Why don't teachers quit?

[Anonymous]

They are somewhere on the pension trajectory where it costs more to quit now and retrain in something else. They likely owe a ton of student debt after having trained for this- masters required. The smart and lucky ones got out early. It is not a field to go into now, but it attracts students from blue collar backgrounds who might be the first one in their family to be in a professional field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In addition to the above comments, it’s what they’re trained to do...it’s what they know and are presumably good at. What do you propose they do instead when their degree is in teaching?

That’s fine. But:

Why go to school to become a teacher when it’s common knowledge they are an underpaid profession? And then complain constantly.

If it is such a passion, then don’t complain.

Is this not true? I mean, sure teachers should make more, I agree, but they’ve been complaining about it since I was in school 20 years ago. Nothing has changed so the complaining has been for nothing. Tax payers don’t want to pay more.

So either be a teacher because it’s a passion, fully knowing you’ll be underpaid, or stop complaining.

short-sighted and ignorant all wrapped up into one poster . . .

There's a teacher shortage. We lost one during preservice and one the first week of school. At a friend's school, there are two who won't be renewed b/c the principal doesn't understand mentoring/coaching of new teachers.

All of that aside, the system LOVES short-lived teachers b/c "it" can hire young teachers, pay them less, and not have to invest in long-term benefits (health and retirement). In the meantime, our kids are being taught that the test is the end all. They can't think critically, as many blatantly demonstrate on these threads, and they graduate with low skills b/c the system forces teachers to pass them along.

Why would you blame teachers when the SYSTEM fails them? Teachers speak up and guess what? They're labeled whiners - or . . . they're told to quit.

b/c it's really
just
that
easy

Teachers complain constantly because no one would EVER believe what this job actually is until one actually does it. Then they are trapped...student loans, etc.

[Anonymous]

Some do, there are some schools with extremely high turn over rates. There are some schools that have to pay bonuses to lure teachers to stay.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Teachers have the same frustration as so many in the middle class. Wage stagnation, demands for more productivity, pensions being attacked, increasing health insurance costs. I'm in that rut but I only get three weeks of vacation a year, not 12-15.

It's not vacation. It's an unpaid furlough. Teachers have a contract that states how many days per year that they are required to work.

This must be such a shock and surprise to teachers. If only they had known this before they went to college for teaching!

I'm pointing out that the "vacation" days are unpaid. Some people think that teachers get lots of paid vacation time.

NP here and unless I'm misunderstanding something this seems like a meaningless distinction. You have an annual salary that is paid over the course of the school year and, apparently, not paid during the summer. Why does that matter? The salary is still the salary and you're getting some portion of the summer off.

It's not a meaningless distinction. It's the same thing as if you took a half time job, where you were supposed to work 8 - 12 every day, with a salary that matched the position's hours, and other people complained that you worked full time and got paid vacation time every afternoon. Wouldn't you say "actually I'm not full time? I'm not contracted for those hours?" I work 195 days. My salary covers 195 days worth of pay. On other days I am not paid. A typical professional employee like the one above who gets 3 weeks of vacation, and 10 federal holidays is paid for 236 - 237 days.

Right- but the point is, you accepted a half-time job in the sense that you only work 195 days. The potential for it being more than this was always quite low. I don't think anyone thinks you are getting paid for teh entire year. The complaints teachers seem to have is that they should be paid more because they can't work full time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Many wouldn't have other, better options.

I've posted before about this. I am really appreciative of teachers, but I think the majority graduated at the bottom of their class (bottom 25%). And from my experience ,the vast majority of teachers would have a very, very hard time transitioning into other "normal" work.

Hi. Teacher here. I graduated at the top of my class. And yes, please, go on and tell me how easy my degree was.....I love it when people do that. From my experience, the vast majority of non teachers would have a very, very hard time transitioning into the classroom.

Can you imagine all the people who post here about not being able to handle their own (few) children actually teaching a classroom full of kids? I don't understand how people don't understand that people have different skills in life. Some people have the skills to be a teacher. Some people have the skills to be a salesperson. More often than not, the teacher wouldn't be successful at sales and the salesperson wouldn't be successful at teaching. Different skill sets. One is not better or worse than the other, just different. It's the snobs on here who belittle people who have a different skill set than their own that are the problem. It stems from their own insecurities and makes them feel better about themselves to put others down. And we wonder how kids learn to bully others. I would love to know why if teaching is such a cushy job with adequate pay and an amazing schedule why people aren't quitting their own jobs in droves to become a teacher? Why isn't that happening?

I'm the first person quoted here and would also be the first to admit there's no way I would be good at managing a classroom. I would never argue my skills are, at least for the most part, transferable into education.

BUT, I would also say my own skill set, and those of many other white collar professionals, can be transferred from one industry to another (with obvious exceptions, including teaching). In my limited experiences, I don't think the same could be said of most teachers. So the answer to "why don't teachers quit" from my perspective is that they wouldn't succeed in other professions. Just like the answer to "why don't you transfer to teaching" would be I wouldn't succeed with my skill set in that profession.

[Anonymous]

I've had a number of friends quit teaching and go into other professions. Teachers work in related education fields such as: teaching at the college level, online teaching, opening a daycare center, nannying, running a park district, director of a forest preserve nature center, writing curriculum, becoming therapists, insurance agents, business, IT and a host of other jobs. We've been told for so long that "there's nothing else we can do" that we believe it. It isn't true. Teachers solve problems, analyze data, provide customer service, juggle a dozen or more things at once, organize materials, and much, much more.

But, it is hard to leave, even when you might be ready to leave when you still have love for the kids. It is hard to leave after about 10 years because of the pension. It is hard to walk away from 15 weeks of vacation. It's hard to walk away when you've spent 10-20K in teaching materials and books. Some of us had student loan forgiveness if we work in a high needs field for 5-10 years. Some of us are in higher paying districts where we'd take a big pay cut doing something else. And some of it is inertia. But there's nothing particularly impossible about many other types of jobs that an average teacher couldn't do. It might take a leap of faith, but it isn't impossible.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who went into corporate training. She says teaching adults is SO much easier than teaching kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who went into corporate training. She says teaching adults is SO much easier than teaching kids.

I am a teacher, my brother is a corporate trainer. The difference between his job and mine is night and day as far as support.

He gets something like 2 days to “prep” for every day he teaches, and that doesn’t include travel time, or planning his courses, or the breaks he gets while teaching. It also doesn’t include writing any curriculum or learning new curriculum. So for every 6 hour day he teaches familiar content he gets 16 hours to prepare, back in the office. It’s mind boggling to me.

On the other hand, we have a professional day coming up which means I will have like 3 hours of uninterrupted planning time and DCUM is up in arms about the “wasted time”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who went into corporate training. She says teaching adults is SO much easier than teaching kids.

I am a teacher, my brother is a corporate trainer. The difference between his job and mine is night and day as far as support.

He gets something like 2 days to “prep” for every day he teaches, and that doesn’t include travel time, or planning his courses, or the breaks he gets while teaching. It also doesn’t include writing any curriculum or learning new curriculum. So for every 6 hour day he teaches familiar content he gets 16 hours to prepare, back in the office. It’s mind boggling to me.

On the other hand, we have a professional day coming up which means I will have like 3 hours of uninterrupted planning time and DCUM is up in arms about the “wasted time”.

My friend says she has similar circumstances. Her company apparently loves hiring former teachers for these roles and the people who go into it wonder why they didn't make the move sooner.

[Anonymous]

Where do all these underpaid teachers live? Isn't this a DC forum? DC public schools pay scale starts around $60k with a masters, $85k at 10 years, $100k+ after 15 years. More money if you're a coach/adviser, even more if you have a decent summer gig (tutoring, sports camps, etc.). Plus generally good benefits/stability. I'm not saying teachers are overpaid (my spouse is a teacher and works long hours even after 15 years), but if you put in the time it's a pretty solid job if you're in a higher-paying district.

I know a lot of teachers, most are very intelligent (with exceptions, like everywhere) and most don't complain more than any other profession I know. I feel like most posts on this thread are crazy generalizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do all these underpaid teachers live? Isn't this a DC forum? DC public schools pay scale starts around $60k with a masters, $85k at 10 years, $100k+ after 15 years. More money if you're a coach/adviser, even more if you have a decent summer gig (tutoring, sports camps, etc.). Plus generally good benefits/stability. I'm not saying teachers are overpaid (my spouse is a teacher and works long hours even after 15 years), but if you put in the time it's a pretty solid job if you're in a higher-paying district.

I know a lot of teachers, most are very intelligent (with exceptions, like everywhere) and most don't complain more than any other profession I know. I feel like most posts on this thread are crazy generalizations.

Lots of non-DC people post here. Unpaid teachers live in Kentucky, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and in rural areas all over the country. They live in Arizona and Nevada. I am surprised that DC public pays around 60K with a masters. I thought Chicago was the 2nd highest paying city in the country, with first year teachers and a masters making 53 or 54K a year. But maybe DC really upped its game. Teaching can be a good solid middle income profession....IF you are in a higher paying district, IF you are in a two earner household and IF you can last 25+ years.

[Anonymous]

Teaching is a decent gig IF you have a second wage earner in the household. My neighbor's husband left her and their kids and she had to move to a studio apartment. Eventually, her parents gave her some money to help put down a down payment on a condo. If you don't have that kind of help, making ends meet can be a challenge in high priced areas like DC.