Why Are Teachers So Resentful?

[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]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

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:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

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]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Same at my kid's high school. It's time for school districts to cut bait. Every single piece of content is posted online. These students all have school issued Chromebooks and by are legally old enough to stay home without parental supervision. They need to be kicked out of the building and told to log on from home. The students who are acting like this have no right to disrupt the education of the kids who are actually trying to learn. Not to mention the toll this kind of crap takes on staff. Anyone telling teachers they have a proven method to increase engagement and magically undo 15 years of bad parenting is a charlatan and should not receive a single penny from any school district ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Same at my kid's high school. It's time for school districts to cut bait. Every single piece of content is posted online. These students all have school issued Chromebooks and by are legally old enough to stay home without parental supervision. They need to be kicked out of the building and told to log on from home. The students who are acting like this have no right to disrupt the education of the kids who are actually trying to learn. Not to mention the toll this kind of crap takes on staff. Anyone telling teachers they have a proven method to increase engagement and magically undo 15 years of bad parenting is a charlatan and should not receive a single penny from any school district ever.

I don’t think school districts are going to do a single thing. We need action from the governor. Like why did it take a governor action to get cell phones out of school?

Teachers are drowning with bad kids and school districts don’t give AF. As long as their expulsion and suspension numbers don’t rise, they pat themselves on the back.

[Anonymous]

In Maryland, kids used to be able to drop out at 16. Not anymore. Those kids are the hallway roamers. If they aren’t going to attend class, let’s get rid of them so the kids who want to learn can learn. Maybe offer a youth works program for them during the school year for the ones who want to work.

[Anonymous]

Now the 17 and 18 year old criminals can show the younger classes how to party each day and how teachers and admin can't do nuffin about it. If anything they will fire the teachers for trying to teach them and making reports. Hahaha. Good luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now the 17 and 18 year old criminals can show the younger classes how to party each day and how teachers and admin can't do nuffin about it. If anything they will fire the teachers for trying to teach them and making reports. Hahaha. Good luck

But we wuz kangs n shiiiiii