到底要不要去學校教書呢？
老實說，我也思考過這個問題
Should I go teach at a regular school?Honestly, I've asked myself that question before. I did consider becoming a schoolteacher at one point. But after hearing all the horror stories from my cram school coworkers about what it's like working in the school system, I quickly dropped the idea.
Take my coworker A, for example. She quit her job here and went to teach at a high school as a substitute teacher for a year—without a teaching license. (Just so you know: for the first round of school hiring, you need a teaching license; for the second round, you need to have completed teacher training; and by the third round, even just having a college degree is enough.)
Anyway, after a year, she came back to the cram school. She told me things were easier here, the pay was better, and she didn’t have to deal with all the admin or homeroom responsibilities. All she had to focus on was teaching. She even joked, “Substitute teachers are basically overworked beasts of burden—they get stuck doing the heaviest stuff like being homeroom teachers or admin leads, just because no one else wants to do it, so it always falls to the newbies.”
Coworker B teaches at three different schools plus our cram school. He’s also a substitute teacher (again, no license—third-round hire).
I asked him why he was running around to so many places. He said, “If I only worked at one school, I'd starve. They pay something like 300 to 400 NT an hour. And as a sub, you only show up when you have classes, which isn’t much. Plus, there's no work at all during summer and winter breaks.” So during the long breaks, he does things like leading winter and summer camps to make some extra cash. Working at several cram schools is the only way to make ends meet.
Then there's Coworker C. Back then he was still doing his master’s and was teaching at one school (also as a substitute) and one cram school. I asked him if he planned to take the teacher certification exams and try for a full-time position. He said no—it was too much hassle. For him, teaching at school was just a temporary gig until he could switch to a different industry.
Coworker D used to work at a private high school on a one-year contract. He said the monthly salary was over NT$70,000, but he had to stay late for evening study sessions, and his daily hours easily went beyond 8.
He also said the admin duties and homeroom responsibilities were totally overwhelming. Now that he’s back at a cram school, he only teaches about 3–4 hours a day. The pay is a bit lower, sure—but he has way more free time. He’s really into hiking and yoga, so now he actually has time to enjoy those things.
When I asked around about the hourly pay for school subs, most said it was about NT$400–500.
To be honest, that’s not much. In cram schools, teaching a small group class can earn you NT$1,600–2,200 an hour. Large classes can pay NT$2,000–3,500. One-on-one tutoring pays closer to school rates, but still tends to be higher.
About the Cram School Industry
At the beginning, how well you do really depends on your boss. Some are great, some… not so much. But once you're more established, if you're willing to hustle—take on more classes, mix private tutoring with group lessons—it’s totally possible to make over a million NT a year, even without a teaching license. And even if you prefer a more chill lifestyle and take on fewer classes, you can still make NT$600,000–700,000 a year with far less stress. No admin work. No homeroom teacher stuff. Just teaching. So I thought—why go through all the stress of trying to squeeze into the school system?
That's why I gave up on the idea.
Other Reasons
Another big reason I've stayed in the cram school industry is the freedom—I pretty much get to do things my way. If I want to start a new course, I just do it. As long as I'm making money for my boss, he doesn't really care what I teach. I just hand him the teaching plan, schedule, and homework list, and nine times out of ten, he gives me the green light.
When I get bored of teaching the usual junior and senior high school curriculum, I switch things up. I've created all kinds of classes over the years—beginner and intermediate GEPT prep, in-school speaking courses (based on school textbooks), writing classes for the college entrance exam, TOEIC reading/listening and speaking/writing, and even writing workshops based on the English magazines students get tested on at school. I've also run classes like picture book reading, English novel discussions, and news English.
When I'm in the mood for something fun, I've even turned vocabulary into a card game using prefixes, roots, and suffixes. I once ran a class where students learned while playing cards. I've also done summer-camp-style workshops where we used English to fold origami, do paper crafts, and paint. It's a pretty fun and colorful life, honestly. Maybe it's because we're not part of the formal education system—there's a lot less pressure, so we can be creative and do our own thing.
On top of that, I'm lucky to have a supportive boss, understanding parents, and students who trust me.
I don't want to only teach exam prep all the time—it gets mentally draining. When I talk to parents about trying out new types of classes, most of them say things like:
From Parents:
“Oh, just talk to my son. If he wants to join, I'll pay for it,” one dad said.
“I don't really know much about this stuff. You teach whatever you think is best—we'll follow your lead. My kid just loves your classes,” a mom told me.
From Students:
“Hey, I'm thinking of doing a class where we play card games to learn vocabulary. You in?”
“Sure! School vocab?”
“Yup—words from school, plus the prefixes and suffixes I've taught you.”
“Cool, count me in!”
I think that's why I've stayed in this line of work for so long without ever getting sick of it.
What Sparked This
This whole reflection came to me after reading an article earlier today.
未曾踏上的路The Road not Taken
其實我有想過要不要去學校教書。不過聽了我補習班同仁抱怨一大堆學校OOXX 的事情後，就打消了這個念頭
同仁A先辭職跑去高中教書，當了一年的代理教師，又跑回來補習班上課了。說在這裡比較輕鬆，薪水也比較高，不需要學習行政端、導師端的工作，只要專注教學端即可(他跟我吐槽：代理教師是最辛苦的牛馬──工作最吃重的導師和行政組長就是這種人在當，因為沒人願意當，就叫新人當；代理教師本應不用做那麼多行政事務，奈何學校太缺人，特事特辦)
同仁B 則是跑3間學校+補習班，他是學校代課教師 (學校三招之後：無教師證)
我問了同仁B幹嘛跑那麼多學校，他說只跑一間學校會餓死，鐘點費給三、四百，代課教師只有上課才需要去學校上班，但是一個星期也沒幾堂課，還有寒暑假學校也沒工作。跑多一點地方，這樣寒暑假學校沒有班可以上，還可以去帶個夏令營+補習班賺錢。
同仁C那時候還在讀碩士，他跑一間學校(代課教師，無教師證)+一間補習班，我當時問他說你有沒有要考教甄，以後可以有教師證當學校正式教師。他說不要，太麻煩了，而且他跑學校當老師只是過渡，他以後要去其他產業。
同仁D之前在某私立高中任職，約聘一年，說月薪七萬多，可是要留下來陪學生晚自習，一天工作時間妥妥超過八小時，太辛苦了。也是抱怨行政端和導師端地工作讓他喘不過氣來。來補習班上班一天只要上3-4個小時，薪水少一點，但是自由時間多很多。他很喜歡爬山，就把時間花在練瑜珈和爬山上。
我問了同仁學校代課教師的鐘點費，好像也就四、五百左右。老實說，這鐘點費有點少，在補教產業如果接的是小團班時薪可能1600-2200，大團班時薪可能2000-3500元，家教式補習班，可能時薪和學校鐘點費較接近，但也比較高，500-1200。
補教業
補教業前期就是看老闆，你遇到好的老闆和不好的老闆薪水差很多。
但是到了中期，你拚一點，課排多一點，家教和團班都接，是可以年薪百萬的(無教師證)
就算想悠哉一些，課排少一點，在補教業工作，也有年薪60-70萬，而且還很輕鬆，完全不用做行政端和導師端，只要專注教學工作
那我幹嘛還要辛辛苦苦擠學校呢？
所以，我就打消了這個念頭。
其他理由
我還待在補教業的其他理由，大概是這裡挺自由的吧！我想開什麼課，就開什麼課。
只要我幫老闆賺到錢，他不太管我開什麼課，只要把教學計畫+行程表+作業列表 給他，他大概率都說好。
就如果我教國高中生課內的內容有點煩，我可能就會開其他課程，我開過「全民英檢初級班」「全民英檢中級班」「課內英文口說班」(根據學校英文課本設計口說內容)「學測英文作文班」「多益閱讀聽力班」「多益口說寫作班」「英文雜誌寫作班」(用學校考的英文雜誌當教材，去設計作文題目)「繪本閱讀班」「英文小說閱讀班」「新聞英語班」
覺得無聊了，上班想打牌，我還做過，把字首字根字尾做成卡牌，和同學玩牌的課程。有時候來個夏令營式的活動，帶同學用英文摺紙、剪紙、畫畫，或是桌遊玩課內英文(過度旅遊、性別平等、環境保護等議題)，生活非常多采多姿。可能也是我們這種不算正式教育，沒有那麼嚴肅，才可以想幹嘛就幹嘛吧！
加上目前有支持我的老闆+家長+學生
我想開特殊班種，不想一直上升學內容，挺壓抑的。和家長溝通大部分得到的回覆是
家長端
「啊！老師，您跟我兒子討論就好了。他想去的話，我就負責繳錢就好。」某父親說著
「老師，這我也不太懂。你想上什麼就上什麼，我們就跟著你就好。我家孩子就是愛上你的課。」某母親說著
學生端
「XX同學，我想要上課玩卡牌遊戲背單字，你要來嗎？」
「好啊。學校單字嗎？」
「對。就學校單字+我之前教你的字根字尾」
「好啊，沒問題。我要報名。」
這大概是我待在這行這麼久還沒膩的關係吧。
除了開課自由
還有，就是上班時間自由
緣起
此文是我看到這篇文章，腦袋中冒出的想法
