I paid off my 50K, plus interest, in student loans 2 years ago at age 51. I love working with kids - I keep coaching high school sports because of the kids - but this is the first year since I taught middle school BD that I can't wait for Friday to be done. I have never seen morale lower in the building or district. If the gig was so awesome for all of us you wouldn't see teachers quitting by the hundreds in various districts.
If someone could just come up with a "cheat code" to end the massive discipline problems we deal with, we wouldn't be leaving in droves. None of you go to jobs and get verbally or physically assaulted almost daily like so many do in this job. My boss got knocked to the ground in the middle of a street by a kid using his instrument case yesterday. The kid was trying to sneak out early, was running around in traffic, screaming and swearing at her. You don't have that crap in other jobs. You might not like what you do, but the people you are working with aren't threatening you while you're trying to do your job. Heck, I had a kid screaming at me yesterday and that almost never happens to me. He was mad about a call in a game.