Social Worker vs. High School Teacher as a Career?

Question by farrahchrist: Social Worker vs. High School Teacher as a career?
Social worker, as in.. Something along the lines of helping with children, or domestic violence, or counseling. Teaching, as in.. English, or history, and possibly coaching a high school sport.

Pros/cons of both? What is a better career? Any opinions welcome, thank you.

Best answer:

Answer by Charlie Kelly
Teachers suck

Social Workers rule!

Answer by monique
Social work is not a better career than teaching, and teaching is not a better career than social work. It all boils down to what your interests are and what type of career you feel passionate about and would enjoy!

My only advice is ensure you want to teach, because once you get your degree and certify to become a teacher, you will be back at the drawing board if you decide you do not want to teach. It may even require going back to college for a couple of years to earn a different degree.

In the field of social work, social workers work in many different settings. Social work job duties/responsibilities will depend of course on the job position we have, which as you can see below will definitely vary on the type of work we do.

Social workers can work in various settings, to include administrative jobs. Some individuals with social work degrees, for example, write grants, do research and work on fundraiser in agencies that may be not for profit. Social workers work in health care settings (hospice, home health, hospitals, nursing homes); mental health settings (state department of mental health, residential treatment centers, alcohol/drug rehab, etc); dept of social services (child protective services, foster care, investigator, etc); other state jobs may include probation and parole officers; youth services (to include juvenile facilities, counseling, residential); dept of aging (adult protective services, community support worker); maternal health (education, home visits, etc); and other public health positions. Social workers who have their Masters in Social Work and typically a clinical license can work for the federal government, to include the Veterans Administration as well as a civilian working on military installations. Other positions may include working as a victim advocate; domestic violence shelters; grass roots organizations (i.e. I saw a job looking for a social worker to work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving); organizations/agencies that provide services for those who are homeless (i.e. Salvation Army, catholic charities).

All jobs of course have cons………it will depend on the job. Perhaps a con for a teacher may be dealing with the politics of the school board and school system itself. I would say that a pro for teaching is that they make a difference in the lives of their students. All of us can remember those great teachers we had. I even remember the name of a couple of my elementary school teachers! I know someone who works as a teacher’s aide and enjoys what they do because they make a difference in the lives of students. She also tutors.