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

[Anonymous]

I wonder about this too. There are so many teachers and all of them complain about every single part of their job. Did they not research any of this before going to school. If you don't really have the brains for anything else how about communications or marketing or sports management?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

From my experience, teachers primarily complain about working conditions, unsupportive administrators, and pay. It’s only here on DCUM I see the attack on parents, but I often think it comes from a defensive stance.

Posters here are cruel toward teachers, and I’ve seen some very harsh attacks (teachers are bottom of the barrel, unworthy of “real” jobs, they don’t deserve the pay they get since they are off all the time).

I have seen teachers give examples of parental interactions to illustrate our poor working conditions. I’ve posted about a parent who emailed in late in the evening and then wrote my administrator admonishing me because I didn’t respond by 8am the next morning. This wasn’t a compliant about that parent; rather, it was an example of a regular pressure I face at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder about this too. There are so many teachers and all of them complain about every single part of their job. Did they not research any of this before going to school. If you don't really have the brains for anything else how about communications or marketing or sports management?

I just posted about the regular DCUM attacks on teachers. Thank you for providing an example.

(Bonus points to you because you also managed to insult people in communications, marketing, and sports management!)

Oh, and if you bother to read this thread, you’ll find that your question has been answered many times.

[Anonymous]

Why? It wasn’t terrible when I started 14 yrs ago. It’s been going downhill fast in the last 8-10 yrs or so. You don’t get as many complaints from younger teachers because they are just quitting. I can’t because I have a mortgage and two teenagers who are headed to college in the next few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why? It wasn’t terrible when I started 14 yrs ago. It’s been going downhill fast in the last 8-10 yrs or so. You don’t get as many complaints from younger teachers because they are just quitting. I can’t because I have a mortgage and two teenagers who are headed to college in the next few years.

This 100%. Teaching has changed a lot since the mid 2000s. People are quick to blame Covid but teachers were sounding alarms way before that, roughly around the time schools started embracing the PBIS and Responsive Classroom nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? It wasn’t terrible when I started 14 yrs ago. It’s been going downhill fast in the last 8-10 yrs or so. You don’t get as many complaints from younger teachers because they are just quitting. I can’t because I have a mortgage and two teenagers who are headed to college in the next few years.

This 100%. Teaching has changed a lot since the mid 2000s. People are quick to blame Covid but teachers were sounding alarms way before that, roughly around the time schools started embracing the PBIS and Responsive Classroom nonsense.

Teaching is very different now from what we signed up for as a life long career in 2002. Students have much more severe and frequent needs. There is often a lack of parent support. Parents often have their own mental health needs that are projected onto the students. The amount of IEPs, 504's, ESOL, paperwork, and unproductive district initiatives have drastically increased. Salaries have not kept with inflation. Pensions have typically been reduced for newer staff. Over time the benefits of being a teacher have been reduced and the work/stress has greatly increased.

[Anonymous]

My county has 100 positions open. School starts next week.

Don't do it. It's a nightmare job.

[Anonymous]

I started teach in 1998. I have been a special education teacher for most of that time. The paperwork has probably tripled or quadrupled in that time. Yet, the time that I have to prepare this paperwork has not changed. The expectations keep changing. More and more is added on each year.

[Anonymous]

I left a career in FCPS (non teaching) after a decade and fast track promotions.

Yearly, demands increased and the workplace environment became more stressful and detrimental to my physical and mental health.

I abruptly quit.

I’m a very competent, patient, experienced professional who got rave reviews and thought I’d found my dream job finally at middle age. How naive. FCPS writ large seems to be a toxic
and generally strange workplace.

This negativity drives nice people like me away
in droves.

[Anonymous]

The decorating your classroom aspect isn't so much about decorating. It is about putting a room back together that you just disassembled a few months ago. You have to empty all your shelves, box everything, take everything off the walls, and push all the furniture to one side of the room. Then, you come back in August and get to put everything back together. This is usually during one week while you also have meetings for a majority of the day. The physical labor in teaching is more than most people think. The stress during that week is pretty high.

There are tough administrators. Teachers meet weekly for planning or data meetings. Usually, an administrator attends these meetings to provide feedback. The feedback is always negative. It's something about how you didn't get enough assessments done last week. There is no consideration given to the fact you were dealing with a violent child during that time. This is only an example. There is something demoralizing about hearing how badly you're doing your job when you spend all your time and energy on it. Some teachers are able to block this out, but it gets to most people. I know some of you are thinking that they should just do a better job and that you could, but I'd encourage you to try it out and see how that works.

[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.

At my former public school, nearly all my colleagues were on medication. Or having pot gummies every single night so they could calm down. Before I quit, I had to up my anti anxiety meds and take meds to help me sleep because my anxiety was so bad.

This is part of why I left. It got to the point that I had to be medicated and I should not have to take pills to do my job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

At my former public school, nearly all my colleagues were on medication. Or having pot gummies every single night so they could calm down. Before I quit, I had to up my anti anxiety meds and take meds to help me sleep because my anxiety was so bad.

This is part of why I left. It got to the point that I had to be medicated and I should not have to take pills to do my job.

I’m a special ed teacher. I have met very few special ed teachers who are not on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, or both. Most were not on these meds before they started the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The decorating your classroom aspect isn't so much about decorating. It is about putting a room back together that you just disassembled a few months ago. You have to empty all your shelves, box everything, take everything off the walls, and push all the furniture to one side of the room. Then, you come back in August and get to put everything back together. This is usually during one week while you also have meetings for a majority of the day. The physical labor in teaching is more than most people think. The stress during that week is pretty high.

There are tough administrators. Teachers meet weekly for planning or data meetings. Usually, an administrator attends these meetings to provide feedback. The feedback is always negative. It's something about how you didn't get enough assessments done last week. There is no consideration given to the fact you were dealing with a violent child during that time. This is only an example. There is something demoralizing about hearing how badly you're doing your job when you spend all your time and energy on it. Some teachers are able to block this out, but it gets to most people. I know some of you are thinking that they should just do a better job and that you could, but I'd encourage you to try it out and see how that works.

100% this. I could not describe my experience any better than this poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The decorating your classroom aspect isn't so much about decorating. It is about putting a room back together that you just disassembled a few months ago. You have to empty all your shelves, box everything, take everything off the walls, and push all the furniture to one side of the room. Then, you come back in August and get to put everything back together. This is usually during one week while you also have meetings for a majority of the day. The physical labor in teaching is more than most people think. The stress during that week is pretty high.

There are tough administrators. Teachers meet weekly for planning or data meetings. Usually, an administrator attends these meetings to provide feedback. The feedback is always negative. It's something about how you didn't get enough assessments done last week. There is no consideration given to the fact you were dealing with a violent child during that time. This is only an example. There is something demoralizing about hearing how badly you're doing your job when you spend all your time and energy on it. Some teachers are able to block this out, but it gets to most people. I know some of you are thinking that they should just do a better job and that you could, but I'd encourage you to try it out and see how that works.

+1
I moved classrooms 10 times over a 22 year period. During that stretch I was never in one room longer than 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The decorating your classroom aspect isn't so much about decorating. It is about putting a room back together that you just disassembled a few months ago. You have to empty all your shelves, box everything, take everything off the walls, and push all the furniture to one side of the room. Then, you come back in August and get to put everything back together. This is usually during one week while you also have meetings for a majority of the day. The physical labor in teaching is more than most people think. The stress during that week is pretty high.

There are tough administrators. Teachers meet weekly for planning or data meetings. Usually, an administrator attends these meetings to provide feedback. The feedback is always negative. It's something about how you didn't get enough assessments done last week. There is no consideration given to the fact you were dealing with a violent child during that time. This is only an example. There is something demoralizing about hearing how badly you're doing your job when you spend all your time and energy on it. Some teachers are able to block this out, but it gets to most people. I know some of you are thinking that they should just do a better job and that you could, but I'd encourage you to try it out and see how that works.

+1
I moved classrooms 10 times over a 22 year period. During that stretch I was never in one room longer than 3 years.

PP and at least you had a classroom. My DC at a lauded AAP Center FCPS ES had Art on a Cart (art teacher pushed an upcycled projector cart around to the classrooms. Speech teacher had a literal (former) coat closet. HS about the same with language teachers assigned different classrooms for each period.