It's all worth it because the kids are so great, right? Not exactly. The behavior of children has deteriorated dramatically with the decline of the family. "Dad beats Mom, or they live with two dads or two moms, or they live with Grandma," says one teacher. Says "Vicky," who teaches at an upper middle class school, "These kids don't even have basic manners or morals. You would die if you heard some of the things they say. They don't even know why cheating or stealing or hitting someone is wrong."

Another job for teacher: Giving people lessons.

Teachers do get a break at lunch and recess, unless it's their turn to do lunch or recess, or it's raining and the kids have to stay in the room with them. Fun. Pass the Valium.

Teachers are so swamped that they can't complete their jobs without volunteer classroom help from parents and doing their own homework. At night, they give up family time to grade papers and assemble material for students. Leslie sometimes stays up until 1 a.m. finishing her work.

Are you sure you want to be a teacher?

Teachers also must mentor young teachers, because if other teachers' students are weak in a subject and don't earn the same scores as other classes, by law it could penalize all the teachers. This sounds fine, except a high percentage of teachers quit within the first five years, so the veterans have to break in another rookie.

Last week, Terry broke down and cried. A counselor took her class for 10 minutes while she regrouped. Gerri and Leslie have had several moments just like it; everyone does, they say.

"I'm just tired," says Terry. Gerri agrees. "Sometimes you just have to get out of class because you know you're going to fall apart."

By the way, there are plenty of teaching jobs out there; there is a national shortage of teachers.

Still want to be a teacher?

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Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. E-mail drob@desnews.com.