Why do people become teachers and then complain about how terrible it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we didn't know the reality and it is hard to change careers. In fact, it is hard to even change jobs within the career- a teacher has a small window to resign from a school system and get a job in another. One day over that improbable limit- bam, the license is revoked in the state. Secondly, in order to retain certification, a teacher needs a master's degree and further continuing ed, which is all really time consuming and costly , and literally never ends. Thirdly, there's not one practicum or student teaching that shows the daily 24/7 time suck- a teacher never stops working, there's also the demoralization of teachers by children's behavior, stupid micromanaging by incompetent administrators, and the religion of standardized testing where teachers are actually held accountable and penalized for a school's lower test scores as if they, the teachers, were responsible for each child's lack of parenting, language skills, nutrition, abusive home life, disabilities, behavior, lack of early education exposure: books, experiences, language, and emotional capacity. The tests are given in March, and that child may have actually crossed the Rio Grande earlier that July, been beaten daily by caregivers, hasn't had a real meal since a grandfather's funeral
repast 2 years ago, cannot see, has an emotional and or learning disability, and/ or with no resources to speak of, but, yes, that teacher is responsible for on level test scores six months into the school year. Despite all this training, school boards prescribe scripted nonsense that was purchased for political reasons and fails to teach anything.

That is why. We wish we could actually teach children.

**I learned one year that most of my teacher colleagues were on some type of medication-anti anxiety, sleep, anti-depressant, etc. I remember wondering why it didn't occur to me to ever explore that, I probably should have.

Some of the above might be true in some private schools, but most of the above is not true in most private schools. Private school pay tends to be lower, but often (not always) there is less crap, a more supportive administration, and more opportunity to actually teach. Privates do not require licensing, but probably prefer (not require) a masters degree (sometimes a masters in the subject is preferred over a MEd). Privates have both pluses and minuses relative to public, but definitely not an identical experience.

Not really anymore, but please remember all private school kids can be booted out of school. Public school cannot do that- so after awhile private looks manageable, but in reality it is privilege. And yes, pay is much lower, rarely are there benefits or any decent benefif, and absolutely no retirement system. Teachers have to serve parents in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of teachers with complaints about the nature of the job, such as not having many days off during the school year, having parents rely on school as a form of childcare (not sure the answer to this other than pay nanny to sit home just in case), send them kids to teach whose behavior is not perfect.
While I understand all these complaints and would never choose to be a teacher myself, I nonetheless find it odd. Like - if you're going to be a teacher surely you realize your time off is going to bulk in summer, you know parents need to work, you know 1 in 4 kids is neurodivergent and will need intervention and/ or support, before you become a teacher? Are these things a surprise?

I doubt 25% of kids are “neurodivergent”. Children with Autism are in a special class or go to a school for children with Autism. Children who can keep up with the classroom work and are independent might be mislabeled on the spectrum because they’re socially delayed or very awkward. And people complain about their jobs. What else is new.

Maybe if they are unable to do work in a general ed classroom but many students with autism can do the work. I had a student with autism last year in kindergarten. Her parents were in total denial for years but she finally was diagnosed. She could do the work but needed a lot more support than just I could give her. The other classroom had another student with autism. He was in his first year of school and it will take a long time to move him to a self contained classroom.

And this is one of the key problems with school now. Idealistic goals in the legislation for disabled kids were not funded by the federal government and have become entirely impossible to actually implement IRL.

[Anonymous]

Find me one profession that its members don't complain about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of teachers with complaints about the nature of the job, such as not having many days off during the school year, having parents rely on school as a form of childcare (not sure the answer to this other than pay nanny to sit home just in case), send them kids to teach whose behavior is not perfect.
While I understand all these complaints and would never choose to be a teacher myself, I nonetheless find it odd. Like - if you're going to be a teacher surely you realize your time off is going to bulk in summer, you know parents need to work, you know 1 in 4 kids is neurodivergent and will need intervention and/ or support, before you become a teacher? Are these things a surprise?

I doubt 25% of kids are “neurodivergent”. Children with Autism are in a special class or go to a school for children with Autism. Children who can keep up with the classroom work and are independent might be mislabeled on the spectrum because they’re socially delayed or very awkward. And people complain about their jobs. What else is new.

Maybe if they are unable to do work in a general ed classroom but many students with autism can do the work. I had a student with autism last year in kindergarten. Her parents were in total denial for years but she finally was diagnosed. She could do the work but needed a lot more support than just I could give her. The other classroom had another student with autism. He was in his first year of school and it will take a long time to move him to a self contained classroom.

Yes, there are students with mild Autism that are mainstreamed, some with an aide, some without. But a claim of 25% is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we didn't know the reality and it is hard to change careers. In fact, it is hard to even change jobs within the career- a teacher has a small window to resign from a school system and get a job in another. One day over that improbable limit- bam, the license is revoked in the state. Secondly, in order to retain certification, a teacher needs a master's degree and further continuing ed, which is all really time consuming and costly , and literally never ends. Thirdly, there's not one practicum or student teaching that shows the daily 24/7 time suck- a teacher never stops working, there's also the demoralization of teachers by children's behavior, stupid micromanaging by incompetent administrators, and the religion of standardized testing where teachers are actually held accountable and penalized for a school's lower test scores as if they, the teachers, were responsible for each child's lack of parenting, language skills, nutrition, abusive home life, disabilities, behavior, lack of early education exposure: books, experiences, language, and emotional capacity. The tests are given in March, and that child may have actually crossed the Rio Grande earlier that July, been beaten daily by caregivers, hasn't had a real meal since a grandfather's funeral
repast 2 years ago, cannot see, has an emotional and or learning disability, and/ or with no resources to speak of, but, yes, that teacher is responsible for on level test scores six months into the school year. Despite all this training, school boards prescribe scripted nonsense that was purchased for political reasons and fails to teach anything.

That is why. We wish we could actually teach children.

**I learned one year that most of my teacher colleagues were on some type of medication-anti anxiety, sleep, anti-depressant, etc. I remember wondering why it didn't occur to me to ever explore that, I probably should have.

Some of the above might be true in some private schools, but most of the above is not true in most private schools. Private school pay tends to be lower, but often (not always) there is less crap, a more supportive administration, and more opportunity to actually teach. Privates do not require licensing, but probably prefer (not require) a masters degree (sometimes a masters in the subject is preferred over a MEd). Privates have both pluses and minuses relative to public, but definitely not an identical experience.

Private schools can be quick to kick a troublesome student out but public schools can’t do that. So naturally they don’t have as many issues. They send their problems to the public school and brag about how well behaved their students are.

[Anonymous]

yeah I'm sure if they decided to become a nurse, doctor, lawyer or whatever, they wouldn't complain at all, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find me one profession that its members don't complain about.

I quit teaching for another field. It’s night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many people pick a career based on what they think they would like to do, without looking into salary, employment terms, or other aspects. This is true in many fields, not just in education.

I looked. The deal was changed on me without notice. It got much, much more stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of teachers with complaints about the nature of the job, such as not having many days off during the school year, having parents rely on school as a form of childcare (not sure the answer to this other than pay nanny to sit home just in case), send them kids to teach whose behavior is not perfect.
While I understand all these complaints and would never choose to be a teacher myself, I nonetheless find it odd. Like - if you're going to be a teacher surely you realize your time off is going to bulk in summer, you know parents need to work, you know 1 in 4 kids is neurodivergent and will need intervention and/ or support, before you become a teacher? Are these things a surprise?

Teacher here heading into year 15. I love my job when I close my door and teach my kids. I hate the micromanagement, the lack of support, the administrative tasks that are completely unnecessary, and lack of consequences for children. Also large class sizes.

No one who I work with is complaining about anything you stated.

If they fixed the following you would hear less complaining.

1) Get rid of poor administration. Require admin to teach a minimum of 10 years.
2) Make staffing that is beneficial to kids. Especially ESL and SpED.
3) Get rid of unnecessary tasks and don’t add multiple new initiatives each year.
4) Actually make it possible for expulsion to happen if so many suspensions occur (in/out).
5) Class size cap of 25.

[Anonymous]

If schools would manage lower level behaviors with consequences, most students wouldn’t move onto higher level behaviors.

[Anonymous]

It is much more difficult than when I started 20 years ago. Mostly I blame this generation of parents, roughly my age gen x and millennial. Phones, COVID, etc all made it worse. But inability to discipline and hold kids accountable, blaming teachers for kids' misbehavior, the snowflake mentality has hurt this profession and the kids were trying to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find me one profession that its members don't complain about.

[/quote

Yes, but you don't see any of my friends who are therapists, doctors, finance professionals, lawyers, management consultants, etc. prolifically complaining on social media.

That space is OWNED by teachers.

My feed was recently invaded with teachers bemoaning decorating their classrooms. (UN FOLLOW!)

No other profession goes on social media demanding attention while they decorate their office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find me one profession that its members don't complain about.

[/quote

Yes, but you don't see any of my friends who are therapists, doctors, finance professionals, lawyers, management consultants, etc. prolifically complaining on social media.

That space is OWNED by teachers.

My feed was recently invaded with teachers bemoaning decorating their classrooms. (UN FOLLOW!)

No other profession goes on social media demanding attention while they decorate their office.

Well, you aren’t expected to decorate your office. We are expected to decorate our classrooms. Most of us receive no budget for this, yet we can be counted down on our evaluations if our room is undecorated and uninviting. So I don’t fault teachers for wanting to show their classrooms on social media. A lot of time, effort, and money goes into that. (Oh, and we usually aren’t given work time to do this either, so it’s done over the summer.)

You’re welcome to scroll past that picture of your teacher friend’s classroom. I will show appreciation, but you’re welcome to either ignore or complain about teachers. Nobody is stopping you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find me one profession that its members don't complain about.

[/quote

Yes, but you don't see any of my friends who are therapists, doctors, finance professionals, lawyers, management consultants, etc. prolifically complaining on social media.

That space is OWNED by teachers.

My feed was recently invaded with teachers bemoaning decorating their classrooms. (UN FOLLOW!)

No other profession goes on social media demanding attention while they decorate their office.

In what other profession do you have to move your own office furniture? That’s what I did on Friday before I even got to start putting my classroom together. My new classroom has no way to control the temperature and has no windows. The school has a moisture problem which means there’s a ton of mold in the walls. We have to have bottled water brought in because of the lead pipes in the school. My closet is full of rodent droppings. I’m pretty sure your working conditions aren’t like this.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's weird that teachers complain about teaching.

I do think it's weird how much of the ire is directed at kids and parents instead of administration, the school district, and governing boards. I get some kids and some parents are really hard to deal with, but I've worked in retail and in service professions and in white shoe law firms and run a small business-- you find that in any job that puts you in contact with a large number of people.

But often I see teachers saying "if kids just did X" or "if parents would stop Y" then teaching would be more tolerable. Nope. You need to focus on your actual employer and the institution you work within. The only way to improve conditions is to improve policies and frameworks. Especially because the nature of schools means that you are constantly getting new populations of families in. If parents are doing something annoying that makes teaching harder, teachers unions should lobby admin and districts to create policies and institutional frameworks that prevent parents from doing that. Same with kids. Most files are basically sheep doing what they see others doing or what feels like the easiest option. They also have none of your institutional knowledge-- they are going to do naive and uniformed things because they haven't been working in education for a decade.

I have tons of empathy for teachers. I think it's a tough job that is underappreciated (at least where I live it is no longer underpaid though I know in other places it is still underpaid). But I'd love to see actual improvements made that would improve the experience in the profession. And that means looking to the people with the actual owner to effect change. Which is not students or their parents-- those groups usually have even less power than teachers.