30 Tweets From Current Or Ex Teachers Or People Who Know Them, Pointing Out Why Educators Are Quitting Teaching Altogether
C.S. Lewis once said that "the task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts." And if you’ve ever tried irrigating anything more than a potted plant, you’ll know all too well how darn hard it is.
But beautiful thoughts aside, a teacher’s job is cosmologically complex. Just imagine having to—on the daily—find new ways to reach young minds, to resonate with them despite all the baggage they might be coming to the class with, and to empower them to deal with a life full of challenges.
Image source: US Department of Education (not the actual photo)
This is besides all the red tape and documentation, decision-making, criticism, and everything else that a being a teacher entails. What looks like a profession for prospect patron saints is more often than not undervalued and underappreciated to a degree where teachers are starting to put their foot down and simply quitting.
Folks on Twitter have been voicing their thoughts and opinions, detailing why there’s a decline in educators in the workforce, why they themselves, or someone they knew, quit, and the possible remedies for an issue that, if left unresolved, will absolutely, positively, definitely lead to even more trouble.
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I can remember starting school and the teacher putting things like a brand new set of colored pencils in each desk for us to use. Now I found out that teachers even have to buy their own tissues for the classroom or ask each student to bring a box in for everyone to use through the year. It's disgraceful that teachers have to foot the bill for supplies, or appeal to parents for help. Each year here school taxes increase, but the increase is always given to administration, it never goes back to the teachers or the classroom.
I really hate to say this, but she's probably also less likely to get shot as a bartender, these days.
Oh, God, the parents. The dipshits who got all riled up about "CRT" from Tucker Carlson, and now think they actually KNOW MORE THAN US about it. They can't even explain it in the first place. They flip out over anything with "race" or "gender" in it, and yet can't even grasp the simplest of the concepts. The good thing is, as a prof, I don't have to answer the parents. I legally can't tell them anything about their kids, and I take great delight in informing them about that.
To think, for the same payrate, many states are asking teachers to ALSO have guns. Noone's talking about increasing their pay, but they ARE EXPECTING THEM TO ALSO CARRY FIREARMS AND BE READY TO USE THEM so..... yea....... MURICA'
There is no f*****g way I am ever going to accept that I should be willing to murder one of my own students. This country is a goddamn shithole.
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You were in it for the wrong reason. No one should put money before passion.
Now is not a good time to be a teacher in much of the western world. Depending on the state, in the US, public schools teachers earn roughly between $45,000 and $87,000 a year. And while that sounds not all that bad, remember that being a regular office worker can net you $63,500 a year on average, and that’s minus the responsibilities, stress, workload, and red tape involved in a teacher’s job.
Oh, and don’t forget that many teachers often find themselves having to spend their own money to finance things like teaching supplies and handouts because schools apparently don’t cover these costs. So, I’d wager nobody would blame them for thinking why even bother? at this point.
And now conservative politicians are tossing about the idea of teachers arming themselves in the classroom. Who can blame teachers for wanting to leave? It's appalling...they educate our future generations and deserve our support, both at government levels and at the family level.
They're a big reason I'm leaving, but it's not because they bother me. It's because they don't return calls, emails, anything. I haven't talked to a parent at my school in at least a couple of years. They don't come to conferences, open house, nothing. They think when their kid hits high school they can stop showing up. It's insane.
But this is only part of the problem. The difficult job is also supplemented with entitled parents, or just parents who are struggling to do adulting right, school systems and management being all up in their faces, and having to fight LGBTQ+ cases against school districts, just to name a few complications.
And, sure, there are teachers who do a very lackluster job at teaching, and someone should tell them to run ten laps around the school to correct this. But given all of the reasons above and some more here, it’s hard to blame them for not really caring about teaching at the end of it all.
I would like to hear more context around this one, and what the wrong kind of hard looks like.
My 17-year-old son was called a Communist when, while while working at a local amusement park, he asked a guest to not smoke in a non-smoking area, (The ironic thing in his case is that he is adopted from Russia.). What is wrong with people???
Quite recently, folks on Twitter have been discussing and debating this issue. For the most part, it was people explaining why teachers are jumping ship, and how this could possibly be remedied.
At the top of the list, it was salaries, followed by a work environment that least much (like, way much) to be desired, and the high level of disrespect from the system, the management, and the parents.
Many have actually went on to say that there isn’t a teacher shortage per se as much as it is a shortage of people actually willing to work in the industry given the less-than-desirable conditions. So, according to them, there’s enough qualified people, just that nobody’s really up for it.
It's sad that these professionals must sacrifice their dignity, because they actually care for their students. Unlike the politicians!
You DID a good job! I am glad you did it once and decided your own health and sanity came first. Kudos.
Ah, but DeSantis is now pushing the hiring of military veterans to fill those empty teacher roles...and highlights that they need NO teaching experience or prior teaching education. I guess he thinks having military-based teachers will be better when they all need to be armed in the goddamn classrooms.
As to what are they doing instead of teaching? One woman, now a pastor and bartender, quit teaching to do bartending for 15 less hours and more money. Oh, and she also “get[s] blamed for way way less and get[s] told thank you way way more.”
Others went into entrepreneurship, writing, and some even straight up retired. It seems like anything is better than this, even if it is for a lower pay, as long as there is a more sensible life/work balance.
That is insane. Just thinking of the preps you'd have to do to meet all of those class requirements, all the course building, the curricula and standards to learn and incorporate... This gives me anxiety just reading it!
Some sacrifices aren't meant to be yours to make. Take care of yourself, first and foremost.
Discussion is definitely one way of raising awareness on the matter and calling for change, so feel free to do that in the comment section below. But if you want more school news, you can take a gamble with this one or this one.
I dunno why teachers provide supplies. I wouldn't especially with the salary being low af already.
I make more money doing pretty much anything. Many of my colleagues work extra jobs, drive Uber/Lyft, and/or share homes in order to afford to teach.
Oh, and the state standardized testing . . . let's not forget the emphasis and the pressure put on teachers for that.
I usually break down my workload for students on day one, to dispel the myths, because I work constantly. For one class of 25 students' final assignment, I will have 25 15-page essays to read and mark. It takes about 90 min per essay, because I have to read it, make notes, read it again, mark it, and make comments. I may have to research a source for a student. That's JUST under 40 hrs of work to mark ONE assignment for ONE class. I do not get paid for ANY of this time. That's before we get to the other assignments, the course planning, the reading, the lesson plans and lectures and PowerPoints for each class. And before we get to the conference papers and articles, the editing and reviews, the panel presentations. AGAIN, ALL UNPAID. But keep telling us how "lazy" and "stupid" and "out of touch" we are, Conservatives!
Note: this post originally had 36 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Capitalists always have and always will fear the masses being educated. Educated people challenge. This is by design, and it's working.
Yes. I think what we're seeing right now in US politics is a build up for the Republicans to push for more privatization of education. They're aiming their culture war at teachers over "wokeness", "CRT", and now they're calling them "groomers". I'm pretty sure this is going to be followed up with a push for more charter schools (private schools that receive money from the state). It's a way to funnel that government money to private, for-profit schools without the same academic standards.
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I left for a plethora of reasons. Here I note a pay issue that stuck in my craw. The pay is poor, but perhaps what bothered me most about the pay is there is no stratification based on skill, hard work, and accolades, only how long you have stuck it out (public teacher in the US). The best teachers in a school are compensated the same as the worst. Perhaps this is a failing of my own psychology, but I grew tired of working hard to earn praise and accolades from administration, parents, and students, yet making less than the slacker next door because they were there before me. I was a STEM teacher and when I left I quickly tripled my salary as an engineer. In general I am super pro-union, but I can't stand behind the policy that pay is entirely divorced from efficacy and ability. All this said, there were very rewarding aspects of the job and I may go back part-time in the twilight of my career for partial retirement (at which point compensation will be of little consequence).
It's the same as other branches and jobs in general. There's not a shortage of workers, there's a shortage of workers who want to work below their worth. and rightfully so
This isn't just a US problem either. In Australia they are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to attract and retain teachers. Instead of reducing workload and ensuring teachers are ready to teach out of uni, let's offer monetary rewards system to make them compete against each other and increase extra work they have to do to stay qualified. I left due to lack of support for my subject area (music) lack of opportunity to get out of primary school teaching, and mostly lack of support when it came to behaviours both from parents and the school heirarchy.
I spent decades working to become a college professor. I love my work. I can't work in America. I've spent all summer prepping my classes for fall, easily 40+ hours, all unpaid. I found out yesterday the classes are canceled because they aren't doing online. Now not only do I not have an income this fall, but over 40 hours of work this summer is now wasted. I could have used that time to submit another article--also for no pay, but it builds up my CV. And that is before we get to the abysmal and abusive way educators, teachers, and professors are treated in America. Almost DAILY, I'm told that, as a prof, I'm "not a real American." I should "put a gun in [my] mouth and blow [my] head off" because I'm "brainwashing children." People who haven't been in a college classroom in 30-40 years, if at all, think they can dictate how and what we teach. They don't understand any of it in the first place.
Why l don't quit teaching (for now)? Because we're approaching, at least in Europe, a really nasty recession and l have a permanent contract that'll allow me to weather it. Otherwise l'd quit tomorrow. Low pay, a lot of unpaid overtime, actual harassment from parents, and a general lack of respect on the basis that we get too many vacations. I'm, however,. exploring other options to quit as soon as l can. When we all quit and y'all have to homeschool your own kids you may start realising what we do. And if you don't l don't give af, anyway.
My mum was a teacher. People think that once you leave work your work is done. Nope! My mum was usually working until 11pm grading tests, creating new ones, prepping for lessons. Even her summer wasn't exactly a full holiday time.
I really want to be a teacher when I'm older (Kindergarten-2nd grade age) and reading stuff like this is really sad. I'm still going to pursue it, but I really hope I don't quit after a year or two due to the challenges teachers face.
Good luck for the future. Some advice: have a mentor you trust to support you during your first year, remind yourself of the reason why you teach during the difficult times and make sure that you carve out time for yourself (and at least one no work day on the weekend).
Load More Replies... Not just a US problem. In Quebec, a recent article stated that the province is missing about 1400 teachers for the beginning of the school year. I worked a couple of years in the education system and I left the field for many reasons. Almost every political parties has very little to no respect to the profession. Firstly, almost every negociations between teachers union and the government ends up with a "special law" (sign of bad fate) that dictates the working conditions of teachers. Secondly, dealing with entitled parents who teaches the same bad manners to their kids afterward. Finally, a lot of schools are in bad shape and the Minister denies the problem (especially the air quality one despite scientific data) while the government are giving away millions to private companies. I can go on and on, like having to spend my earned cash for school furniture without being reinbursed while politicians get reimbursed their 1000$ meals with lobbyists; 45+ hrs weeks (lots of stolen wages)etc
I taught college as an adjunct to see if I'd enjoy it. I hated it. The entitlement of students these days is insane. I had one student threaten me because she failed my class and couldn't graduate. She never came to class on time, her homework was always subpar with little effort, and she rarely turned anything in on time. I was up front with every student about expectations for attendance and assignments based on the college's requirements, not my requirements. Another student rated me horribly on the teaching review because "I didn't give enough time or support on group projects." I offered to stay after class so groups could work together or ask me questions after every class. 95% of the students hightailed it out of there when class was over then complained the assignments were too hard. It wasn't worth my time or the measly pittance I was paid.
I'm absolutely with the teachers leaving awful working conditions, but it does make me worry, if all the good ones are leaving, who will they hire in desperation?
I had to resign from my primary (elementary) school teaching role because the long hours combined with a fibromyalgia left me so exhausted- all my energy was spent preparing for lessons and keeping them differentiated and engaging, I had little energy left for behaviour management. Then I moved into kindergarten (preschool) teaching as I could have better hours. After 5 years I was again exhausted, plus anxious (partly from dealing with parents) and I was required to do a body of work to get my 'full registration' which was very stressful. Now I work in afterschool care where I have much less responsibility and I enjoy my job more.
I’m a para and I was put in a room with no teacher for 2 weeks, left to fend for myself but when I asked other teachers or anybody for a lesson plan or access to the sites we used was pushed aside and I’d have quit but I was all they had
What's a para? I was thinking paralegal but that can't be right :-)
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Exactly. We have a teacher "shortage" in Australia. But we don't really because there are thousands of teachers who just don't teach anymore because the conditions suck and no other profession has to put up with what teachers have to. I speak from experience as a twice burned-out ex teacher.
I like the Veteran idea kinda' ....let's just fast track the next step and have the military be responsible for all public education. They have the budget and lack the patience for your problem child and garbage parents. They also have plenty in the budget to accomplish this. Seriously though, Republicans and parents simply don't respect teachers.
Capitalists always have and always will fear the masses being educated. Educated people challenge. This is by design, and it's working.
Yes. I think what we're seeing right now in US politics is a build up for the Republicans to push for more privatization of education. They're aiming their culture war at teachers over "wokeness", "CRT", and now they're calling them "groomers". I'm pretty sure this is going to be followed up with a push for more charter schools (private schools that receive money from the state). It's a way to funnel that government money to private, for-profit schools without the same academic standards.
Load More Replies... I left for a plethora of reasons. Here I note a pay issue that stuck in my craw. The pay is poor, but perhaps what bothered me most about the pay is there is no stratification based on skill, hard work, and accolades, only how long you have stuck it out (public teacher in the US). The best teachers in a school are compensated the same as the worst. Perhaps this is a failing of my own psychology, but I grew tired of working hard to earn praise and accolades from administration, parents, and students, yet making less than the slacker next door because they were there before me. I was a STEM teacher and when I left I quickly tripled my salary as an engineer. In general I am super pro-union, but I can't stand behind the policy that pay is entirely divorced from efficacy and ability. All this said, there were very rewarding aspects of the job and I may go back part-time in the twilight of my career for partial retirement (at which point compensation will be of little consequence).
It's the same as other branches and jobs in general. There's not a shortage of workers, there's a shortage of workers who want to work below their worth. and rightfully so
This isn't just a US problem either. In Australia they are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to attract and retain teachers. Instead of reducing workload and ensuring teachers are ready to teach out of uni, let's offer monetary rewards system to make them compete against each other and increase extra work they have to do to stay qualified. I left due to lack of support for my subject area (music) lack of opportunity to get out of primary school teaching, and mostly lack of support when it came to behaviours both from parents and the school heirarchy.
I spent decades working to become a college professor. I love my work. I can't work in America. I've spent all summer prepping my classes for fall, easily 40+ hours, all unpaid. I found out yesterday the classes are canceled because they aren't doing online. Now not only do I not have an income this fall, but over 40 hours of work this summer is now wasted. I could have used that time to submit another article--also for no pay, but it builds up my CV. And that is before we get to the abysmal and abusive way educators, teachers, and professors are treated in America. Almost DAILY, I'm told that, as a prof, I'm "not a real American." I should "put a gun in [my] mouth and blow [my] head off" because I'm "brainwashing children." People who haven't been in a college classroom in 30-40 years, if at all, think they can dictate how and what we teach. They don't understand any of it in the first place.
Why l don't quit teaching (for now)? Because we're approaching, at least in Europe, a really nasty recession and l have a permanent contract that'll allow me to weather it. Otherwise l'd quit tomorrow. Low pay, a lot of unpaid overtime, actual harassment from parents, and a general lack of respect on the basis that we get too many vacations. I'm, however,. exploring other options to quit as soon as l can. When we all quit and y'all have to homeschool your own kids you may start realising what we do. And if you don't l don't give af, anyway.
My mum was a teacher. People think that once you leave work your work is done. Nope! My mum was usually working until 11pm grading tests, creating new ones, prepping for lessons. Even her summer wasn't exactly a full holiday time.
I really want to be a teacher when I'm older (Kindergarten-2nd grade age) and reading stuff like this is really sad. I'm still going to pursue it, but I really hope I don't quit after a year or two due to the challenges teachers face.
Good luck for the future. Some advice: have a mentor you trust to support you during your first year, remind yourself of the reason why you teach during the difficult times and make sure that you carve out time for yourself (and at least one no work day on the weekend).
Load More Replies... Not just a US problem. In Quebec, a recent article stated that the province is missing about 1400 teachers for the beginning of the school year. I worked a couple of years in the education system and I left the field for many reasons. Almost every political parties has very little to no respect to the profession. Firstly, almost every negociations between teachers union and the government ends up with a "special law" (sign of bad fate) that dictates the working conditions of teachers. Secondly, dealing with entitled parents who teaches the same bad manners to their kids afterward. Finally, a lot of schools are in bad shape and the Minister denies the problem (especially the air quality one despite scientific data) while the government are giving away millions to private companies. I can go on and on, like having to spend my earned cash for school furniture without being reinbursed while politicians get reimbursed their 1000$ meals with lobbyists; 45+ hrs weeks (lots of stolen wages)etc
I taught college as an adjunct to see if I'd enjoy it. I hated it. The entitlement of students these days is insane. I had one student threaten me because she failed my class and couldn't graduate. She never came to class on time, her homework was always subpar with little effort, and she rarely turned anything in on time. I was up front with every student about expectations for attendance and assignments based on the college's requirements, not my requirements. Another student rated me horribly on the teaching review because "I didn't give enough time or support on group projects." I offered to stay after class so groups could work together or ask me questions after every class. 95% of the students hightailed it out of there when class was over then complained the assignments were too hard. It wasn't worth my time or the measly pittance I was paid.
I'm absolutely with the teachers leaving awful working conditions, but it does make me worry, if all the good ones are leaving, who will they hire in desperation?
I had to resign from my primary (elementary) school teaching role because the long hours combined with a fibromyalgia left me so exhausted- all my energy was spent preparing for lessons and keeping them differentiated and engaging, I had little energy left for behaviour management. Then I moved into kindergarten (preschool) teaching as I could have better hours. After 5 years I was again exhausted, plus anxious (partly from dealing with parents) and I was required to do a body of work to get my 'full registration' which was very stressful. Now I work in afterschool care where I have much less responsibility and I enjoy my job more.
I’m a para and I was put in a room with no teacher for 2 weeks, left to fend for myself but when I asked other teachers or anybody for a lesson plan or access to the sites we used was pushed aside and I’d have quit but I was all they had
What's a para? I was thinking paralegal but that can't be right :-)
Load More Replies... Exactly. We have a teacher "shortage" in Australia. But we don't really because there are thousands of teachers who just don't teach anymore because the conditions suck and no other profession has to put up with what teachers have to. I speak from experience as a twice burned-out ex teacher.
I like the Veteran idea kinda' ....let's just fast track the next step and have the military be responsible for all public education. They have the budget and lack the patience for your problem child and garbage parents. They also have plenty in the budget to accomplish this. Seriously though, Republicans and parents simply don't respect teachers.
