Preparing New Teachers for the Negatives

I know you are sensing a theme in my posts of advice for new teachers. I think that's on my mind because right now I have a (pretty amazing) pre-service teacher in my classes with me. It has me thinking about things I wish I knew before I started teaching. Today will be the final installment along those lines. I've got some other topics to cover in upcoming posts.

College can be tough, but future teachers should be prepared for some of the things that will make their commitment waver, no matter how much they love teaching.

1. Public Opinion: It's tough to hear people talk about how easy teaching is while you are working 50+ hours a week and spending your evenings, weekends, and summers planning, grading, and taking classes. It hurts when you've got $50,000 in student loan debt and you've earned a Master's degree and people still think they could step in today and do your job. And it's difficult when people assert that because they pay taxes, they are your boss and should be able to tell you how to do your job.
2. Administration: Your administration (and colleagues) can make or break your teaching experience. Some schools encourage innovation, plan meaningful professional development, and support teachers as a top priority... and some schools require scripted curricula and superfluous standardized testing, demand daily lesson plans, and enforce no discipline. 
3. Parents: Even at the high school level, you can run into problems with parents. Anyone can procreate--even drug addicts, con artists, and people with varying degrees of mental illness. Before I began teaching, most of my relationships had been with generally positive contributors to society. They were all in college with me or working at a job with me. But when teaching, your students will have all kinds of parents: from "helicopter parents" whose child can do no wrong to drug-addicted felons who are allowed custody off-and-on. You don't always get to deal with logical, rational people.
4. Lack of Resources: ALL schools lack resources compared to a private business. Some more than others. If you teach in a school in a high poverty area, students won't bring their own paper and pencils. And most schools don't supply basics like that. So if you want your students to be able to write, you will be buying those yourself. Some schools have projectors and Smartboards; some have only chalkboards and don't supply chalk. But you'll never teach in a school that has all of the resources you need to teach your best.
5. Overcrowded Classes: Along the lines of lack of resources, you will also have more students than would be ideal to teach effectively. Students can benefit greatly from small group and one-on-one attention, but that is rarely possible. Sometimes you may not even have enough desks for all of the students, even in "wealthy" districts. And if your administration doesn't enforce basic discipline, you might be spending the majority of your time managing behavior instead of teaching.