Teaching Graphic Design as a Profession
You’ve got that degree and you’re thinking about becoming a graphic design teacher. That’s a very noble decision to devote your life to the education of others, but the truth is that many teaching jobs are practically quite thankless. Most young people do not like being in classrooms, sitting in the same place, listening to you talk while people outside are doing things not involving sitting in the same place and listening to you talk. This attitude, unlike a good bottle of wine, does not get better with age – college students are sometimes just as twitchy as elementary school kids. This is why students will be fiddling with their cell phones and huffing Fixatif while you try and explain how to create a logo sheet. As graphic designer jobs go, this one can be pretty difficult.
Don’t get me wrong – teaching can be gratifying if you can deal with the pandemic laziness that spreads among the student body. It’s not so much students turning things in late, or projects stained with various bodily fluids or making up excuses about how their grandmother died for the third time in a week to try and get an extended deadline. Young adults have been this kind of apathetic for years, but it’s the parents you need to watch out for.
If you dare give a student a failing grade because they didn’t turn anything in and did nothing but sleep all semester (y’know, giving them the grade they deserve), you might get a phone call or even a visit from a very agitated, foaming-at-the-mouth, abuse-slinging parent. And then it’ll be shame on you for not realizing their child deserves an A+ just for showing up and breath ing. Cue said parents complaining and trying to get you fired. Now doesn’t this sound like fun?
And do not think for a second this behavior will be any better with the college crowd, because there are plenty of students who have no shame over siccing their parents on you for not passing them, especially since said parents are paying good money for their child to attend the school. Sit down and really ask yourself if this sounds like something you can handle doing for about twenty-five years.
Honestly, though…amongst the indolent loafers who won’t be going anywhere as far as graphic design, there’s going to be a handful of very talented and very creative students who will make something of themselves. They are the ones who will make the job worthwhile, so don’t think every single student is a languid bum with insane parents.
It’s kind of like having to eat your way through a box of cereal before finding the prize at the bottom – it’s tedious and you will consider giving up many, many times because you think you’ll never reach anything that’s worth all that effort you’ve been putting forth. If you think it’s worth it to wait until you find those exceptional students, then you might make a good teacher after all. But you need to have a galaxy of patience ready before handling such a career; trust me when I say no one will hire you after the first time you get arrested for throwing a snotty D-student out the window.