Why Are Teachers So Resentful?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It used to be that teaching was one of the best jobs around — decent pay, good work–life balance, and a fulfilling career with three months of paid vacation. Yet when I talk to current teachers, they don’t seem to feel that way anymore in any of these areas.

What exactly has changed in recent years that turned teaching from a dream job into such a difficult one? Do you think teachers now see students, administrators, and parents as ungrateful?

Easy. They moved sped into and kept the crazies in general ed. Parents can't even take the time to teach their one or two kids how to sit still, be quiet, and learn. How is it that people expect teachers to do that with 25 kids (probably with a knowledge range of 5 grade levels) when they're not even allowed to punish them?

On the other hand, I do blame teachers a lot because they don't open their mouths and complain loudly, or make their union leaders do it for them. I know many parents that would have defended these teachers and their complaints, because we were making these complaints for them while talking to principals and administrators.

We open our mouths all the time. Seriously: all the time. We are often told to stop complaining and to “remember our why.” And opening our mouths often means having admin come down on us. We do it anyway.

Or, in the case of expressing ourselves on this site, we are reminded how easy we have it with our 3 month summer vacations, etc.

I'm not questioning whether teachers complain or that most parents are bottom feeders who blame teachers that their kids don't meet expectation. However, I meant teachers and unions don't complain loudly—at PTA and school board meetings; during elections; during contract negotiations; and when bad admin fail up through promotions. The only teachers that usually have anything to say out loud are the ones who rant as they're quitting the profession. Things such as pushing sped into gen ed, getting rid of punishment in school, not failing kids, etc., are common sense things with obvious outcomes.

Parents absolutely need to be blamed more and bad kids need to learn personal responsibility. Rare is the teacher that told us that the other kids in the class were even part of the problem when our kids got in trouble for asking for more difficult work (there is none) or for mimicking the poor behaviors of "protected" sped kids (who face no discipline) because they were bored, had nothing to do for hours in class, and had the unreasonable expectation to be treated the same as the bad kids. Not that the latter was a normal occurrence. But seriously, what has the world become when the worst kids don't get in trouble for terrible things but good kids get in trouble for trivial things?

You wrote that your kid behaved poorly. Shouldn’t they have gotten in trouble, then? Why blame it on the other kids, claiming all your kid did was mimic others? Perhaps your kids need to take ownership for their own actions.

From a teacher’s perspective, I hear you excusing away your children’s behavior while dismissing reasons other children may misbehave (like the students with disabilities that you insult above).

Are you purposefully being obtuse to troll or is your cognitive ability lacking?

What exactly is the insult to sped kids in a gen ed classroom? Go back and reread s-l-o-w-l-y the last line that was written.

• Bad kids never get in trouble for doing the most horrible things. Would you like me to list the crazy sh!t I directly know of?
• Good kids get in trouble for doing trivial things. Would you like me to make a list of these, too?

Do you not understand the hypocrisy? In the likely case you didn't understand, either punish every kid equally according to severity or don't punish anyone. No cannon fodder. No collateral damage. Stop being a white knight.

You’re simply digging your hole deeper, drawing lines between good kids and bad kids. You write above that your kids were in trouble for “mimicking the poor behaviors of protected sped kids.” You admitted yourself that your children exhibited poor behavior.

You can’t control the behaviors of others, but you can react to the behaviors your own children decided to exhibit.

So I read s-l-o-w-l-y for you and came to the same conclusion: you need to worry about your own house instead of insulting others. (Oh, and calling kids with special needs “bad” kids is an insult. Just own it.)

I am new to this thread but PP is right that that kind of stuff absolutely happens. I see it right now with my daughter's first grade teacher. I got an email from her a few weeks ago for a first time incident involving my daughter using the computer to search the internet for games. I don't know why she felt the need to email me and why it couldn't be handled in the classroom. My daughter has never had any computer access at home so I knew she didn’t just invent the idea herself, and sure enough, other children were involved. I assumed the same email went home to the parents of all involved children and deleted it. But then yesterday I got an email about an incident that the teacher didn't even witness, full of a bunch of he said/she said from a bunch of 6 year olds and wasn't even the full story. The teacher acted like my child instigated the entire event but really it was a reaction to something another child did. I'm not saying my daughter handled the situation well, but she received consequences while the other child got off without anything happening. Guess what, the other child was also involved in the first incident. Now, I'm more curious if that child's family was also emailed for that incident or does this teacher just have it out for my kid? NO behavior incidents last year or in any previous preschools by the way. Hoping we can make it to January without another email from this nutty teacher.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Because they think they deserve a lot more money and respect than the job actually calls for.

Neat. Enjoy homeschooling.

Don't have to homeschool. There are plenty of people in this area without any professional or real advanced education (definitely not counting the "liberal arts master's degree" my BIL got for the bump in teacher pay) to be teachers.

Entrusting your previous, precious children to these horrible people upon whom you heap such abject disdain makes you an awful parent. Just FYI.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It used to be that teaching was one of the best jobs around — decent pay, good work–life balance, and a fulfilling career with three months of paid vacation. Yet when I talk to current teachers, they don’t seem to feel that way anymore in any of these areas.

What exactly has changed in recent years that turned teaching from a dream job into such a difficult one? Do you think teachers now see students, administrators, and parents as ungrateful?

Lack of autonomy in the classroom.
Lack of discipline and not being able to discipline problem students.
Federal funding addiction creating problem students who destroy classrooms and schools since they won't kick them out.
Political Correctness stifling a creative learning environment.
Mandatory "continuing education" bs during summer vacations.
Summer vacations cut from 3 months to barely 2 now.
Teacher's unions in many states sucking up their paychecks.

The list goes on.

cry me a river, lol

One of the main reasons people go into teaching is the summers off with the kids. It be what it be.

Pay more and the shorter summer vacation wouldn't be such a thing. Teachers get around $15 per hour as it is. $20-25 per hour average if you work at an inner city school like in The Substitute movies where you deal with stabbings and gang fights.

Complete nonsense. I just checked with a friend at fcps and she makes 85k on a 195 day contract. That's over $50 per hour. And her colleagues who have been there longer than she has make much more, some of them well over six figures. And they are free to work other jobs over the breaks (which my friend does).

DMV big3 Teacher salary is around 60K bases on Glassdoor.

Yeah. Public school pays more than private.

At any rate 60k on a similar length contract is going to be about $38 per hour. Less than $50, but a hell of a lot more than this $15 nonsense PP was spewing.

Here is a link to fcps pay scale. At the top of it, 30 years in with a MA, pay is $125k. That's $78 an hour. And a six figure salary with months -- plural -- off.

If you’re working 40 hour weeks, that pay is good. But when you’re working 65 hour weeks, it’s not. I figure I make a bit less than $30 an hour when I factor in my real hours, not just my contracted ones. That’s not great pay considering my experience and advanced degrees.

And those months off? Again: unpaid. And I often PAY for courses to maintain my certification during those months.

- not FCPS, but the point still stands

A salary is a salary. If you make 80k for a 195-day contract you make 80k. You are neither "unpaid" nor "paid" during the summer. It's not like you are teaching everyday but "unpaid."

My contract is literally for a set amount of days as well as a set number of hours each day.

By contract, I am paid for 1528 hours. I estimate that last year I worked 2655 hours, which includes a lot of weekend and summer work.

So yes, I feel severely underpaid for what I do.

And as for unpaid, I am literally unpaid for summer work. My contract stops in June and resumes in August, yet I am working in my classroom throughout the summer to prep for the next year.

You do realize you aren't special or unique in this. Plenty of salaried people work nights, weekend, on vacation and aren't getting extra compensation..

I never said I was special.

But this thread is about teaching. And the subject of whether we feel underpaid came up. Guess what? I do.

And it’s absolutely okay for me to speak my thoughts about my job, especially when someone asks for my opinion.

Since you clearly feel that you are over worked as well, why don’t you tell us about it? This is me asking you. And I won’t belittle or dismiss you, like people often do to teachers on this site.

Since you asked I'm overworked because I work 40 hours a week in my office and then when I come home I have to teach my kids what they should have learned at school but didn't because the teacher wouldn't help them.

Sure, Jan. 🙄

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It's interesting teacher threads are always filled with teachers claiming they work 60+ hours a week, but there's always a delay in grading, sending communication, etc. 🤔

Perhaps that’s why. Grading, emailing, planning… it all competes with each other and with our home obligations.

But they aren't doing those things that's the point.

I hope your child's teacher starts using AI to "grade" his/her work to save time. You and your brat deserve that.

+1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ability grouping in elementary school would make it easier to teach. But teachers unions are oddly opposed to it. It's racist or classist or something. So now you have mixed ability classrooms where some kids are 3 grade levels ahead and some are 3 grade levels behind.

You spelled “parents” wrong. How DARE their special snowflake not be in the highest reading/math group or class! They’ll riot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

Kids were out of school for two years while parents who objected were told “school isn’t childcare” and that they didn’t like their own kids, meanwhile watching private schools and european schools go back without incident. I think many teachers absorbed this idea that they should be privileged vis a vis the families, and now aren’t used to expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

Kids were out of school for two years while parents who objected were told “school isn’t childcare” and that they didn’t like their own kids, meanwhile watching private schools and european schools go back without incident. I think many teachers absorbed this idea that they should be privileged vis a vis the families, and now aren’t used to expectations.

I taught in-person in a private school throughout Covid. It certainly wasn’t without incident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

Kids were out of school for two years while parents who objected were told “school isn’t childcare” and that they didn’t like their own kids, meanwhile watching private schools and european schools go back without incident. I think many teachers absorbed this idea that they should be privileged vis a vis the families, and now aren’t used to expectations.

I taught in-person in a private school throughout Covid. It certainly wasn’t without incident.

Were there mass deaths among the teaching staff as predicted?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

Kids were out of school for two years while parents who objected were told “school isn’t childcare” and that they didn’t like their own kids, meanwhile watching private schools and european schools go back without incident. I think many teachers absorbed this idea that they should be privileged vis a vis the families, and now aren’t used to expectations.

I taught in-person in a private school throughout Covid. It certainly wasn’t without incident.

Were there mass deaths among the teaching staff as predicted?

No, of course not. But we had regular absences because teachers understandably got sick, and then we had to cover each others’ classes for long periods because of quarantine rules. We got no breaks. It was exhausting, far more exhausting than any other time during my teaching career. We had angry parents because we couldn’t please everybody at all times on all issues, and they took their frustrations out on the overworked, tired teachers. Many of us had kids at home doing virtual school while we were in person, leading to tremendous issues at home on top of our work challenges.

We endured and it worked, but at great cost for teachers. I’m sure you respect that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people who become teachers have a positive correlation to it, fond memories of being in K-12. The smartest people I know in life -- the ones who could truly impart a lot of knowledge -- did not enjoy K-12 much at all. They might have a Ph.D. but they hated K-12. I have female relatives who teach grade school and they were popular girls who loved K-8. So the profession self selects a certain type of person. It makes sense why so many teachers miss the signs of bullying, etc. They never experienced it personally. I think it is an aspect we don't talk much about and why teachers think the way they do.

Well, this is certainly a hot take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

Oh, that is legitimately a hilarious take. Teachers were revered for maybe about two weeks in March 2020, then torn to shreds by sputtering, shrieking parents for the next two years. But do go on.

Kids were out of school for two years while parents who objected were told “school isn’t childcare” and that they didn’t like their own kids, meanwhile watching private schools and european schools go back without incident. I think many teachers absorbed this idea that they should be privileged vis a vis the families, and now aren’t used to expectations.

I taught in-person in a private school throughout Covid. It certainly wasn’t without incident.

Were there mass deaths among the teaching staff as predicted?

No, of course not. But we had regular absences because teachers understandably got sick, and then we had to cover each others’ classes for long periods because of quarantine rules. We got no breaks. It was exhausting, far more exhausting than any other time during my teaching career. We had angry parents because we couldn’t please everybody at all times on all issues, and they took their frustrations out on the overworked, tired teachers. Many of us had kids at home doing virtual school while we were in person, leading to tremendous issues at home on top of our work challenges.

We endured and it worked, but at great cost for teachers. I’m sure you respect that.

I respect the heck out of the teachers who kept kids in school. They were genuinely heroic. The ones who did everything in their power to keep schools
closed are the ones who I think are struggling to adjust now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a teacher for 32 years. I don't get the debate on this board... both teachers and parents can be good; both teachers and parents can suck.

If you're a teacher working 80 hours a week, then you're doing something very wrong. Figure it out. Let go of your control issues and understand that you are not a savior.

If you're a parent always bashing teachers, then you're doing something very wrong. Kids are different now, even your snowflakes. Teachers cannot (and should not) be all things to all people. We're not their parents.

If you’re a teacher working 70-80 hours a week, then I’m guessing you teach high school English. That’s one of the reasons teachers can be bitter. We get paid on the same salary scale, but the jobs aren’t equal. At all. Not remotely.

Agree with this. My AP classes (social studies) are so much more work than my regular classes.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and people complain.

There are very few other options if you want to work 200 days per year and be paid a professional salary.

Right now I think we’re still seeing a COVID correction. Early weeks oF COVID was everyone saying teachers were heroes and shaming parents for wanting school. Teachers who absorber that attitude are finding it hard right now.

I didn’t go into this profession thinking I only wanted to work 200 days a year. That’s a TERRIBLE reason to pick education, especially since you’ll work weekends and summer anyway… simply to prepare for those 200 days.

We need teachers who want to teach for the sake of teaching, not because they erroneously think it’s an easy field with tons of free time.

That’s good for you? Plenty of teachers go into the field because it’s a profession that will let them spend summers with their kids. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s also why teachers complain more than you would expect: there isn’t another job out there for most teachers that will give them that schedule.

As someone who has been in the profession for over 25 years, I don’t see it as the family-friendly field that many think it is.

My afternoons are spent running clubs while I pay for childcare for my own kids. My nights are spent grading. My weekends are spent grading. My summers are spent prepping for the next year, attending recertification courses, and attending conferences/trainings to keep my extra credentials. My kids are growing up watching me work around the clock.

And yet I hear how family-friendly this field is, which I’ve never experienced.

I’m sure there are teachers somewhere with better schedules and fewer responsibilities, but I don’t personally know any.

And I’ll do the work without complaint because I signed up for it. I just wish others didn’t assume I have it so, so easy.

What would you call the three proceeding paragraphs and the final sentence….

That isn’t complaining.

I guess when you deal with children all day you know what complaining actually sounds like.

Somebody expressing an opinion and/or explaining a situation isn’t a complaint to me.

Oh, if a parent says “my kids are growing up watching me work around the clock” thats typically considered a complaint. If its just your choice than thats fine, enjoy your selected activities.

No. A complaint would be: "Ugh! I am so sick of this job! I can't get a moment's peace. Why the heck do I have to work all the time? These kids are so demanding! And the parents! Why don't they stop pestering me about getting my grades done. The more they complain, the less I'm going to work."
An explanation would be: "My kids are growing up watching me work around the clock." That is a clear explanation of how often I have to work.

As for my selected activity: have you seen the many, many, many DCUM threads about how long it takes for teachers to provide feedback? Have you seen how teachers are verbally **destroyed** on those threads? Here I am doing the work to provide consistent, timely feedback. It's what teachers have to do. Is acknowledging that a complaint?

So are you working full time because you're grading or because of these clubs you're choosing to run?

Are these comments even from real humans with kids? There are dozens of clubs at every school—before, during, and after school—which are important for the kids. Each club requires a teacher to supervise or sponsor and some require more hands-on than others. You're really singling this out as if the teacher is holding the kids hostage because the teacher really wants to force some activity on them? Contractual or not, be grateful.

The teacher is saying her children never see her. Clubs are voluntary assignments for the teachers I know, so if this teacher can’t do her grading maybe she should deprioritize clubs.

I’m the teacher. It’s in our contract to take a role running after school clubs and tutoring. In any case, that’s 2-3 hours a week. Grading is what drowns most teachers.

I am grateful for the posters here who have read what I’ve said and commiserated and been kind. That’s rare on this site. More often, teachers are told what they are doing wrong by posters who don’t know the conditions in which we work.

I like my job. Yes, it’s a huge sacrifice. But I’m not the only teacher sacrificing; there are hundreds of thousands of us. Regarding my own children: I know their teachers are making the same sacrifices I do and I am grateful for what they provide. If we all quit working off hours, schools would grind to a halt: no lessons would be planned, no papers would be graded, no letters of recommendation would be written. And yes, it’s a huge problem that schools operate because of teacher sacrifice. That’s why I speak up about it. People should know.

Trying to change minds by posting on DCUM is a fool's errand and is giving you a very distorted perception of what parents and the general public think about teachers.

[Anonymous]

Currently the high school I teach has roaming groups of students in the hallways all day long. At least 30 any time of the day and it was probably around 100 last Friday. They are failing all their classes and just refuse to go to class. They ignore teachers, security and admin. They make so much noise in the hallway that teachers are now complaining regularly about the disruption to classrooms that have to listen the noise even through solid doors.

That same week we have another training about how to “increase engagement” and overcoming “learning barriers”. Duh. Get kids into classrooms. Put the illiterate ones into proper courses instead of large gen-Ed rooms with little support.