More people leaving jobs to become educators

Plenty of people dream of leaving their jobs to become teachers. Today, more people are actually doing it.

Peter Vos ran an Internet start-up. Now he teaches computer science to middle school kids in Maryland.

Jaime McLaughlin used to do people’s taxes. Now he teaches math to sixth graders in Chicago.

Alisa Salvans was a makeup artist at Saks department store. Now she teaches high school chemistry in suburban Dallas.

These teachers, with real-life experience and often with deep knowledge of their subjects, are answering a call to service that is part of a strategy to dramatically boost the size and quality of the teaching work force.

Career switchers make up about one-third of the ranks of new teachers, and that number has jumped in the past decade. Now, as the recession deepens, even more people are deciding to become teachers.

For Mr. Vos, the Maryland teacher, it started with Dr. Seuss and “Winnie the Pooh.” He would read to kids at his children’s school — dramatic readings, with different character voices — and he loved the feeling he was making a difference. The children cried when he finished “Stuart Little.”

“I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, and the kids really took to it,” Mr. Vos said. “The kids who really looked forward to this the most, the ones who were giving me big hugs when I showed up, were struggling readers.”

Mr. Vos, 50, was hooked. His background was not in reading but in science and computers; he was a neuroscientist before starting his Internet company. He wound up at Argyle Middle School, an information-technology magnet school in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

Like Mr. Vos, Mr. McLaughlin is motivated by that “touchy-feely camaraderie” he has with his students. He teaches math at Albert R. Sabin Magnet School, a Spanish-language school in Chicago.

He dealt with people in his old job, as an accountant with two big firms. But it was always about money.

Teaching is different. “Those kids really are pretty much your family six, seven, eight hours a day,” he said. “You’re helping raise them.”

Mr. McLaughlin, 38, had practical motivations, too. He had always wanted to be a teacher — his father and uncles are in education — but he didn’t think it paid enough. Once he got married and had a son, there was a second income that would let him take a pay cut. In addition, there was a little boy he could spend more time with, if his work day ended with the school bell.

“We have that much more time to spend together,” Mr. McLaughlin said.

Interest has surged in becoming a teacher, and more pathways are emerging to get people there quickly.

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