Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I started twenty years ago, I could get my work done in 40 or 45 hours a week. I had balance.

I work 7 days a week now. It never ends. I’m always grading papers, responding to emails, and revising lessons. If I’m awake, I’m working or thinking about the work that needs to get done.

The demands of the job have grown exponentially.

As a parent, I also felt we have to enrich so much outside school. Somehow it is very exhausting to be parent in this country.

I’m the teacher PP.

We have lost our way. 20 years ago, my job was to teach. I had clear lessons, clear expectations, and time to provide clear feedback. I had fewer students and more planning time.

Now I have larger classes and more of them. I am no longer supposed to teach. We aren’t supposed to be “the sage on the stage”; in fact, we are marked down in our evaluations if we are caught doing that. We are supposed to be the “guide on the side,” as students learn cooperatively through group work and gallery walks. I am now a guide, a counselor, a social worker, a nurse, an entertainer, a mentor, and a data collector. Teacher? That’s just one of many hats now and I don’t think it’s considered the most important.

And this new version of teaching isn’t benefiting the students. And those of us who have been in the profession a long time know it.

This was true 20 years ago as well. 20 years ago admin sure as hell didn’t want us teaching out of textbooks either and we were expected to come up with new and engaging lessons and materials daily which required numerous at home hours to come up with. I swear teachershave amnesia. It’s like in order to complain about how crappy teaching is they have to act like it hasn’t been this way for a long, long time.

Anonymous wrote:When I started twenty years ago, I could get my work done in 40 or 45 hours a week. I had balance.

I work 7 days a week now. It never ends. I’m always grading papers, responding to emails, and revising lessons. If I’m awake, I’m working or thinking about the work that needs to get done.

The demands of the job have grown exponentially.

How is it you weren’t doing these things 20 years ago as well? Teaching has always demanded that teachers spend a good 20+ hours a week outside the classroom doing this stuff. That’s the big problem with teaching. It’s actually two jobs in one. It’s a flaw with the system.

Anonymous wrote:When I started twenty years ago, I could get my work done in 40 or 45 hours a week. I had balance.

I work 7 days a week now. It never ends. I’m always grading papers, responding to emails, and revising lessons. If I’m awake, I’m working or thinking about the work that needs to get done.

The demands of the job have grown exponentially.

I started teaching in 2001 and worked pretty much 60+ hours a week. I think teachers tend to have rose colored glasses about “how good it used to be”.

Former teacher here.
Because the job completely sucks and no, teaching was never one of the best jobs around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many pages to read but if you want a perspective from a veteran teacher you can take this at face value.

You want to know why teachers are resentful?
Because for years we’ve watched people who couldn’t survive a single chaotic Monday in a classroom act like they’re qualified to question our competence, our motives, and our professionalism.

Teachers aren’t resentful—they’re [/b]fed up with a culture that demands educators be superheroes while treating them like disposable background characters.

Let’s cut through the nonsense; Teachers hold together a system that is collapsing under political meddling, chronic underfunding, and the refusal of society to take responsibility for the very problems it dumps at our door. And then people have the gall to ask why we’re not beaming with gratitude.

Here’s why teachers are resentful:

A) Because every time we raise concerns, some armchair critic who hasn’t opened a textbook since high school thinks they know better.
B) Because we’re expected to fix educational inequality, childhood trauma, behavioral crises, family instability, and social dysfunction—but God forbid we mention that these things even exist.
C) Because the people quickest to judge are the ones who do absolutely nothing to help.
D) Because somehow teachers are simultaneously “glorified babysitters” *and* the reason society is falling apart—depending on which excuse is more convenient that day.
E) Because our expertise is dismissed by people who couldn’t explain a fraction of the work we do, but sure know how to complain about it.

If teachers sound resentful, it’s because they’re tired of being blamed for a system they didn’t design, under conditions no reasonable adult would tolerate, while listening to the loudest critics contribute nothing but noise.

And let’s be brutally honest:
If more people understood even a tiny fraction of what teachers actually endure, they wouldn’t be asking why teachers are resentful—they’d be asking how teachers haven’t burned the whole system to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

So yes, teachers are resentful.
Not because they’re ungrateful or dramatic, but because[b] they’ve spent years being ground down by expectations no other profession on earth would endure.

Does this sound harsh? It’s because the truth is.

You’re resentful because you believe this. Teaching is hard and demanding. It is not the hardest or most demanding work. Constantly telling yourself this is why you feel like such a victim.

— close family member of an award winning teacher who is candid about the struggles teachers have but thinks this kind of talk is self indulgent b*llshit especially after 2020.

Stop blaming covid. Sh!tty parents are why 2020 keeps being used as an excuse. It's not 2020. It's the sh!t entitled parents didn't do in 2019. And 2018. And 2017....

Get the sped and crazies out of gen ed, bring back red ink, and fail the kids that can't keep up. Quit complaining because it's the parents that fked up the schools first. I'm not sure exactly when but it might have been some time in the aughts.

If you're complaining about a particularly bad experience with a teacher, (no shade but) it's probably because a more experienced teacher (or two) successively burned out from your neediness.

And from experience as a parent pretty involved with volunteering at a couple of schools, most of the relatively better classes seemed to have gotten first dibs'ed according to seniority. The revolving door of burn outs were the newer teachers burdened with the more difficult classes.

Burning out is such a major problem. I’ve lost most of my department. Experienced, strong teachers who are capable of keeping up with the crushing workload have quit. They are replaced by well-meaning people who weren’t prepared for the demands. I’m glad they’re here, but I know it’s temporary. They are one grading weekend or one angry parent away from quitting, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many pages to read but if you want a perspective from a veteran teacher you can take this at face value.

You want to know why teachers are resentful?
Because for years we’ve watched people who couldn’t survive a single chaotic Monday in a classroom act like they’re qualified to question our competence, our motives, and our professionalism.

Teachers aren’t resentful—they’re [/b]fed up with a culture that demands educators be superheroes while treating them like disposable background characters.

Let’s cut through the nonsense; Teachers hold together a system that is collapsing under political meddling, chronic underfunding, and the refusal of society to take responsibility for the very problems it dumps at our door. And then people have the gall to ask why we’re not beaming with gratitude.

Here’s why teachers are resentful:

A) Because every time we raise concerns, some armchair critic who hasn’t opened a textbook since high school thinks they know better.
B) Because we’re expected to fix educational inequality, childhood trauma, behavioral crises, family instability, and social dysfunction—but God forbid we mention that these things even exist.
C) Because the people quickest to judge are the ones who do absolutely nothing to help.
D) Because somehow teachers are simultaneously “glorified babysitters” *and* the reason society is falling apart—depending on which excuse is more convenient that day.
E) Because our expertise is dismissed by people who couldn’t explain a fraction of the work we do, but sure know how to complain about it.

If teachers sound resentful, it’s because they’re tired of being blamed for a system they didn’t design, under conditions no reasonable adult would tolerate, while listening to the loudest critics contribute nothing but noise.

And let’s be brutally honest:
If more people understood even a tiny fraction of what teachers actually endure, they wouldn’t be asking why teachers are resentful—they’d be asking how teachers haven’t burned the whole system to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

So yes, teachers are resentful.
Not because they’re ungrateful or dramatic, but because[b] they’ve spent years being ground down by expectations no other profession on earth would endure.

Does this sound harsh? It’s because the truth is.

You’re resentful because you believe this. Teaching is hard and demanding. It is not the hardest or most demanding work. Constantly telling yourself this is why you feel like such a victim.

— close family member of an award winning teacher who is candid about the struggles teachers have but thinks this kind of talk is self indulgent b*llshit especially after 2020.

I haven’t had a lunch break for 15 years. I’m not saying a working lunch break. I am saying because of my special population, I am with the kids all day long (minus a 20 minute special).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many pages to read but if you want a perspective from a veteran teacher you can take this at face value.

You want to know why teachers are resentful?
Because for years we’ve watched people who couldn’t survive a single chaotic Monday in a classroom act like they’re qualified to question our competence, our motives, and our professionalism.

Teachers aren’t resentful—they’re [/b]fed up with a culture that demands educators be superheroes while treating them like disposable background characters.

Let’s cut through the nonsense; Teachers hold together a system that is collapsing under political meddling, chronic underfunding, and the refusal of society to take responsibility for the very problems it dumps at our door. And then people have the gall to ask why we’re not beaming with gratitude.

Here’s why teachers are resentful:

A) Because every time we raise concerns, some armchair critic who hasn’t opened a textbook since high school thinks they know better.
B) Because we’re expected to fix educational inequality, childhood trauma, behavioral crises, family instability, and social dysfunction—but God forbid we mention that these things even exist.
C) Because the people quickest to judge are the ones who do absolutely nothing to help.
D) Because somehow teachers are simultaneously “glorified babysitters” *and* the reason society is falling apart—depending on which excuse is more convenient that day.
E) Because our expertise is dismissed by people who couldn’t explain a fraction of the work we do, but sure know how to complain about it.

If teachers sound resentful, it’s because they’re tired of being blamed for a system they didn’t design, under conditions no reasonable adult would tolerate, while listening to the loudest critics contribute nothing but noise.

And let’s be brutally honest:
If more people understood even a tiny fraction of what teachers actually endure, they wouldn’t be asking why teachers are resentful—they’d be asking how teachers haven’t burned the whole system to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

So yes, teachers are resentful.
Not because they’re ungrateful or dramatic, but because[b] they’ve spent years being ground down by expectations no other profession on earth would endure.

Does this sound harsh? It’s because the truth is.

You’re resentful because you believe this. Teaching is hard and demanding. It is not the hardest or most demanding work. Constantly telling yourself this is why you feel like such a victim.

— close family member of an award winning teacher who is candid about the struggles teachers have but thinks this kind of talk is self indulgent b*llshit especially after 2020.

Stop blaming covid. Sh!tty parents are why 2020 keeps being used as an excuse. It's not 2020. It's the sh!t entitled parents didn't do in 2019. And 2018. And 2017....

Get the sped and crazies out of gen ed, bring back red ink, and fail the kids that can't keep up. Quit complaining because it's the parents that fked up the schools first. I'm not sure exactly when but it might have been some time in the aughts.

If you're complaining about a particularly bad experience with a teacher, (no shade but) it's probably because a more experienced teacher (or two) successively burned out from your neediness.

And from experience as a parent pretty involved with volunteering at a couple of schools, most of the relatively better classes seemed to have gotten first dibs'ed according to seniority. The revolving door of burn outs were the newer teachers burdened with the more difficult classes.

Anonymous wrote:Too many pages to read but if you want a perspective from a veteran teacher you can take this at face value.

You want to know why teachers are resentful?
Because for years we’ve watched people who couldn’t survive a single chaotic Monday in a classroom act like they’re qualified to question our competence, our motives, and our professionalism.

Teachers aren’t resentful—they’re [/b]fed up with a culture that demands educators be superheroes while treating them like disposable background characters.

Let’s cut through the nonsense; Teachers hold together a system that is collapsing under political meddling, chronic underfunding, and the refusal of society to take responsibility for the very problems it dumps at our door. And then people have the gall to ask why we’re not beaming with gratitude.

Here’s why teachers are resentful:

A) Because every time we raise concerns, some armchair critic who hasn’t opened a textbook since high school thinks they know better.
B) Because we’re expected to fix educational inequality, childhood trauma, behavioral crises, family instability, and social dysfunction—but God forbid we mention that these things even exist.
C) Because the people quickest to judge are the ones who do absolutely nothing to help.
D) Because somehow teachers are simultaneously “glorified babysitters” *and* the reason society is falling apart—depending on which excuse is more convenient that day.
E) Because our expertise is dismissed by people who couldn’t explain a fraction of the work we do, but sure know how to complain about it.

If teachers sound resentful, it’s because they’re tired of being blamed for a system they didn’t design, under conditions no reasonable adult would tolerate, while listening to the loudest critics contribute nothing but noise.

And let’s be brutally honest:
If more people understood even a tiny fraction of what teachers actually endure, they wouldn’t be asking why teachers are resentful—they’d be asking how teachers haven’t burned the whole system to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

So yes, teachers are resentful.
Not because they’re ungrateful or dramatic, but because[b] they’ve spent years being ground down by expectations no other profession on earth would endure.

Does this sound harsh? It’s because the truth is.

You’re resentful because you believe this. Teaching is hard and demanding. It is not the hardest or most demanding work. Constantly telling yourself this is why you feel like such a victim.

— close family member of an award winning teacher who is candid about the struggles teachers have but thinks this kind of talk is self indulgent b*llshit especially after 2020.

Too many pages to read but if you want a perspective from a veteran teacher you can take this at face value.

You want to know why teachers are resentful?
Because for years we’ve watched people who couldn’t survive a single chaotic Monday in a classroom act like they’re qualified to question our competence, our motives, and our professionalism.

Teachers aren’t resentful—they’re [/b]fed up[b] with a culture that demands educators be superheroes while treating them like disposable background characters.

Let’s cut through the nonsense; Teachers hold together a system that is collapsing under political meddling, chronic underfunding, and the refusal of society to take responsibility for the very problems it dumps at our door. And then people have the gall to ask why we’re not beaming with gratitude.

Here’s why teachers are resentful:

A) Because every time we raise concerns, some armchair critic who hasn’t opened a textbook since high school thinks they know better.
B) Because we’re expected to fix educational inequality, childhood trauma, behavioral crises, family instability, and social dysfunction—but God forbid we mention that these things even exist.
C) Because the people quickest to judge are the ones who do absolutely nothing to help.
D) Because somehow teachers are simultaneously “glorified babysitters” *and* the reason society is falling apart—depending on which excuse is more convenient that day.
E) Because our expertise is dismissed by people who couldn’t explain a fraction of the work we do, but sure know how to complain about it.

If teachers sound resentful, it’s because they’re tired of being blamed for a system they didn’t design, under conditions no reasonable adult would tolerate, while listening to the loudest critics contribute nothing but noise.

And let’s be brutally honest:
If more people understood even a tiny fraction of what teachers actually endure, they wouldn’t be asking why teachers are resentful—they’d be asking how teachers haven’t burned the whole system to the ground out of sheer exhaustion.

So yes, teachers are resentful.
Not because they’re ungrateful or dramatic, but because they’ve spent years being ground down by expectations no other profession on earth would endure.

Does this sound harsh? It’s because the truth is.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I realize that grading is what gets shoved into your off hours but "Grading is what drowns most teachers" makes it sound like the reason stuff is broken now is due to grading. That can't be possible. Teachers have always graded. What needs fixed and pushed back on are whatever all the NEW things are that schools have started to make teachers do that they didn't need to 10/15/20 years ago. The core parts of the job (which grading is) still need captured but surely there's a zillion other things eating time that need to get shoved back off teachers' plates.

Sure, *the reason* grading is done at night and on weekends is because of tons of other factors. But that doesn’t change the fact the grading itself is the reason I’ll quit.

- I used to have smaller classes, so I used to grade 100 papers. Now I grade in stacks of 150.

- I used to be able to grade holistically, leaving tons of comments and a number at the top (like my teachers did for me). Now I have to leave tons of comments and align them to a complicated rubric, which takes extra time. And, I suspect, the number would be the same without the wordy rubric.

- I put grades into the system, wait 20 minutes, and then check my email. The parents and students asking for more points start to roll in, taking even more time as I have to justify grades (again) in email after email.

And, of course, this all happens at home because of the team meetings, the sub duty, the cafeteria duty, the data meetings, the IEP/504 meetings, the disciplinary reports, and the mandatory tutoring/office hours.

So grading is why I’m dusting off my resume. It’s what eats up my off hours.

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.

I realize that grading is what gets shoved into your off hours but "Grading is what drowns most teachers" makes it sound like the reason stuff is broken now is due to grading. That can't be possible. Teachers have always graded. What needs fixed and pushed back on are whatever all the NEW things are that schools have started to make teachers do that they didn't need to 10/15/20 years ago. The core parts of the job (which grading is) still need captured but surely there's a zillion other things eating time that need to get shoved back off teachers' plates.