public ed, 24 as a teacher, 6 as an administrator. It is hard for me to encourage anyone to get into education these days. That makes me so sad because it is a vital profession and full of great non-monetary rewards. The biggest issue for many is the attitude of the general public about teachers. Cute comments like, "maybe they should get their summers off", destroy the will of teachers. They suffer in the classroom, then suffer in society. The ridiculous things that happen in some extreme situation suddenly becomes the norm in the eye of the public. It's a tough road.