What I observe is most teachers do it because they like/love the kids. Not all... there's bad teachers in the world (like there's bad cops and bad professionals) but by and large they were called to do the job and it's what they're good at. I can empathize because I'm not sure I'd be good at something outside the field I love.

The work-less thing is kinda nonsense at least from what I observed. During the school year she was in around 7a and done around 4p, not this "they're out by 2:30 every day nonsense". But after hours, she was grading. And lemme tell ya, the grading was real. Many nights she was up to midnight or 1am grading. Now she was often grading AP World History exams, papers, quizzes, etc. And AP specifically is a different beast so not every teach experiences that. Further, during the summer there's a lot of unpaid engagements. They get one day to prepare for the school year. One day is not nearly enough time to prepare and refine the her lesson plans and overall curriculum for an entire year. She sponsored things like National History Day, for which she got no extra pay and was more work for her. Setting up the regional contest, attending the national contest, and a lot of times paying her own way to chapperone kids at the national competition.

Our big concern today is that the way our state is going, there are fewer and fewer college students going into secondary education to the point they're shutting the programs down at state schools because the enrollment is too low. It's gotten to the point where our "educated" society is at best calling teachers a leach on society and at worst calling them groomers and pedophiles... simply for acknowledging a kid might be gay and they might need someone to help them get help when they need it. It's one thing to be "underpaid" because as others have said... it's really just delayed compensation. It's another thing for a whole half the state and country subscribe to the Moms For Liberty and Purple for Parents line of thinking, and just having to sit there and take it.