Yesterday’s blog post certainly stirred up a hornet’s nest. Yes it was an April Fools. I thought I added enough clues and links in the message, but I guess my current mood (my eyes are still horrible) didn’t make it a very positive one this year. I apologise.
Having said that, the wholesale cancellation of English in elementary school is certainly possible.
I’ve seen it before where whole cities have made English compulsory, including bringing in outside teachers, only for the programme to be cancelled when new politicians came in. With the current national state, and history, of elementary school English then cancellation of the whole programme is a real possibility and something we should all think about.
So the question is then, what would you do if your job disappeared?
If you rely solely on the traditional Western idea of one teaching position or one job then it really is like putting all your eggs in one basket. Especially if that job is a temporary one or a yearly contract. All it takes is one person to make a decision and suddenly your income and way of supporting yourself (or even worse your family) disappears. In this day and age it is a necessity to have several sources of income or “multiple income streams” as the money people call them.
For example my Japanese learning materials get a lot of their revenue from Youtube. But yesterday Youtube changed their whole system (I thought that was an April fools!). If I relied solely on their income then I would be in big trouble!
Jobs for teachers
As a teacher some form of writing, publishing, online work, blogging, investing or a million and one other options should be a part of your income mix. Yes it is more work and none of us want to work more, but it’s work that you exchange for more financial security. And it is rather cool that we have the choice.
A much larger share of income should come from other clients, other contracts or, most secure of all, from your own school and your own private teaching. If you have a non-permanent contract then being allowed to teach outside class hours should be a vital part of your contract negotiations. It’s the price they pay for not making you permanent.
Even if you are not allowed to teach outside your current situation, it’s always wise to plan how you would start on your own should the worst happen. Being prepared always works. The idea being that if your school contracts were suddenly cancelled or not renewed, then you would have built up such a reputation as a brilliant teacher with constantly amazing lessons and fantastic results that parents would be calling you up. Your income wouldn’t be interrupted and you may even get a pay rise!
In fact I’ve known quite a few teachers with their own schools who purposely take low paid, or volunteer, short term contracts at public schools just to bowl the students over and have the parents begging to sign up for private lessons later.
If public English education ended, parents would certainly look to the private sector i.e. you, to educate their children. That’s how education in many countries actually works.
The most secure way to guarantee your income…
Without a doubt, starting your own teaching business or school is the most secure, and maybe only, way of guaranteeing your income. Is it more work? Yes. Is it more stress? Yes. Can it be incredibly hard? Yes. Do you have to constantly improve yourself and your teaching? Absolutely.
So what’s so good about it? Well, it’s for one reason.
When working for someone else all it takes is one politician, one boss, one board of education member or one change of head teacher to throw you out. With just two words “you’re fired”. Do you really want to give someone else, someone you may not even know, that much power over your life? I know I wouldn’t!
If you work for yourself, with your own students or your own school it’s you who has total control. You put in the blood, sweat, tears and study to get it started. And therefore you decide your income, your salary, your students, your working conditions, when, where and how you work. You control your own destiny and your own freedom. And that is priceless.
But the best part is that the only person who can ever fire you ….. is you. And you wouldn’t do that to yourself, would you? : )
Comments are welcomed!
Be genki,
Richard
P.S. If your livelihood really does depend on one thing, you should never believe anything you read on the internet. Especially if it is written on April 1st!
P.P.S. Much more happier posts coming next week – with some very cool new stuff!
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
Richard,
this is a great mail today. Thanks a lot.
I’m reading the blog since several years now, so I knew that yesterday’s was an April fool. I also didn’t think it was a good one, so I didn’t comment anything. I can understand that it made people upset.
BUT you are absolutely right with what you are saying today, I think. So I hope that the people being upset yesterday, will learn a lesson and think about it.
Now I personally have a question, I would love your opinion to.
I am completely fine with my private school, my private students, and yes, some translating work here and some other stuff there that I’m doing. This is what I make the money from, and what I wouldn’t stop doing.
Now, as I mentioned before the BoE quit my budget for next year’s ES school lessons. Just five minutes ago I got a call from my school that they want to sit together and talk about a way(ways) to ask me for further help.
My reasons to help them:
I love teaching at ES.
The kids and teachers love me.
My private school is in action in the afternoon, so I’m basically free in the mornings.
My son is in the grade as well and I want him to have a good experience with English.
Just IF they would pay me a lot, that would bring me to an income that I would have to pay a lot of taxes, so thinking about that it might even be cheaper for me to work for very little money.
My name is getting known.
I hate to give up because of somebody deciding against me.
…this list would go on but I’ll stop here.
My reasons against:
It’s a lot of hours, as it is a huge school, with 13 hours per year/class it means about 150 hours to teach.
To reduce the lessons is something I don’t want to do, as it doesn’t make any sense to teach only 5 lessons per year. 13 isn’t so much either, but it worked well enough. They got very encouraged.
I don’t really know if it is okay to work for free (or almost free). I’m maybe a bit worried that the BoE gets used to that and will continue refusing the money to our school.
I’m going to meet them on Monday, and I would be happy to get an idea from you (of course other comments welcome as well)
I don’t know what they would be able to offer me (except for money cards to buy books)
But what could / should I offer them?
Margit
Hi Margit, maybe ask your self what is your value to the school? What are you bringing them? And that’s what you ask to be paid for.
Where I live schools are crying out for English native speakers in elementary schools. As the education authority won’t always employ a native speaker (my position is very rare and not typical,) a lot of my colleagues here are working on a free-lance basis in elementary schools. The eltern verein or parents association pay for them to teach English in school during school hours. So, for example, if the going rate for a 50 min lesson is, say, 30-40 Euro/lesson with say 25 kids in the class, each parent(s) pays 1 euro 20 cents per child (30 Euro divided by 25 = 1.20). The parents association collect the money and pay out on a weekly/monthly basis. So if you are teaching say 5 lessons per week at that school you take home 5 x 30 = 150 Euro.
As for me, I’m employed by the regional education authority. However, recent local elections have lead to a shift in power within the local council where I teach and many changes loom on the horizon. What was a given just a few weeks ago is no longer certain. However, as Richard says, got a few other strings to my bow so I can move around a bit.
Richard,
The April Fool’s joke was pretty obvious to me. The rest of your commentary above basically boils down to: Should one be an employee or should one start one’s own business? Yes, you brilliantly gave all the good reasons for being one’s own boss. But you left out a few considerations like: 1) How much competition is there in my city from more established English schools (and maybe they are established because they are pretty good)? 2) Realistically, do I have the finances and entrepreneurial skills required to run a business successfully?
Being an employee has its advantages too. The above risks are transfered to an employer. I can concentrate on teaching. Some of us are simply not as creatively (and entrepreneurially) talented as you are! My own experience before becoming an English teaching “employee” was a real grind. After several years I managed to piece together several small teaching contracts and a few private students to where I was making about $1000 a month (after expenses). I just couldn’t make a significant contribution to my family (my wife who was running an art school had $2000 in income). That’s why I jumped at an AET job paying $2500 when it became available. It’s also why I later jumped at a job paying considerably more at a university. Yes, I can be fired tomorrow, but I haven’t been fired for almost five years now. During that time I was able to take my family to America every year, put my stepdaughter through chuugakkou and koukou and my wife had a serious operation for which I fortunately had good insurance. My point is there are many things to consider. If having your own business were so easy, everyone would do it! Sorry to be such a wet blanket.
Margit, your problem sounds a bit strange. You don’t want more money because you are afraid you will have to pay a lot more taxes? I think it is always better to be paid what you are worth.
Hi Stan,
You make a very good point there. For the short term it sounds like the right thing to do for you, I still think it’s a risky route, but you have your eyes open and have proven very flexible so I’d say good on you.
@Margit: Doing it for free or not? This is a tough one isn’t it! As you know I did free visits to schools for 10 years. But what happened was that teachers valued them at exactly the same price they paid i.e. nothing! But at the same time I totally understand the desire to really help the kids, especially when we know you can do such a good job. What did the school suggest?
Oh and Stan is totally right about the taxes, if we all refused more work because we’d have to pay more taxes we’d never work at all! Japan does have an extremely lenient tax system if you are self employed.
Margit, along the lines of what Richard had to say, I forgot to say that here one often hears the saying Kostet nix, ist nix – costs nothing, worth nothing. Maybe food for thought.
Well as usual you have written another great topic!
My 5yens worth, I am sel-emplyed too, however, if Genki English ever decided to close down.
I would be in big trouble!
Happy Easter
Gio
Thanks a lot for the comments. I’ll think about it until my meeting.
The tax thing isn’t really a “Reason” itsself. I am just looking for as many things to justify me and make it seem to me that I am getting something, I guess.
ha-.
this is so hard. Maybe I really should have them get into trouble once .
I’m curious about what we’ll decide in the end. But my nerves are really tensed to the highest now, and what so ever, I’ll be just happy when this time of no decision will be over.
I think it’s like you rightly say – don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Working for public schools does have certain advantages (like being able to do a distance learning MA from my desk between lessons), but I think there has to be something else. For me teaching children at their homes is making me a nice side income (enough to pay for the already mentioned MA) without the hours really being enough to cut into my own time. And how many streams of passive income did Adam Khoo recommend having in his book? It was quite a few if I remember right.
Hello,
I’ve tried to work for elementary and kinder garten schools here in Mexico, and I believe employing myself is much better.
Some reasons: you set your own schedule, income, students and program to teach. I definitely adore to serve my students in a better way.
It’s been 3 years now, my sister and me have taught to 19 students every week, all ages, even complete families- another thing I love. Most of them had come to us because the former ones recommendend us.
We had gone through hard times, but I believe really good results have been achieved and students and families are happy – well, that’s what they commented in the last survey. And so am I!
Greetings,
Monica