Prestige in teaching?

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what it means for teaching to be a profession and the ways that people view teachers. There is no doubt in my mind that teaching can be a profession, just like any other field. If someone has devoted there entire being into a particular field and is an expert on their work, they are most definitely a professional in whatever they do, whether it be teaching, playing sports, business management, etc.

A big issue with teaching is the credibility and respect that teachers receive from others outside of their profession. As a pre-service teacher, of course I think highly of teachers and greatly respect the amount of devotion that teachers have with their students. Regardless of how I view teachers, I can understand why they aren't always given the credit that they deserve. Our society's values of success are heavily focused on money, with the biggest determinant of success as how many zero's are on a paycheck. There doesn't seem to be much emphasis on how much someone has made the world a better place. Someone who chooses to become a teacher is basically someone who is going against our societal norms by not pursuing a high-paying career. Teachers are interesting people because they don't go to college and beyond in order to find a high-paying job. They are entering their profession not with money on their minds, but with the goal of being a great teacher and helping educate our children.

This topic has been on my mind for a little while because I wonder how much this issue will affect me. Having prestige doesn't really mean anything to me right now, but who knows how I'll feel about that in 10 or 20 years. I think that it could be difficult to be in a profession that doesn't really advance in position, at least title-wise. At the same time, I'm not becoming a teacher in order to have a fancy title. I simply want to spend my life doing something meaningful and that allows me to use my strengths and personality to better the lives of other people. I think that teachers deserve much more prestige and pay than they currently receive, but the lack of those things will not prevent me from doing something that I am passionate about.