Teachers tend to be passionate about contributing to young people's education and growth and many may hear the lessons they have learned from their teacher years later. However, even multiple positive character traits and hard work don’t always keep a good teacher at school. The reasons behind teacher attrition vary from burnout, poor job satisfaction, and reduced accomplishment to an unsafe work environment, until reaching a certain point when a person makes a decision to leave.
These people who used to work in schools shared the turning point that made them change their jobs, answering one Redditor’s question: “Teachers who quit, when was the moment you realized it wasn’t for you?”
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In a meeting with other English teachers, an admin said:
"6th grade will no longer be reading novels. It's not statistically proven to improve test scores."
If reading doesn't improve testing, your testing is wrong.
This is why kids graduating high school barely read at a middle school student's level.
I had a student, maybe 11 or 12, sitting with me and having pizza. I asked how her life was going and she says "Well, my dad's a [substance] dealer so he's always got people coming over to sell or buy [substances] or play cards so I can't sleep. My mom's dying because she has a hole in her heart and they can't fix it. And I have a boyfriend but I'm afraid to tell my mom because she'll tell my dad and he'll beat me." Just normal, like this was everyday stuff.
So, as a mandatory reporter I go to my Dean of Students and tell him all this, and he just gets irritated and goes "Yeah, but that doesn't excuse her behavior."
That's when I knew I was done.
Two 16 year old kids were facing each other (I had the classroom seats in a U shape) and were silently challenging each other to fight while I was in the middle of a lesson. They suddenly jumped up from their chairs and came at each other with eight inch knives with me in between them.
I was pretty built, having been a stonemason's apprentice in college to help pay my way through, but these kids were both bigger than me. Without thinking I grabbed each by their collars and shouted SIT. DOWN.
I didn't start shaking until that evening. I was done a week later.
Edit: Thank you for all the upvotes and a special thank you for the gold, kind stranger.
When the corporate job offered me three times the salary AND a 12% annual bonus.
Now, my kids can afford to go to the college where dad used to teach.
I stopped when my annual review with the new program dean focused on the 10% of student reviews that were negative rather than the 90% that were positive. There are too many aggravations working against teachers. At the least, the administration has to have your back.
Do everything right and no one remembers. Make one mistake and no one forgets.
First I'll tell you the moments when I nearly quit.
When a kid with serious mental health issues stabbed another kid with a pencil and I was told to just keep a better eye on him.
When a parent complained about me but I wasn't told the nature of the complaint; just reprimanded, generally.
When 16-year-old boys hit on me and I actually considered going out drinking with them because I had no social life.
But the MOMENT, looking back, was when I was hospitalised with exhaustion, and my amazing boyfriend, who had been coming over, marking tests and proofing papers every evening for months, lay down on the cold hard hospital floor and slept beside me in case I was upset overnight.
I realised that I wanted a life with him, not a dull existence where I poured all of myself into my job and had nothing left for us.
I loved teaching but it wanted all of me. Dawn til midnight, seven days a week prepping, marking, planning.
I quit. I got a better job. I married that amazing guy and we have an amazing daughter. On weekends we go to the park and play.
My friend got stabbed in the face a few times with a pencil in 7th grade science class. My science teacher got reprimanded for letting it happen and the kid who stabbed my friend got 3 days in school suspension. I got jumped by 3 8th grades later that year and got a week suspension for fighting back, schools seem to encourage violence now instead of reprimanding the offenders and its disturbing. For reference this was probably 2007 or 2008.
I worked in a high needs behavior class. I got hit, punched, scratched and spat on daily, but every day I went back and did my best for those kids. I was so battered and bruised that my husband wouldn't shop with me anymore because people would stare and sometimes even comment to him about his mistreating me. It was sickening, but I loved my job and every one of those kids.
One day was called to the office to talk. It was Christmas time and things weren't great at home and as anyone with kids knows the holidays makes children especially high strung so things were also wild in the classroom. My boss said "you seem awfully stressed" and I thought how nice of her to notice so I agreed that yes I was struggling. She said "you have 6 weeks to sort it out or I'll have to let you go".
I was crushed. It literally broke me. 6 weeks to get less stressed...how does that even work? I found myself just showing up to show up and I realized that wasn't fair for me or for the kids.
6 weeks later I get a call back to the office. I am congratulated on the amazing turn around and sent back to class. I was baffled. I was more upset and stressed than ever and they congratulate me??
More and more I showed up to work just for the paycheck. One day I just decided screw it, I wasn't a teacher anymore I was a robot fearful of showing any negativity . I quit that week. Never went back to teaching.
When it would have taken 43 years to pay off my degree at a teachers salary.
(taught at a juvenile delinquent school) when the accusations of children required no proof or consistency, and to be exonerated took divine intervention. When a kid with a violent history a mile wrong swings a stapler at you, gashing your forehead (because he was dared to) then as you restrain him, until help arrives, you "hurt his wrist", then your school believes his story that I dropped the N-bomb to him, which caused the outburst. EVEN THOUGH TWO OTHER STAFF MEMBERS SAW THE ENTIRE THING. And the school called the police and tried to have me charged for assault.
Late to the party but I was a teacher that taught a class that would be tested on the state level and the result of the test (as well as some others) would dictate our funding.
The principal gave me the exam in advance and asked that I quiz the students directly on the questions in the packet.
I was no longer teaching for knowledge but for memorization and it really deflated me. I walked away that winter.
I taught high school English for ten years before finally quitting for the corporate sector. Honestly, it was a lot of small things that built and built until I realised it wasn't where I wanted to be. The largest of those "small things" is stifling focus on standardised testing. I lost weeks and weeks to test prep at every grade level. I couldn't teach novels I loved teaching because I ran out of time. And those standardised tests are useless, they prove nothing but offer schools a pat on the back for the high performance results. Which, mind you, do not transfer at all to college success. And too many public schools force the idea of college. Why? Is it becuase it's for the betterment of the kids? Hell no, it looks good on their graduation statistics. But, there is nothing wrong with not going to college. And I'd tell that to my AP students as much as my kids with the 12 average for the year. You have a 3.8 GPA and want to be a plumber? You go. You be a plumber. F**k, you'll make more than the rest of us.
I was once told I shouldn't do so many lessons where discussion between students was required. No more Socratic seminars, there had to be more "material that could be graded." How f****d up is that? I can't encourage discussion in an English literature class because I can't grade the kids on it. And don't even get me started on quantitative vs. qualitative. Teachers are being held accountable for students who "don't improve" regardless of anything else. Jimmy doesn't come to school for three months because he's f*****g off and then shows back up and fails the midterm? That's on YOU buddy, should have taught him better for the two weeks you had him at the start of the year.
I eventually got tired of the constant hurdles and stupid state requirements. People said "Yeah, but you get a pension! Unions! Summers off!" So the f**k what? I'm in corporate now and I make 31K more than I did teaching with a yearly bonus and a matching 401k with profit sharing. And b***h, please, I never had a summer off. I worked two jobs to make ends meet from June to September. Most teachers do.
What kills me is that I loved teaching. I loved my students and I was good at what I did. I was good at encouraging kids to take risks with their learning and I didn't penalise them for making mistakes. That's how you learn. You don't learn s**t from multiple choice and you never will. I miss my kids, I miss watching them go from hating a piece to being eager to discuss it. Even my lowest level students could show me something, even if it wasn't on paper.
It wasn't my students that killed my love for teaching. And I DID have kids throw chairs or get into fights or tell me to f**k off, all of that? That was doable. And I did it. The stupid, useless requirements and the idiotic state testing, the abysmal pay for the hours and hours I put in. That killed my love for teaching. And it's killing plenty of other young, passionate educators. I miss my students. I miss everything about teaching, when I was allowed to teach. Now? It's not teaching. If you want to teach, get into higher education or a private school. Do yourself a favour and stay out of public education in the United States. It doesn't exist anymore.
I had a 6-year old pull a knife on me while screaming "I will [end] you". This was the culmination of a lot of various incidents with the same kid. What was most infuriating was the parents claiming they had the sweetest little boy and that we (the school) must be liars for saying otherwise. Eventually he was transferred to a special school after we filed a report on the various incidents. I felt really bad for the kid because when he wasn't freaking out over something he would be the sweetest guy asking a ton of questions and participating in the activities, but he was highly prone to snapping into hysteria. The incident with the knife happened in this afterschool setting where the kids go to play and have fun. Apparently another kid had done something he disliked so he was kicking and spitting on him when I pulled him away. He ran straight to the drawer and found a little kitchen knife. Due to his size it was pretty easy to wrestle out of his hands though so no harm done. I guess dealing with s****y parents was what made me change my career.
The wasn't one defining moment that made me decide to quit. But after the decision was made, there was a moment that solidified it.
There was this kid. To say he wasn't bright is an understatement. He probably should have been diagnosed at some point as special education, but never was. He was also an a*****e. I taught 8th grade math, and he literally couldn't even multiply. So I would give him the same tests I gave my special education students. He'd usually fail anyway, but not as bad. Anyhow, he never figured out he was given a different test. When I made the different versions, they were essentially the same questions, just with much easier numbers to work with. Well one day, I was grading his test, and he missed every single question. Weird thing was, he had all the correct answers to the normal test. However he showed no work. So there was literally no way with the numbers he had, he could get the answers he got.
So I called his mom in (I had to stay like an hour later than normal to meet with her). I presented her the evidence, which most people would find pretty convincing. She just turned to him and said "Did you cheat?" He of course denies it. Then she looks at me and says "You say he cheated, he says he didn't, I don't know who to believe".
I got up and left right then.
Parents are the reason most teachers leave the profession. They tend to make the teacher the enemy quite often. Plus, they don't want to acknowledge that their child can be a little s**t.
When I realized getting drunk and cooking epic meals was way more enjoyable.
Nepotism is a major problem in smaller school districts. Yes men, family members, and friends will get hired as the school system is one of the better paying jobs in the county. All of this is done in return for loyalty and not questioning if decisions are best for the kids.
One of the bigger nails in the coffin was when I was pepper sprayed by the school resource officer AFTER myself and another teacher had broken up a fight and were sending students back to class. He sprayed to "disperse the crowd" spraying myself and our female assistant principle in the face and causing three students to have asthma attacks. For as little as I was being paid, I could find a safer place to work where people were less incompetent.
Nepotism is a HUGE problem even where my wife works, at one of the largest school districts in the country. It's not LITERAL nepotism (No-one's nephews are taking the best jobs), but top assignments are routinely traded for sexual favors, admins get around rules against illegal interview questions by asking back channels, and the most hilariously transparent brown-nosing is very visibly rewarded. And the union knows damned well what is going on, and doesn't do a God-damned thing... decent pay, safe working conditions, fair promotions and an harassment-free workplace just aren't near the top of their priorities. A corporate HR department would be horrified, but all the admins have to do is insinuate the plaintiffs vote for the evil orange man.
When I realized that I was being more micromanaged every year. I expected a lot of oversight when I was a new teacher. I actually had more people watching my every move & every word after a Master's Degree & fifteen years experience. I never had a single complaint. Parents & students loved me (even requested me). Administrators needing to justify their jobs were constantly in my classroom or calling pointless meetings to discuss pointless things. I spent less & less time teaching and more & more time filing out meaningless forms, responding to emails, and sitting through meetings.
I never understood how can meetings replace actual work. It's insane that even at a hospital, doctors have to fill out millions of forms just prescribe a medication for (in my case) bladder infection. And it's actually pretty common sickness with woman.
Not a teacher, but my buddy was a teacher in the South. He was teaching at a Catholic school in a small, but not tiny, town. His students were primarily poor with parents not terribly involved in their lives. There were a lot of behavioral issues - constant fights, yelling, disruptions, etc. The academics were predictably weak because the students largely didn't care about school at all. Kids were found with weapons of some kind (knives, shanks) with some frequency, but it wasn't a daily occurrence.
The final straw came when a particularly problematic student was causing a huge disruption in his classroom by screaming and flipping over desks, which alone wasn't **that** big of an incident. He escorted this student down to the principal's office, as he had many times before. Except this time the student insulted my buddy the whole time. He explained the situation to the administrators and returned to his class. A few minutes later an announcement came over the PA system inside the school and the principal mocked and insulted my buddy for what he did. The principal made a snarky comment about not being able to control your class. The troublemaker then returned to class, without facing any kind of discipline, and tried to provoke a fight with my buddy. My buddy noped right out of his classroom, walked out the door, and joined the military.
I'm not at all surprised by claims that a Catholic school admin sucked at their job, but I am surprised that parents were uninvolved with the school. Who TF sends their kids to a Catholic school in the SOUTH? (For non-Americans: the South has TRADITIONALLY been seriously anti-Catholic, although this has lessened, in some places radically. And while fourteen states offer some sort of partial credit or reimbursement, Catholic schools always mean parents are paying a lot of money, or at least their fellow parishioners are.
I taught high school for 10 years. I was an amazing teacher. I received perfect evaluations and was teacher of the district twice in that time. I was a class sponsor, sponsored clubs, took kids to Europe, and on overnight field trips. I loved teaching and I was good at it and passionate about it.
I left teaching when I learned that my colleague, also a great teacher, who was 20 years into her career, 2 Masters degree and topped out the systems pay scale at $58K a year. Starting at 22 years old at $39K is awesome, retiring at $58K is b******t.
I realized that despite my degrees and my hard work, I'd never make enough to keep my head above water. It wasn't enough to pay my student loans or put my kids through college. At one point I was working 3 jobs at the same time to make my bills work.
I have 2 Master degrees and a slew of impressive endorsements. I was never going to be promoted, or get a raise. Even if I was s****y teacher who did sub-par work, I'd make the same amount I did as a stellar above and beyond teacher.
TL;DR: Teacher pay is b******t.
So many things
Figured I got payed 9/hr to handle special needs AND the future of our country and other teachers didn't have it that much better.
Watched an entire class plagiarize an easy essay because they couldn't fathom how to write something original.
Turned in a girl for skipping class only to have to write a police report on why I didn't call her a stupid b***h and hit her. (She never got punished for that)
Observed a kid who I KNEW had to be a psychopath convince a freshman to steal a phone. Freshman got caught and 10 days in Juvie. Psychopath walked free.
You're gonna have to pay teachers a lot more to deal with that c**p.
First year and a half after I got licensed I was a substitute. Worked about 95% of the days available, but it was pretty depressing to see that I made about $14,000 a year. Put out my resume and finally got an interview and offer in a small, rural school district.
Started off well enough, but a small clique of parents decided I wasn't sufficiently deferential to them or their kids and decided to make my life hell. Complaints to the principal and school board pretty much every day - too much homework, not enough homework, quizzes too often, tests too hard, too many projects, too many notes, too many handouts, not enough lecturing, not enough book work, I was mean to so-and-so, etc.
The principal was in his first year, after just one year as the assistant principal. Dude was in no way ready to handle the job, and kept giving me contradictory instructions. What finally did it for me was being told that I couldn't lecture, had to write all the student's notes up for them, had to give the students the answers to the test before testing them, and to stop being so hard by making them discuss the quotes I put up on the board every day. The cherry on top was when he told me that no one could go scuba diving with sharks like I told students I had when asked what I'd done on a vacation.
As a giant f**k you after I handed in my resignation I played the video of me on my second shark dive when I was getting my shark diver specialty certification and discussed some of the dives I'd done over the years.
The next year I went back to subbing, until I was offered a full-time position working for the Boy Scouts of America as a District Executive. Never looked back. Now I'm a Sr Linux Systems Admin under contract to the DoD and making 2.5 times what I made as a teacher, and 5 times what I made as a sub. Couldn't be happier.
My decision to quit was a two-step process: First, I taught high school English in rural Illinois. When I wasn't debating students after class because they didn't like the B+ I gave them I was frequently given implicit instructions by the administration to pass my failing students. Then I moved to Washington DC and taught in the DC public school system and realized that I was merely a babysitter. Barely any of my students could read, but the goal of my school was containment. Priority was keeping the students in the classroom and not in the hallways. I was told I couldn't assign homework because the students wouldn't do it anyway. I couldn't give my students any text books because the students just dumped them in the trash after school. (If kids are seen with books in their neighborhoods they were often ridiculed and sometimes beaten by their peers.) Parent/teacher conferences often meant meeting with Grandma whose parenting style was "Jesus will take care of it." When I was in college I had dreams of teaching Julius Caesar to young people. Teaching turned out to be quite different. I have huge respect for the teachers who can do it. I could not.
No me but my wife. She was an engineer at a good company on the east coast. Left because she wanted more rewarding work. Soon after she is doing clinicals at a school on the rough side of our home town. She was the kind of student teacher who showed up early, ate lunch with the kids, stayed late, and followed up with parents. Anyway....
Some months in she has repeatedly had trouble with some students (they came from troubled homes and brought a lot with them into the class each day). She tried working with them one on one, working with the administration, and the parents. More than one set of parents said "Stop calling." And the administration told her to send them to the principal's office (where they could sit all day) and focus on the "good" kids.
Eventually, the futility set in.... She was the only one who cared. Not the kids, administration, other teachers, or even their parents. She finally wore herself out after a couple years with no support at work and no one appreciating her efforts (except me of course!).
She's back in aerospace now.
Where I realized that I couldn't even escape teaching in my dreams; my life was so focused on teaching that every night I had nightmares about it.
Followed by the pain I feel in my chest from heart palpitations; my heart would constantly race and then stop all together.
Finally, when on the last day of Thanksgiving break, I realized I had cried every single day because I didn't want to go back to school. I was so low that I had planned my own suicide to get out of teaching, but I figured life had to improve if I just quit teaching, even if I'd be another unemployed millennial statistic.
I lasted 15 months. The only thing that makes me feel a little better about the situation is that the retired cop who replaced me only lasted 3 (he had been an officer in the same city I was teaching).
I had one of my worst years in my 20+ year career back in 2019 teaching 8th grade (7th was where most of my time was spent) and have always said 8th graders don't learn anything because they know it all already. :) Had a class that was horrid and left me so despairing it left me with suicidal ideations, too. With the help of a very supportive administrator and a few of the worst kids off to alternative settings, I made it through. What really saved me was Covid shutting down the building in 2020 and me never having to lay eyes on any of them again--that felt like winning the lottery!
Currently teaching- just the sheer amount of lesson planning during the evenings and weekends definitely encroaches on your free time. Man I wish I had just stayed at the corporate gig.
I am a firm believer in working your shift at your job and leaving at the end of your shift. Work/life balance is VERY important for overall well-being. So really, teachers need better support so they can have a life outside of teaching!! I mean, I get that there's always going to be work to do before and after class, but it shouldn't take up ALL of your free time
My aunt used to teach, planned a whole years worth of lessons over the summer and then two weeks before term started said she was actually teaching completely different classes.
She told them to do one and quit.
So a while back I was a permanent sub for a German teacher in the area I lived (she went on maternity leave). And in this German class I'd also talk about geography and what not. So anyway, near the end of the school year, I was talking about how Berlin...
"Wait wait wait... Berlin's in *Germany*?! I thought it was in Europe!"
It was at that moment, that I realized I failed as a teacher.
When I tried to have a conversation about literature with the head of my department and got a blank stare in return.
I taught English.
Doing my PhD now and am surrounded by faculty and students who are significantly more engaged.
That poor sweet summer child will be in for an even bigger shock when they finish their PhD and cannot get a a job teaching college. Or the will get an even bigger shock if they do get a job and discover that the same students with the same blank stares are in their college classrooms...
I'm 16 and my mum is a 4th grade teacher. She's been struggling with mental health issues for a long time and this year has been particularly rough on her. Her school has a new principal and he's been a s**t head so the union and administration have been duking it out. He class is apparently the worst, and she's afraid to send kids to the office for fear she will be seen as incapable.
If she didn't have 2 dependables (me and my sister) she's probably either be dead or working minimum wage
I don't know why I'm sharing but I hope that helps someone
You're a good kid to care. And I mean REALLY care. You're informed about what's going on in her job in a way that shows that you're taking an active interest in her life as a human being. I hope things look up for you guys, soon. Teaching may be difficult, but it's clear she's done a good job with you. Be well.
I've aways had this fantasy that I'd teach college after I "retired" or got sick of corporate life..
I've done a lot of public speaking and am comfortable speaking in front of large crowds so when a Dean of a local university invited me to teach a class I was like "cool"..
Did all class prep and whatnot and enjoyed the class.. but I hated having the next class hanging over my head.. I'm more of a bursty project person.. Go all out.. Accomplish goals.. Clear your desk... Take a break.. rinse and repeat but this teaching gig felt like a grind and , as I was adjunct, def wasn't worth the time and energy for the s**t pay.. So after the semester I quit..
The university invited me back to speak and asked what my speaking fee was..
My single night of speaking paid the same as being an adjunct for 1 semester..
I have a real passion to teach social studies. I graduated from one of the best teaching schools in my state with a 4.0 and great letters of recommendation from my student teaching supervisor, my cooperating teacher, and the head of the history department. What no one told me was that since social studies aren't on standardized tests those jobs are seen as nice "cushy" jobs for people who don't really want to teach and instead want to coach. I'm a small nonathletic woman who has never played sports. Every school I applied at ended up hiring a coach, not a teacher.
Now, while those students have wonderful coaches, they go on hating history and social studies because they have c**p teachers who drone on and on and then give tests.
I substitute taught for about two years and really loved my school: the students, faculty, and staff. Subbing was awesome there, I had great relationships with the kids, they loved to have me as a sub in any subject. But it didn't pay the bills and with student loans I had to quit. I basically gave up on ever working in that school that I loved or any school really.
Now I work in private education. I meet with students after school and help them catch up on things they're behind on. It's solid pay and great benefits but I really miss being in a classroom.
Edit: Most every school (thankfully) tends to have at least one really awesome Social Studies teacher. I'm really happy so many of you had a positive experience! I myself had one teacher like that in 12 years; she inspired my course of study.
Thankfully my social studies teacher was about the furthest thing from an athletic coach, she was a sweet heavy set old lady who enthusiastically taught us and was one of my favorite teachers. I still credit her with my interest in history, anthropology and other cultures from around the world. Hope you're doing great Mrs. K
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As a teacher, I find many of these stories heartbreaking. Most of them seen to be from the US where teachers seem to be treated like shīt by those staff above, especially "administrators". I've taught ten years in main-steam education and 13 in special needs, yes, there's a lot to put up with but wouldn't change it for the world.
I'm not a teacher. I had thought that I grew up in a rough school in Australia. The school was much more famous for it's sporting prowess than academic achievement. And all the children bullied other children, without exception. But compared to the schools above, I was in heaven. A lot of children are natural a-holes, and it is totally unfair to blame either the parents or teachers for that.
I'm just curious as to why anyone would knowingly enter a career field that is notorious for low wages and poor working conditions? Seems to me that you made the choice so why are you complaining about it? Maybe you should have chosen a better career field to begin with.
Because despite those things you can often find the joy of teaching in many things. For me personally, I can't think of another job that I would be good enough at.
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I don't understand all the mention of lesson planning. I thought teachers shared lesson plans with each other across schools and the years. I thought they used text books. Why is the teacher starting from scratch to create a lesson plan every day?
I used to be an ESL teacher and soon realised that publishers update their books regularly. I used to keep some lesson plans for a year or two, but once the new version of a textbook is out, those old lesson plans are useless.
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As a teacher, I find many of these stories heartbreaking. Most of them seen to be from the US where teachers seem to be treated like shīt by those staff above, especially "administrators". I've taught ten years in main-steam education and 13 in special needs, yes, there's a lot to put up with but wouldn't change it for the world.
I'm not a teacher. I had thought that I grew up in a rough school in Australia. The school was much more famous for it's sporting prowess than academic achievement. And all the children bullied other children, without exception. But compared to the schools above, I was in heaven. A lot of children are natural a-holes, and it is totally unfair to blame either the parents or teachers for that.
I'm just curious as to why anyone would knowingly enter a career field that is notorious for low wages and poor working conditions? Seems to me that you made the choice so why are you complaining about it? Maybe you should have chosen a better career field to begin with.
Because despite those things you can often find the joy of teaching in many things. For me personally, I can't think of another job that I would be good enough at.
Load More Replies... I don't understand all the mention of lesson planning. I thought teachers shared lesson plans with each other across schools and the years. I thought they used text books. Why is the teacher starting from scratch to create a lesson plan every day?
I used to be an ESL teacher and soon realised that publishers update their books regularly. I used to keep some lesson plans for a year or two, but once the new version of a textbook is out, those old lesson plans are useless.
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