I love teaching, but I never even considered entering the profession, even though there's always a shortage of math teachers - mainly because I was living in New York City for most of my professional life.

When we first moved to Amsterdam, I read an article about teaching in the Bijlmer, the poorest district in the city, and it made me cry.

A teacher interviewed pointed out that there's a multi-year waiting list to get a teaching job in the Bijlmer. "In most schools, the kids and parents would teach themselves if you weren't there, but here you can really make a difference in kids' lives!" (All "quotes" are paraphrased.)

The idea that people might fight to get INTO the poorest school just astonished me.

He referred to the fact that there is a lot more funding per student in the poorest schools! And this turns out to be consistent throughout Europe. "Many of these kids are missing one or both parents, or are lacking in resources at home. It's up to the school to make up for this. Yes, in some ways the school is like an extra parent."

Even teachers get paid somewhat more, to compensate them for the longer hours they spend doing extra-curricular activities. "I don't have much free time but it's extremely rewarding to me."

Spending my adult years in the US, where schools are funded by property taxes and thus the schools in poor neighborhoods are appalling, I found this both shocking and absolutely logical.