I Quit Teaching.
I’ve just retired from teaching after 22 years. The plan was to teach 4 more years. But the thought of enduring 4 more long years was more than I could envision. Four years is not a long time. But under stressful conditions, it can seem an eternity. As I begin my life of leisure, with a bit less money, I want to make sure I don’t forget why I made this decision to exit early. I know time tends to fade our memories, so I think it’s important to have a written record of the conditions that are pushing many teachers out of the profession at this time.
Time
The long hours required to do this job affect our families, our health, and ultimately our students. We’re in the classroom all day teaching. So when do we plan, grade, and collaborate with colleagues? I was given 50 minutes each day for these other tasks. But that time was often taken up with meetings, covering other classes for absent co-workers, phone calls home, meeting with students, completing required paperwork, preparing for the next class, and using the restroom. In order to get it all done, I worked late into the night and on weekends. After 22 years of this schedule, I’m done. I’m tired. And I want my life back.
Student Behavior
There was a time, in the past, when students and parents showed more respect for teachers. When a teacher took time out of his/her busy schedule to call parents, there was a time when most parents responded positively, assuring us they would speak sternly to their child, and administer consequences when misbehavior occurred. Many parents still do. However, an increasing number of parents now view teachers as the enemy, unfairly singling out their child. Middle School students in particular, are experts at painting a picture that convinces a parent they did nothing wrong. Students, inundated by TV shows and movies that show incompetent adults, are convinced they are being treated unfairly. They see us as the enemy, not someone who is working in their best interests. I’ve heard students talk to their peers about getting a teacher fired. It has become increasingly difficult to get students to look at their own behavior. Accountability has been replaced by blame.
Unreasonable Curriculum
When I graduated from college, I was excited with all of the creative ideas I learned from my years in teacher prep courses. I was an avid reader and couldn’t wait to bring reluctant readers to a love of books. However, in my first year teaching, I received a rude awakening, and early exposure to the ways a teacher’s hands are tied. I was told to teach reading from a boring textbook and told exactly what to teach each day, and how to teach it. I had to give vocabulary words to my students, far above their grade level, and expect them to memorize these for tests. Reading was broken down into painful steps that made it a dreaded activity. I was not allowed to provide a fun reading time where students could choose what they wanted to read, and learn to read for pleasure. It went against everything I knew about teaching a love of reading.
When I later moved into teaching math, the pressure to show high math test scores took precedence over everything else. We were given a set amount of time to teach a concept and forced to move on before students mastered the concepts. It was a race to cover the curriculum, and teach to the test, in order to “show” students had mastered the concepts. There was little time for fun math activities, and in truth, the students were not retaining the information. We prepped them for the test, and moved on rapidly. Being forced to teach in a way we instinctively know does not work, is so discouraging to many teachers.
Teacher Pay
Teacher pay has always been historically low. Compared to other professions with the same level of education, our pay is abysmal. My own daughter (whom I discouraged from entering the teaching profession) makes more than twice that pay in the private sector. In order to make the maximum pay on the pay scale, we need a master’s degree. That expensive degree has also left many of us with student loans we continue to pay long after retirement. Nearly every teacher I know works to add extra income on the side, in order to make the bills. When will this change? During the Covid epidemic, we scrambled to learn to teach online, creating digital lessons, and setting up Zoom out of our own homes. We did not receive any additional compensation for learning to teach online quickly, with no training or experience. We pulled it off instantly, doing what we needed to do, with no extra pay offered.
Time for Change
I’m writing this mostly for myself. I don’t want to ever forget why I left the profession early. As I start my retirement, I have no regrets. I have many things I now have the time to do, but on my own terms. I will watch, and hope, that my fellow teachers eventually see the changes that need to take place in the teaching profession.