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[quote=Anonymous]I’m a high school teacher and last month I had a little talk with one of my best students.  She had proudly come to tell me that she wants to be a teacher.  I strongly advised her to reconsider: as I explained, parents and students do not respect teachers, and she will be mocked, derided, and second-guessed on a near-regular basis at work.  She was actually said that she is aware of the way her classmates and their parents treat teachers and talk to/about them, but had “though it didn’t bother the teachers.”  I told her, quite bluntly, that on some days it bothers me quite a lot.  Occasionally I cry when I get home.

I also explained that during the beginning of the pandemic, I became fully aware of just how little teachers are respected.

I am sure some of you will now tell me I am a bad teacher and should quit because the profession doesn’t need me.  I assure you that I am considered one of the best teachers in our department.  I have a degree from Harvard, and this impresses parents enough that they actually treat me slightly better than some of my equally-deserving colleagues.  But if I could go back, I would choose another career.

I hate the disrespect, entitlement, grade-grubbing and attempts by parents to bully me into inflating their darlings’ grades, and the sheer volume of work I am expected to accomplish outside of school.

I began my career starry-eyed with enthusiasm.  16 years of pushy, disrespectful parents, plus one pandemic in which it was made clear that I was expected to sacrifice myself for other people’s children (while these people “worked from home” themselves), and I now hate my job.  If I could think of a way to transition into a new career now, I would, but I can’t.

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