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Warning: Long Rant ahead. Using my chance to vent to let people know what’s going on in the education industry.
So the long-story-short version is: I was just let go by my school. But that’s actually not what I’m here to vent about. I know a lot of positions are being terminated due to COVID so I’m not looking for pity for myself. I just wanted to use this opportunity to finally let ANYBODY who’s thinking about becoming a teacher be fairly warned about what they’re getting themselves into.
So you may be thinking that your job as a lawyer/doctor/marketer/programmer/banker/whatever royally sucks and isn’t worth the stress, but don’t let that be the reason that you get into the [BLEEP] that is K-12 teaching. You might think that you’ve always wanted to do something wholesome and fulfilling like educating young kids, but that’s where you’d be terribly mistaken. You see, the education field is made up of people. Who are [BLEEP]. Not all of them. But I’d wager that if your current field is made up of ~20% [BLEEP] people, that percentage doesn’t magically change once you switch industries. You know why? Because the education industry is made up of people too. Who are [BLEEP]. Of course not all (or even the majority). But for some reason, they tend to concentrate in positions of leadership. Which means they can and do make your life [BLEEP].
So let’s talk about how I was a mid-year hire (aka the previous teacher quit midway through KNOWING what it could do to her career but did it anyways) and I inherited a dysfunctional mess. Ok, cool. You know what, I knew that going in. The odds were stacked against me, but I had my optimism as well as my deeply-held conviction that I got into teaching to help cultivate the impressionable young minds of today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders.
So let’s talk about Problem #1: The STUDENTS. I bet you assumed that they would be respectful and attentive. That they would know better than to physically hit you, a teacher. That they would know better than to start physical fights with other students in the middle of your lecture. That they wouldn’t disrupt your class so you can actually proceed along your schedule as planned. You might even think that this is the kind of “interesting challenge” you’d be ready to take on.
Oh your poor soul.
Unless you get the rich-people districts, you’re most likely going to have to start out at a lower-income public school/charter. High-performing districts are such creme-de-la-creme teaching posts that they get thousands of applications for every opening (read: you’re not getting it. at least not until you’ve put in a lot of time and gained the experience first).
So let’s talk about what kind of students you’re MORE likely to get: the downright disrespectful, rude, and entitled (who basically do NO work once word got out they couldn’t be failed due to COVID). You may think this is “cute” or “interesting” on Day 1 or even on Day 20, but this is not the kind of “interesting challenge” that you want to face day in and day out for years. It wears the best of us down, visibly aging some of my favorite teachers here. It’s just not worth that stress. Obviously, you can get stress from any profession out there. But honestly, go get paid better for it. They’re gradually doing away with all of our benefits and pensions, increasing our work hours, loading us down with more students per class, and making it impossible for us to enjoy our free time.
Which brings us to Problem #2: The PARENTS. Throughout the schoolyear, I had to deal with equally entitled parents who treated me like the enemy who “had it out” for their kid. The same parents who complained “why should a teacher get $45,000 a year? That's what we pay a grizzled war vet sergeant with 10 years of combat experience! And they defend our country!” The read-between-the-line message here? We want the best possible teacher for our kid, but we don’t want to pay for it. Be that star teacher right now, but we’re gonna vote against giving you benefits or increased pay. Oh, and we expect you to pay for classroom material out of your pocket too.
And then we get to the biggest [BLEEP] in the industry. Problem #3: The ADMINISTRATORS. The do-nothings. The responsibility-shirkers. The ones who kowtow to every unreasonable request (read: bullying) from parents and just pin it all on you, the teacher. The ones who try to look busy to their own bosses (state-level agencies/politicians) by assigning us more Professional Development classes (which are largely useless, a waste of time and money, and led by consultants who talk as if they haven’t been inside of a classroom in years). They are the literal equivalent of Michael Scott’s impromptu conference room “meetings” in The Office.
And finally, let’s talk about what it takes to be teacher today. I’ll start by saying that I can’t name another profession where literally everyone has a Masters degree. It’s pretty much a requirement for being a teacher these days. Never mind the costs associated. Also, the “published” hours of work, usually from 7 AM or so until 2 or 3PM? Yea, that’s total bullcrap. You’re not done at 2 or 3. It’s more like 5, 6 or 7PM. The actual number of hours you work, divided into your yearly salary, will probably put you at right around minimum wage. But that’s not all. You teach 5th grade math? Great, Admin wants to know if you can also teach 3rd grade math next year due to budget cuts.
Now, technically speaking, if you know 5th grade-level math, you know 3rd grade. Obviously. But what’s not so obvious is now you’ll need to devise a completely new curriculum to teach to a group of students who are at a different stage in their lives developmentally than what you’re used to. That minor difference changes everything. It’s just one of those things the monkeys in Admin just assume that you can do without really thinking these important details out. They give a rat’s ass about a student’s development, just as long as you can hit those test scores they want, a process called “teaching to the test” which is universally despised by educators.
So if you didn’t care to read through all that or want a nice little recap, I can give you the ABCs on it right here:
A) [BLEEP] students, B) [BLEEP] parents, C) [BLEEP] administrators, D) your livelihood ALWAYS the first on the chopping block when there’s budget problems (and even when there’s not), E) nobody truly respects this profession. They pay lip service. Might even reward you with a $20 coupon at the Italian restaurant in town. Then, they email you a notice that you’re being let go. That's what happened to me, but I digress.
Wasn’t there a time when Parents, Teachers, and Administrators teamed up together to raise a kid right? I feel like there used to be this unspoken-but-tacitly-agreed-upon alliance that helped raise smart capable and respectful students who were prepared for the world. Cuz we know that kids can be full of [BLEEP] and try to weasel out of every/anything. But back then, the teacher would tell the principal, who’d call the parent, who’d grab Johnny by the collar when he came home from school and ground him in his room until he finished his homework. Johnny would go to school the next day and behave himself because he knew that he could no longer get away with it.
But now? My school is going to let students who don’t fundamentally grasp Pre-algebra go onto Algebra I next year. What SHOULD happen is that they SHOULD be failed and made to repeat that grade until they can prove they understand the fundamentals. No, I don’t have some vendetta against your kid, Ma’am. It’s not a punishment. He’s Just Not Ready. Mr. Principal, please tell this lady that her son is going to struggle intensely next year if we let him pass. Wait…what? You’re going to let him pass? And you want me to “do everything I can” to make this happen? Are you serious?
I feel broken. I just moved here a few months ago and have my own [BLEEP] financial [BLEEP] to deal with. Like student loans, this year-long lease I have with a roommate here, and car payments for the car I needed to drive to the school that just let me go. I feel like there’s a war on teachers for some insane reason. Somehow we’re the bad guys. We apparently demand TOO much pay (lmao). We apparently don’t educate kids right. Admin and politicians set guidelines and rules that we KNOW don’t make sense, and when it doesn’t go right (surprise surprise) they look to US like it’s our fault.
The one silver lining (at least for me) in all of this is that I’m getting out of the profession for good. It takes 3-5 years to become a “good” teacher. That’s what they’ll tell you when you first get started. You begin to hit your stride around then and feel like you finally know what you’re doing. Which is awesome. Because it means that most of us will become adequately decent teachers with experience. But I’m getting out because no matter how good of a teacher you can become, it doesn’t change the fundamentally rotten core factors I summarized above from A through E. Everything is just so entirely out of your hands. And that’s no way to build a career. Or a life.
I think the biggest problem is just that we live in a country where only the people with money really value education. The other 80-90% just don’t see it. They vote against their own child’s interests because they’re too stupid to know any better.
Let the public education system fail. Let’s go full Atlas Shrugged on this [BLEEP] and see how they like it. Never mind that teachers literally build your child's human capital up in ways that bring immeasurable dividends for the rest of their lives…never mind the positive network effects that their increased intellect and output and productivity provides for others…
Rant over.
I’m not seeking your understanding, pity, or anything really. Probably will be many out there who will disagree with this, but I won’t respond or even read. Your truth is your own. And I honestly just don’t care.
I want to be productive with my rant, so it’s really just a big fat warning to anybody looking to become a teacher. I say, let society prove to you first that they deserve you. You will also gain the life experiences that enables you to become a better teacher as you get older anyway, so in the meantime, go make more money elsewhere.
Here we have a prime example of a teacher who didn't do her homework. A teacher who apparently also slept through her own classes and her own student teaching experience. One who applied, interviewed and accepted a position with her eyes closed. Oh well.
There have always been jerks, and there have always been problem students with problem families. Teaching was a job and a calling but still a job even back in the day.
The problem?
1) Teaching hasn't been elevated to the professional position where it should be, and it still pays blue-collar pay, so people don't view it as a professional position. I guarantee the entire education "industry" would change if teachers were paid $100K annually. Or even $85K.
2) Social issues have changed so dramatically over the past 50 years that even if a teacher, principal and parent did team up to raise a child, they would still have a deadly fight against the influences that children today are subjected to.
Much of the "things were better in the good ol days" bunch hasn't set foot in a public school since 1975.
I'm sorry you were fired.
A lot has changed from when I was in school. I was in special education as a kid. Typically special education was limited to physical disabilities and some developmental disabilities. I myself had delayed speech. Now I work in special education. It now includes Autism, reading intervention, behavioral issues, Aspergers, etc. Special education is always expanding as we find new issues. This includes the social issues issue.
I do think there are jerks regardless of where you work. Even if they aren't jerks, they just don't have a personality that meshes with your's. This happens a lot with education. Though often I think it is an issue of being "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" issue. We are all trying to do what we think works for the students as we might disagree at times.
I am in the same exact boat as the OP (including same grade and subject), I "survived" 2.5 years (started mid-year my first year) until the ax fell (or is about to fall). I completely agree with all of this. Haven't decided whether to stick with it vs. something else, actually had a past career in IT but have probably been out of it too long and not easy to get an IT job at 50 if you've been out of it. Then again had my issues with IT too.
Pretty much. Some people can't be happy in any job, some people its just not a fit for. I think teaching draws a lot of people with a good heart that just want to make a positive difference. I think the problem is that those same people have trouble dealing with the hard cruel realities of the job. At the end of the day you're dealing with a lot of crap that many other less noble professions have to deal with. I think in College most of us are naive to the realities of the world and work world. It all seemed so exciting while studying it.
Totally sympathize. Anyone who says teachers are paid too much has never done it. I quit after several years and went back to college - for all the reasons above. And that was a lonnnnnng time ago. It's worse now. That's right - I traded 3 months of vacation and 7 hour days to work 50 hours a week all year 'round - cuz parents and kids and administrators.
It's not all bad. Here's the thing: To be a great TEACHER - a real educator - to get people of various abilities to understand and know and use A Thing - that is a great and rare skill. Few folks are great Teachers.
To be a great manager of people - to keep 20 or 30 (pick an age) kids in order, using discipline, rewards, time management, and so on - this is an unusual skill. Few folks have it. Most go crazy trying.
To be a great politician - to keep parents AND your boss happy at the same time - very, very difficult. Because the parents are all over the map on their views and beliefs, and most think they way they were raised is the RIGHT way and that's that.
To be all of these things at once - that's a unicorn. And it's why so many teachers seem - for lack of a better word - bitscHy. Takes a strong spine to deal with these things. Most long-term teachers nail 2 outta three. At one outta three - you'll quit. Three outta three, and you're in the national news. The 2 outta 3 - the education part falls to the least likely - because, frankly, it's the most difficult. The rest is just fight or flight. Survival. You learn to juggle your boss and the parents because to do otherwise is a sure dismissal.
Anyway - I get it, OP, I do. Sorry for your luck, there - but hey, I love my "new" job and have never looked back. Eh, maybe once or twice in July...
Totally sympathize. Anyone who says teachers are paid too much has never done it. I quit after several years and went back to college - for all the reasons above. And that was a lonnnnnng time ago. It's worse now. That's right - I traded 3 months of vacation and 7 hour days to work 50 hours a week all year 'round - cuz parents and kids and administrators.
It's not all bad. Here's the thing: To be a great TEACHER - a real educator - to get people of various abilities to understand and know and use A Thing - that is a great and rare skill. Few folks are great Teachers.
To be a great manager of people - to keep 20 or 30 (pick an age) kids in order, using discipline, rewards, time management, and so on - this is an unusual skill. Few folks have it. Most go crazy trying.
To be a great politician - to keep parents AND your boss happy at the same time - very, very difficult. Because the parents are all over the map on their views and beliefs, and most think they way they were raised is the RIGHT way and that's that.
To be all of these things at once - that's a unicorn. And it's why so many teachers seem - for lack of a better word - bitscHy. Takes a strong spine to deal with these things. Most long-term teachers nail 2 outta three. At one outta three - you'll quit. Three outta three, and you're in the national news. The 2 outta 3 - the education part falls to the least likely - because, frankly, it's the most difficult. The rest is just fight or flight. Survival. You learn to juggle your boss and the parents because to do otherwise is a sure dismissal.
Anyway - I get it, OP, I do. Sorry for your luck, there - but hey, I love my "new" job and have never looked back. Eh, maybe once or twice in July...
Well, you're perpetuating the myth that "only great teachers need apply". I've managed people for 25 years, and I can tell you that every organization functions not because of its top stars, but on the backs of its midlevel performers. If you start saying "every teacher in every school district in the country has to be a STAR" then you will never be able to fill your vacancies, not at current salaries, not at triple the current salaries.
Nope, a successful large organization has to set itself up so midlevel performers can be successful. I outlined up above what needs to be done in the US public schools. None of it requires beating the crud out of the teachers, nor making them all work 80 hours a week, nor imposing the "rank and yank" management method.
I'm so far out of the loop, I didn't even know phones were allowed in class! That alone is a death knell for learning .
I don't have kids, but my sister was a teacher in wealthy Orange County, CA. Growing up there was great in school but teachers were respected and discipline was expected and dispensed back then.
My sister got to hating it so much, she was vomiting before class. For all the reasons the OP mentioned. One unruly kid took all her time, for example. She finally gave up and became a lifeguard at Disneyland!
I worked with Downs syndrome kids and they were great, OTOH. But even less pay there.
Sorry for all you went through, OP.
But that was quite the editing effort for PJ Saturn!
Warning: Long Rant ahead. Using my chance to vent to let people know what’s going on in the education industry.
So the long-story-short version is: I was just let go by my school. But that’s actually not what I’m here to vent about. I know a lot of positions are being terminated due to COVID so I’m not looking for pity for myself. I just wanted to use this opportunity to finally let ANYBODY who’s thinking about becoming a teacher be fairly warned about what they’re getting themselves into...
I picked up my teaching certificate in my late 50s and have been subbing for around 10 years. I've subbed in over 30 schools in over a dozen school districts. I'v subbed for every grade and done long term jobs in my certification area. What I have noticed is there is a lot of luck involved with teaching. Schools vary so much. I have subbed in schools where I feel sorry for the teachers for having to come back the next day. I've subbed in other schools where I think the teachers have really easy jobs and don't work very hard. I've seen situations where teachers have taught for over 30 years and the situation changes. New administration comes in and doesn't enforce discipline, and is critical of the teacher's methods. I've seen teachers retire in mid-year, or just try to finish out the year. I really think it is difficult to generalize about the entire teaching industry. I do agree with most of what you wrote. Lack of discipline in schools is a huge problem, and I'm sure I have not seen the worst cases. I've also found that in many cases, there is little actual education taking place. Again, this varies a great deal. Some HS students are taking very advanced classes with great teachers, while other students show up for class and do nothing. They can barely read, and never learned how to do basic arithmetic. The teachers have given up on them and don't even attempt to teach. I'm not talking individual students but entire classrooms of students.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BusinessManIT
Agree. Your rant is appreciated and respected. This is why we have C-D, to offer experiences and points of view.
I am a former software developer who is now a substitute teacher in his retirement years. I have glimpsed into the K12 education world and completely agree with you. It is a mess.
Fortunately for me, as a substitute teacher, I am somewhat shielded from all this dysfunction. Yes, while I do give lectures and presentations in the classroom, I am mostly a supervisor and babysitter. I basically follow the teacher of record's lesson plans and instructions. I don't have to grade the student work, don't meet with parents, and my interaction with principals and vice-principals is limited.
I actually do enjoy subbing since I can still claim that I'm in the workforce and do enjoy the social interaction outside of my retirement community. I am also big and strong and young looking which does seem to help with classroom management, even though I can't touch the students.
But yes, K12 education is a mess and I don't think that it is going to get any better. The student work has become far easier and the students are pushed through the system whether they learn anything or not. Every student has a smartphone and they are constantly on those phones, even in the classrooms during lectures or when they are supposed to be working on projects. Teachers and administrators have basically given up on taking those phones away from the students. It was tried a few years ago, but the parental outcry was so shrill that the phones made a speedy comeback. Of course, the parents call all the shots in our schools and administrators are deathly afraid of them.
So what I see happening is that schools will increasingly become baby sitting services and "holding centers" for older students where they will have a good time sitting around on their phones, partaking in school functions, field trips, and pep rallys (while still on their phones). Whether they learn anything or not won't be important. They will be pushed out into the workforce or into college basically unprepared, but then that's not the high school's problem anymore. Businesses will rant and rave that they can't get quality workers and that K12 isn't doing its job. School administrators will spin their wheels and frantically talk about "quality education" but nothing will change. More money may be thrown at the schools but still nothing will change. Since it is no longer the parents' responsibility to raise their kids right, it certainly won't be the schools' responsibility either.
So the education system will continue to plug along in its dysfunctional way. Administrators and teachers will "play the game" in offering "quality" education while collecting their paychecks. Most teachers that I sub for have already disconnected and are there just for the paycheck. They don't expect the students to learn anything but mindlessly push them through.
However, it is still refreshing to see a small number of students who do have the right attitude and the minimum amount of drive to get good grades in the dumbed down work that now passes for high school academics. It is nice to see these students during graduation time obtaining their robes and medals of accomplishment and the white sashes which indicates that they are in the top 10% of highest GPAs. Then I think that how many of these students if they were back in my days of high school in the 1970s would simply be "C" students and nothing special?
So, "exciting" times in the world of K12 education. Can't wait for the virus to pass and then get back into the classrooms next fall. I can already see in my mind's eye my students "learning" as they sit, constantly looking at their phones.
Wow, out situations are very similar. I agree 100% with what I bolded above. I'm curious how many schools you have subbed in? I find the top students in many schools to be much better educated than my HS experience in the 1970s. I think they have been exposed to a lot more and have more qualified teachers. OTOH, I sub at one HS where it seems like every student is considerably below average. I think it is the result of attending school in a small rural district where most of the teachers, "don't expect the students to learn anything but mindlessly push them through."
Quote:
Originally Posted by BirdieBelle
No.
There have always been jerks, and there have always been problem students with problem families. Teaching was a job and a calling but still a job even back in the day.
The problem?
1) Teaching hasn't been elevated to the professional position where it should be, and it still pays blue-collar pay, so people don't view it as a professional position. I guarantee the entire education "industry" would change if teachers were paid $100K annually. Or even $85K.
2) Social issues have changed so dramatically over the past 50 years that even if a teacher, principal and parent did team up to raise a child, they would still have a deadly fight against the influences that children today are subjected to.
Much of the "things were better in the good ol days" bunch hasn't set foot in a public school since 1975.
I'm sorry you were fired.
Many of the teachers in my local district are making in the mid-$80s, some are making over $100K. I don't think the entire education "industry" would change if teachers were paid $100K annually. I think there are many other changes that would have a more dramatic impact. Removing phones would have a huge impact. Not pushing students through to graduation would have a huge impact. Impriving discipline would have a huge impact. Just to name a few.
I agree with your comment about the social changes today. It is unbelievable how few students are living in a household with two natural parents. I can't tell you how many times I have heard a student say they live with their mother and her boyfriend during the week, and their father and his girlfriend on weekends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueAbiqua
Wow. And OP did not even touch the subject of competitive elementary and high school sports.
I don't think that has anything to do with the topic. What exactly are competitive elementary sports? My experience is that high school sports usually have a very positive impact and are the only reason some students try to get good enough grades to be eligible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kokonutty
Here we have a prime example of a teacher who didn't do her homework. A teacher who apparently also slept through her own classes and her own student teaching experience. One who applied, interviewed and accepted a position with her eyes closed. Oh well.
Or maybe, his.
I really don't understand how you came to that conclusion.
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