You’ve heard it before: “Those who can’t do, teach.”

You’ve also heard that teaching is a simple job. You get the whole summer off, you can never get fired and you are guaranteed a job for life. Practically 9 to 5 with little outside work — right?

Not always.

For many teachers, the job is not as glorious as it seemed when, as children, they aspired to “be a teacher when they grew up.”

Many teachers invest some 150 credit hours in unpaid teacher workshops, work to get re-certified after already completing a master’s degree, deal with pressure to increase standardized test scores each year and face regular financial and emotional stress.

It starts out as a simple desire.

Maybe it was just “feeling good that you accomplished something when you teach,” said sixth grade student D’ Vaughn.

Or, like sixth grade teacher Laura Hatfield put it: “I always liked helping people.”

According to the National Education Association (NEA), 73 percent of teachers enter the education profession because of their desire to work with young people.

The aspiration to become a teacher, like most childhood dream jobs, begins at an age when being a teacher means being a superhero.

“The only way I learned what teaching was like was during student teaching,” said Tia Lindstrom, a sixth grade teacher at Sunrise Elementary in Redmond, Wash. “This is when I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. … This is what it’s like.’”

Teachers soon learn that they are expected to teach not only the three R’s — reading, writing and ‘rithmetic — but also manners, problem-solving skills, appropriate behavior, self-management skills, how to follow directions, how to be responsible, listening and even social skills.

They also introduce students as young as 10 years old to the dangers of drugs and provide sex education.

“As a teacher, you have to be multifaceted,” said fifth grade teacher Michael Lee. “You have to be a parent, a counselor, a friend, a teacher — everything you can think of.”

Teachers seem to develop a particular teaching style and reputation early in their teaching careers. It can be motherly, complimentary, shaming, friendly and sweet, cool and hip or even mimic a drill sergeant’s stern demeanor.

Lindstrom proved successful in managing her class with humor and using words like “dude,” and “chill.”

Students and teachers agreed that humor, patience and understanding are three of the most important traits a teacher can possess.

However, one trait they didn’t mention is a teacher’s ability to hold off using the restroom.

“That’s another thing,” Hatfield said. “We have to fit in when to go to the bathroom.”

Working eight hours day, teachers have two 20-minute breaks when the kids are at recess, and one half-hour break, when students are at lunch.

But even then, a teacher might be busy photocopying, helping a student with their work or checking e-mail.

Teachers juggle the challenges of culturally diverse classrooms, low pay, long work weeks, lack of parental support and appreciation.

Behavioral problems, inadequate funding for classroom supplies, the pressure of standardized testing and raising classroom scores are also issues teachers face.

“There are many children with mental, economic and family instabilities,” Lindstrom said. “I have had … children in foster care, homeless children, children from low-income families [and] issues beyond [not doing] their homework.”

According to the NEA, teachers spend an average of 50-plus hours per week on teaching duties, including uncompensated school-related activities such as grading papers, bus duty, fundraisers, phone calls at home and evening activity supervision.

“I didn’t realize that you don’t have the time to accomplish the things you need to do in a normal work day,” Lee said. “The average teacher works three hours a day outside of class that they don’t get paid for.”

According to the NEA, the nationwide average salary for teachers in 2006 was $31,047.

“We are more educated than people who get paid more than us,” Lindstrom said. “And I find that insulting.”

All the teachers interviewed for this story had master’s degrees, and the NEA reports that half of all teachers have such degrees.

According to The Washington Post in 2006, “Half of new U.S. teachers are likely to quit within the first five years because of poor working conditions and low salaries.”

Being an elementary teacher has shown to be a career, and although painting pictures and leading sing-a-longs can be a great way to teach kids, it is ultimately a career that involves hours of behind-the-scenes hard work.

[Reach contributing writer Haley Herr at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]