I was going to be able to walk into a room of high school students and teach them math or physics and have them eager to learn, hanging on my every word, eager to absorb some of my practical life experience. A semester after teaching in a South Austin high school, his optimism was tempered. His students were apathetic, many didn't care about their grades, and they didn't turn in their homework. Still, he found himself wanting to work hard. But I stick it out.
Someone has to do it.
Someone has to teach in the tough schools. Today, he's teaching at another Austin high school. So far, that experience has been great, he said. A September 2000 report by the National Center for Education Statistics found that in the 1987-1988 school year, 9.3 percent of new teachers had done something else during the years between graduating from college or receiving their highest degree and becoming a teacher. By the 1993-1994 school year, that number had increased to 16.6 percent of all new teachers.