5 Reasons teaching is NOT a profession (Updated)

Updated November 21, 2025 (the original article published December 2018)

We’ve stepped into the future and had a talk with the resident Ai of the future….ChatGPT on the topic of whether teaching is a profession in 2025. Here’s what the seer had to say:

1. Limited Professional Autonomy

In many educational systems, teachers have less control over curriculum, assessment methods, and teaching strategies.
They must follow standardized curricula, policies, and directives from administrators or government agencies—unlike many classic professions (e.g., medicine, law) where practitioners make independent decisions.

2. Lower Barriers to Entry in Some Regions

While many countries require rigorous training, others allow individuals to teach with:

• Minimal preparation

• Emergency certifications

• Short-term training courses
  Because the entry pathway is not always standardized or demanding, some argue it lacks the strict professional standards seen in fields like law or engineering.

3. Inconsistent Professional Status and Pay

Teaching is often undervalued, underpaid, and treated like routine labor rather than expert professional work.
This perception leads some to claim it does not receive the social and economic recognition expected of a “profession.”

4. Heavy Managerial or Bureaucratic Oversight

Teachers are often closely supervised by administrators, school boards, inspectors, and policymakers.
This can make the role feel more like public service work than an autonomous profession, with limited freedom to exercise expert judgment.

5. Lack of Exclusive Practice Rights

Many professions (medicine, law, accounting) have legally protected fields of practice—only certified professionals can perform certain tasks.
Teaching, however, does not have exclusive rights to all educational work; tutoring, homeschooling, online instruction, and private coaching can be done by individuals without formal qualifications.
This weakens the idea of teaching as an exclusive, regulated profession.

Original Article

This article comes to us from a teacher. Dr. Ernest J. Zarra III, PhD at his blog: www.erniezarra.com

He’s a teacher. He loves education. He tells us why teaching is NOT a profession and gives us “5” reasons.

Years and years ago, a professor looked at me with that certain look.  I interpreted the look as displeasure.  He explained it was a look of perplexity.  “Zarra,” he said, “Why don’t you go into the teaching profession?”  I thought to  myself, would I have to develop confusing facial expressions in the process?

I replied to the professor with two responses.  The first response was “I don’t want to work with kids.”  The second response was “I wouldn’t know what to say or do.”

The professor laughed and drew the brief exchange to a conclusion when he stated, “that’s why we train you for the profession.”  So, I chose to go into teaching.  I quickly learned it was not a profession.  The professor was the professional.  After all, his title more than implied a certain profession.  All these years later, I have mastered the looks and the body language.

Teaching is not a profession for many reasons.  But allow me to share just five, off the top of my head.  

REASON #1

To begin, teaching is reminiscent of an assembly line.  Kids in desks, at tables, dutifully producing, or not. Numbers come in, numbers go out.  Next sequence, same pattern.  Next year, same routine.  Do this enough times and it becomes just that–a routine.  This is why many veteran teachers leave at the end of the day with nothing in their hands.  This is particularly true in the upper grades.  They’ve automated their daily assembly.  There are those that will work extra hours at home, and lose sleep for the “fatherland.”

REASON #2

A second reason that teaching is not a profession is that it is based on a socialist model.  We toss around terms like “правда,” (pravda: truth) when essentially what is meant by the terms is “известия,” (izvestiya: delivered messages or propaganda).  We even train the masses in programs such as Social-Emotional Learning, Restorative Practices, and the like, so that everyone is the same.  This is an example of an assembly line approach that promises a better product.

Terms such as equity imply something for everyone, and the aim is that everyone has to realize success by being produced, I mean graduating.  If some of the quality of the product is inferior, then the lack of quality is accommodated for and the product still hits the market. There is no warranty.  There is no guarantee.  Just keep the assembly line moving.  We must produce!

The assembly line must keep moving or the  “бюрократы” (burokrati: state bureaucrats) come down and can punish if one or more students/groups are not treated the same, given the same outcomes, even in the face of similar opportunities.  Everyone must have equity. The product must be produced.  Find a way to produce–even if the product is inferior.  Sounds trite, doesn’t it?  There is no time for empathy, yet it is exactly that that enables an inferior product.

REASON #3

A third reason teaching is not a profession, is the “white coat test.”  Teachers do not see clients, take appointments, put a sign on their doors, hand out a shingle, or even cancel classes due to an emergency.  There are no scripted plans left for a substitute on the assembly line.

Teachers cannot bill students and families for extra time working on their behalves.  There is that socialist system again.  Want more money?  Come back next year and get in the same assembly line on a schedule.  Older teachers often make more money, if they are healthy enough to work, been faithful to one school or district, and have been around for many years.  The fatherland appreciates those who first signed on with the “большая партия” (bolshaya partiya:  Large Party)   Geeze, if I was paid an incentive to raise test scores, like some baseball manager is paid for winning 100 games, then maybe I would sense a bit of a profession-in-the-making.  I was paid to make widgets and some was the next teacher.

REASON #4

A fourth reason that teaching is not a profession is the salary structure.  Work hard or work at crossword puzzles, a teacher will be paid the same amount.  In a profession, there are fines if a person messes up, or does not perform.  Teachers are not fined.  They are evaluated. It is as if a shop steward shows up one a given day, watches how the teachers moves his or her part of the daily assembly, and then receives a “satisfactory” for his or her efforts.  What is the heck is a “satisfactory”?  Notice the word “factory” built into the descriptor?

REASON #5

One last reason for why I do not consider teaching as a profession, is because giving assessments is like taking photos.  Professionals take tests and then have hard data to examine, from which they can prescribe.  Many teachers know what the problems are with students, even without assessments.  Imagine a professional looking at a patient’s file, or a client’s file.  In it there is a not that states, due to a particular “issue” with this client, you must accommodate his blood test, so that it does not affect him adversely.  Also, a note might read, “due to the upbringing of a person, he should not be placed in jail, or prison after a crime.  Instead, the person must be given every opportunity to restore the wrongs committed.  I think you see the point.

CONCLUSION

Yes, teachers know the problems, but they cannot be heard over the noise of the assembly line in the factory.  In fact, the system has told them they cannot discipline certain groups of students because it makes the factory look bad.  Thus, we have come full circle “komrades.”  The factory worker can never make the factory or the product look bad–even if they both are!  Acting as a professional, or behaving to someone else’s standards, does not make one a professional, even if it does produce a better widget on occasion.