Why do people want to become teachers?

Do you think that secindary school teacher heads of dept should get paid as much as Premier League footballers?

How much do you think they should earn?

What other jobs do you suggest that, for example a graduate in English should aim for instead?

These are good timely questions! Graduates from virtually any subject can usually go into a variety of areas of employment nowadays. eg English graduates- journalism, finance, further education, retail management. self employment..list goes on.

Journalists?
Newspaper journalists earn less than teachers, according to this:
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/newspaper-journalist

Finance? Finance what? Do you mean working in a bank?
As a bank teller? Rising up to be a bank manager?
Bank managers earn £34k average. Doesn't compare that well to a teaching head of department.
https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Job=Bank_Manager/Salary

Retail management?
Supermarket managers earn £39k according to payscale.com
But in terms of members of staff, it's more equivalent to a head teacher than head of department - depending on the size of the supermarket.

Self employment? Self employed as what? Self employed as an English Teacher?

As I said, teaching heads of department are on pretty good money.

The pay that heads of departments receive would be an incentive for me. And would attract me to becoming a secondary school teacher.

It's quite simple. My answer in response to the original post and thread title is: the pay.

Did you actuslly read the maths i put in my last post reply you? There is no way, in my opinion ,that a head of department is on good money at £13.50 an hour! Do your calculations properly. Supermarket managers unlike like heads of department or classroom teachers don't take work home or work after hours!

I see. But then we can agree that heads do make more than classroom teachers..so the incentive to become a teacher is not for teacher pay, but internal promotion..

The £13.50 an hour is a separate issue to their pay.

For someoene willing to put in the hours during term time, the pay is - as I've said twice already in this thread - pretty good.
The pay is an incentive to become a teacher and to be willing to take on low level management responsibilities in order to become a head of department.
The pretty good pay of a head of department would attract me to the job.

I asked you, what professions you'd suggest for an English graduate as alternatives to teaching that would be better paid. You don't appear to have made any.

You've made suggestions that would suit someone that wasn't willing to put the term time hours in, but they all appear to be worse paid.

So, for our hypothetical English graduate, it's very much a choice. Earn more but work longer hours during term time. Or work less during those peak 39 weeks of the year and earn less.

Another factor in this is the approx 13 weeks annual leave that teachers get compared to 5 weeks (including bank holidays) for the vast majority of other professions.

I can't see any compelling reason to increase the pay of teachers. If they were doing more hours and earning less than bank, newspaper, supermarket workers then there might be. But that's not the case.

"The £13.50 an hour is a separate issue to their pay". ?? what does this contradictory statement mean? Do you think this is good pay?
"newspaper, supermarket workers then there might be" why are you comparing them with the teaching profession? You have no clue about the job of teaching; they do a lot of hours! You are definitely not nor ever have been a teacher so you have no clue how difficult the job is. Try it first! otherwise you will continue to be deluded!

Please read my previous posts again.

£13.50 per hour is the pay per hour of work - during term time.
The pay per hour of work in the month of August is infinite for teachers!

Each month, how much does a teacher get in his or her bank account? That is the pay.
The hours that they work is the hours that they work. That is a separate issue to the pay.
The pay per hour is a combination of 2 separate factors. By combining the hours with the pay you are looking at a separate issue to the pay.

I am comparing supermarket workers, newspaper journalists to the teaching profession because I asked you what professions you would suggest an English graduate should go in to if they want higher pay than becoming a teacher. Your responded with journalism, retail sector, finance, self employment. It's called having a conversation. You say something, I respond to it, then you respond to what I said. It seems a bit strange when you are saying why have you mentioned X, Y and Z when it was you that brought them into the conversation in ther first place.

The pay of all jobs is relative.

The difficulty of a job is a separate issue to the pay. For some people, secondary school teaching will be a difficult job. For others it would be not too difficult at all.

It is pure ad hominem for you to say that I have definitely never been a teacher. When posting on this forum I am allowed a certain amount of anonymity. So I therefore reserve the right to not discuss my teaching experience on here.

If anyone is not happy in any job they are doing - regardless of whether it is teaching or not - then they should change it if they are confident that there is something else that they could and should do instead.

Another factor in this is the approx 13 weeks annual leave that teachers get compared to 5 weeks (including bank holidays) for the vast majority of other professions.

I can't see any compelling reason to increase the pay of teachers. If they were doing more hours and earning less than bank, newspaper, supermarket workers then there might be. But that's not the case.

Really - so we never do ANY work in the holidays or have to go into school? Wrong

How many hours a week does a typical teacher work do you think?