keep notes on what drained you and what energised you.
Sources & Further Reading
Sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: High School Teachers; Kindergarten and Elementary School Teachers (pay May 2025, projections 2025–35, openings, licensing, alternative certification, school year).
- ONET OnLine: Secondary School Teachers, 25-2031.00, and Elementary School Teachers, 25-2021.00 (both interest code Social; sample titles).
- ETS Praxis (licensure tests; state-specific requirements). Get Into Teaching, GOV.UK: teacher pay from September 2026; QTS and PGCE routes.
- Learning Policy Institute, Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It (2017). Teach For All network page. Escuelas normales in Mexico (1984 licenciatura agreement).
- Around the world: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026 provisional, Table 14.7a (SOC 2313). OECD, Education at a Glance 2026 (teachers' actual salaries, 2025), as reported by Euronews (10 October 2026), and its Germany country note. Wikipedia, Vorbereitungsdienst (German teacher training). IMCO, Compara Carreras 2026* (INEGI ENOE data, 2025–26) and its press release. Law 11.738/2008 (Brazil, national minimum salary for public-school teachers). CTET (CBSE; NCTE minimum qualifications under the RTE Act 2009). Professional Regulation Commission (Philippines), Board for Professional Teachers. Qualified Teacher Status for teachers trained outside England.
Go deeper
- 🌐 BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: High School Teachers
- 🌐 O*NET OnLine: Secondary School Teachers
- 🌐 Get Into Teaching (England) · 🌐 National Education Association (US)
- 📘 Why Don't Students Like School?, Daniel T. Willingham: cognitive science for the classroom