7 Ways You'll Get Schooled In Love When You Date A Teacher

Teachers are the token professionals of our world. We make way less monetarily than how much we give our students academically, socially and intrinsically.

If you've ever found yourself in a relationship with a teacher, these seven things will sound extremely familiar to you. If you find yourself in the process of dating a teacher, these seven things will help you understand his or her brain a bit more. They will also hopefully help you appreciate the quirks he or she brings to your relationship:

1. Our students are like our children. Therefore, they will become yours, too.

We spend about seven or eight hours each day with our students in the classroom. This doesn't even include the time we work with them after school while tutoring, going to meetings and being involved in extracurricular activities.

Being with us is a package deal that includes accepting the fact our students are like our babies. We may vent to you about them when they're driving us nuts, but don't ever feel too comfortable and think you're allowed to echo our sentiments. You will be expected to love them just as much as we do.

2. We go to arts and crafts stores as often as we go to the grocery store.

We really don't care if you judge us for this. School supplies are like food for a teacher's soul.

Yes, we will expect you to act interested in different color scheme decorations for our classrooms, the best brand of laminator paper, colored Sharpies, Paper Mate pens and, of course, stick-on labels.

We probably will need your help getting all the supplies out to the car. Do we already have enough school supplies to get us through the next ice age? Probably so. But, you'd better have a smile on your face when we insist on getting more anyway.

3. You are an educated adult, so we expect you to speak like one.

Grammar is highly important, both when you are speaking to and writing to us. We need to be able to understand what you're telling us, so speak in complete sentences and articulate your words.

While you're spelling, we don't mind the use of acronyms. But, please refrain from using invented spelling that even a third-grader wouldn't be able to decode.

There is also a major difference between the words “your” and “you're,” and the words “there,” “their” and “they're.” Be prepared to be rejected if you're unable to distinguish among these.

If you make a mistake, don't get offended when we correct your pronunciation, articulation, sentence structure, verb tense, etc. We definitely will.

4. Don't ask us to turn up on a Tuesday (or any weekday, for that matter).

Working with children is one of the most rewarding feelings on the planet. But simultaneously, it's also one of the most exhausting responsibilities ever. After working for eight to 10 hours a day, the last thing we want to do is turn up with you when we have to wake up at 5 am the next morning to face another work day.

If you want to win us over, bring us dinner so we don't have to cook. Offer us a nice spa massage and refrain from calling us after 9 pm, when we are trying to get our beauty rest.

We have no time for the club scene, parties and the other late-night shenanigans our peers engage in. We'll pencil you in on the weekends.

5. Take it easy on us when we “teacher” you.

Give us a break for scolding you when you interrupt our conversations with another adult, forget to use your manners by saying “please and thank you,” don't share things with your friends and siblings or talk out of turn. Forgive us for slipping every now and then by referring to you as “sweet pea” or “love muffin.”

Consider our great intentions if we embarrass you for doing a good job by promising to give you a gold sticker when we get home. It really isn't our fault. We are products of our glittered, sunshine and unicorn-filled classroom environment.

6. We win every argument because we are in charge. (Duh.)

Save your breath if you're feeling feisty because we will just hand it right back to you 10 times harder. We are the rulers of our domains, and nothing you could ever say could make us agree with your stance in an argument.

We are also experts at documenting things, so don't be surprised when we connect what you're doing wrong now to the same wrong thing you did two weeks ago at 5 pm on Thursday evening. Wave your white flag in surrender because the odds of you winning an argument against us are just not in your favor.

7. We love hard, and we will go to battle for you.

As teachers, we have hearts that are bigger than the world. By dating us, you become one of the many people in our lives we truly care about. If anyone messes with or hurts you, he or she may as well be directly antagonizing us. Your battles become ours.

We protect and look after our students, so we will instinctually do the same for you. This fact alone should make you cherish us.

As teachers, we open our hearts to give all that we have. We want to ensure that our students are successful and happy individuals.

Our dating philosophy is reflective of this. We are nurturers, speakers, cheerleaders, designers, part-time parents, managers and great listeners all wrapped up into one. To date and love us is to appreciate us for all that we do both in the classroom with our students, and outside of the classroom with our significant others.

Take a chance and date a teacher. You just might learn a lot.