Teaching: I think I want to be done

[DuckFan]

I just finished my second year teaching English at the high school level.

The majority of my second year was pretty good, I have to admit. But, the last month was hell.

I am getting sick of "being in high school." The drama, the cursing in the halls, the constant motivating students to care the slightest, the parent emails that think you are the enemy, the attitude of kids that have so much energy they just want to get mad and take you down with them.

I am not happy that Sunday night through Friday afternoon I am constantly having to be "on." I don't really have a social life during the week, as I am in bed and lights out by 9:30.

I have always tackled one goal and moved onto another. But, in education it's the same thing over and over and over again. More motivating students to read. More babysitting kids that lack any attention span, and have no idea what is appropriate to say to a teacher/adult.

I feel like I don't need this in my life. That I am much smarter, calmer, etc., than what I deal with in teaching.

There are some great moments. There are also some moments that I ask what I am doing in the classroom. I do a good job. I feel I am effective. But, constantly being around this generation of students is draining. They have no drive, they don't listen to authority, and they feel self-entitled.

The parents are the worst. They attack, the point fingers and accuse, and all your trying to do is hold their child accountable and do the work. It's truly insane. I have to bite my tongue a lot because I am a "teacher." You take abuse and you can't say anything back. It's frustrating.
It's summer now. Maybe I'll look for other openings.

Anyone else every feel this way?

I want my life to be a series of adventures. I certainly don't see myself teaching for the rest of my life, but for now it's helping me get by.

[wordsmith]

I trained to become a high school English teacher. I did not enjoy it, and it broke my heart. I opted out, and chose instead to work in other fields (inner-city youth work, then community journalism, and just enough paralegal work to determine an office job wasn't for me) for nearly a decade. In the past year and a half, I was able to get back into education in a way that has been a much better experience for me than your typical public high school. It took a long time to find the right niche for myself, but for me, it was really important to learn what I did and didn't want in a profession, and explore accordingly. But for a long time, I thought that education just plain wasn't for me...I was wrong, it just took finding the right environment and type of job. It's been a lot of trial and error.

[capella]

First, your feelings are very, very common for someone at your stage in this profession. I nearly quit myself after my third year. Well, I did quit for about six weeks over the summer, but that doesn't really add up to quitting altogether. I'm so glad I did not quit.

You may not have found the right level for you. I've taught 3rd grade, 7th language arts, and 9th and 12th grade English... not to mention all the teachers I've trained. My preferred grade level is 9th or 10th grade English.

What types of activities are you doing in the classroom? Are you more along the lines of constructivist teaching or traditional? Maybe just changing up what you're doing in the classroom will help you feel rejuvenated. What is your subject area (it sounds like English, but I could be wrong)?

If you're comfortable with your content and standards, try to branch out and do something project-based or technology related. The kids will work harder and be more engaged and you'll be less "on" and more of a facilitator. PM me if you want to discuss more. This is what I train teachers to do and what I do myself in the classroom. ;-)

[roulettefanatic]

i'm sorry to hear your starting to doubt your job.....i'm glad i came across this thread because one of my assignments last week was to research what careers are possibly a good fit for me considering my skill set....one of the careers i looked at was teaching in general, elementary education specifically......

i liked the idea of being an educator and "making a difference" and i can't lie, i find the time off appealing (i know, it's very controversial for me to say this but i'm just being honest).....however, i did hear from a few people about the bureaucratic headaches and the parents namely, who will tend to blame the teacher for what's lacking at home.....this is something i have no patience for, so it made me doubt whether it would be a good career choice......

as for your situation, it sounds like you got something good out of it but you have enough doubts to wonder if you need to just change schools or if it's time to leave the field altogether.....i can certainly understand what you said about adventures and in a sense, always having a new challenge ahead of you.....

as far as teaching goes, it's my impression that once you've met one class of brats, there isn't going to be much of a change from that point on......don't get me wrong, i'm not saying all kids are bad, but i have a 15-year old cousin who i can only tolerate in small doses right now.....

good luck with whatever you decide to do......as a side question: have you thought about administrative positions? my cousin works as a high school history teacher right now but he is planning on getting advanced degrees with the idea of becoming a vice principal and principal one day......

[capella]

Disliking the classroom is NOT a reason to become an assistant principal or principal. If you want to effect change and set the culture of a school, become an assistant principal or principal. There are enough bad admins out there who couldn't hack it as classroom teachers. We do not need more of that.

[roulettefanatic]

Disliking the classroom is NOT a reason to become an assistant principal or principal. If you want to effect change and set the culture of a school, become an assistant principal or principal. There are enough bad admins out there who couldn't hack it as classroom teachers. We do not need more of that.

fair enough, i'm certainly not well-informed as to why people become administrators, i only know what my cousin told me.....makes sense though.....if he is having a problem with the education bureaucracy, then getting further into it wouldn't be the answer......

[Deni81]

I can relate to many of the points the original poster has brought up. I just finished my third year (2 years at public and this last school year at a private school) of teaching middle school language arts. I was in a horribly run school this last year and since the enrollment numbers were way down I was just laid off due to low enrollment.

Now that I am back to looking for a job I find myself questioning if I have another year of teaching in me. I love working with the kids, but I think I might just need a change in grade levels.

[wordsmith]

I found the most helpful thing to do is to ask yourself what you'd be the most sad to leave behind, were you to not teach anymore. It can be very telling to analyze what you value about teaching, and why.

[capella]

I found the most helpful thing to do is to ask yourself what you'd be the most sad to leave behind, were you to not teach anymore. It can be very telling to analyze what you value about teaching, and why.

Very true. If your first reaction is sadness about not having a two-week vacation at Christmas... teaching is probably not for you. If you miss the interaction with kids and miss implementing a new lesson you just thought up... you may just need to evaluate the environment you're in. Every school and every district are different. Experiences in one school can be vastly different than experiences in another.

[capella]

I can relate to many of the points the original poster has brought up. I just finished my third year (2 years at public and this last school year at a private school) of teaching middle school language arts. I was in a horribly run school this last year and since the enrollment numbers were way down I was just laid off due to low enrollment.

Now that I am back to looking for a job I find myself questioning if I have another year of teaching in me. I love working with the kids, but I think I might just need a change in grade levels.

Ack! So sorry to hear about that, Denise!! Especially with that county putting on a hiring freeze. Come look to the neighbors to the north! There are lots of positions open here right about now. Of course, there are a bazillion applicants for each position, but most are unqualified and/or not experienced. I really and truly prefer working with high schoolers over middle schoolers. Middle school kids can be great, but they are the most exhausting age group to deal with IMO.

[Deni81]

Yeah I have put in applications/resumes for several high school positions for that county. They laid off two teachers at the private school I worked at and demoted the media specialist to three days a week.

[caostotale]

Anyone else every feel this way?


I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling this way, and I can definitely relate. I courted the idea of teaching high school for a long time, but after teaching music lessons to a mostly high-school-aged student base, I'd rather avoid that line of work entirely. Though I wouldn't consider myself any sort of old fart, I just cannot stand the current generation of kids in that age group. The stratospheric level of self-entitlement, the jaded and desensitized attitude towards virtually everything, the focus on bald achievement over real scholarship (often the biggest problem the parents aggravate), and the bankrupt culture they embrace are all things that I consider toxic. As a music teacher, the only students I truly like are the 25+ aged ones. The younger, school-aged ones have no discipline and can't seem to embrace the notion that, to get better at their musical instrument, they'll have to sign off of Facebook, stop texting people, and shut off the frigging X-Box for an hour a day. My immediate reaction in most cases would be to simply say "fuck these kids," but I actually feel sorry for them. I'm glad that, when I was a kid, my parents didn't buy me a ton of video games and that I didn't have a computer or internet until 11th grade (and it was a wretched piece of shit that I could bearly use for anything except typing). I'm glad that I didn't grow up with a cell phone and all these mind-numbing social-networking tools that people get addicted to at a young age. I'm glad that we didn't have websites around that, with one click, will show a 13-year-old a real video tape of a village getting strafed or a person getting smashed to pieces by a train (not to mention how easy it is for kids to find porno). I feel massively fortunate that my generation grew up alongside the information age instead of growing up inside of it.

I'm not trying to rant aimlessly here, but it makes perfect sense that people in the generation who grew up during the late Reagan/Bush/Clinton years can't quite relate to the worst elements of the newest generation of kids, in the same way we can't quite grasp the insanity of their degenerate latter-day baby-boomer/gen-x parents, the age group that comprises most of the board of education crowd and the school administrations. They're not much different from dumb high-schoolers in the ways they do things either, so it's like being caught in a crossfire.

[DuckFan]

Thanks for all the responses.

First, let me say that just because I find teaching frustrating, that I do a really good job. I have the respect of my older co-workers, my students do well on the dreaded standardized tests, and on the state level assessments. They also shown a great increase in writing ability, etc.

It's just that I feel constantly guilty if a student doesn't learn. I know it falls to them, but I never feel like I am doing enough.

I also get tired of the negative attitudes, the know-it-alls, the students that take something near and dear to your heart and try to tear it down in one or two sentences. It's silly.

Think of the favorite thing or activity of yours. Now, understand that you will spend time with 15 students in a class of 30 that absolutely hate your activity, and hate you because of your profession, not because of the person you are. That happens on the hour, for five hours, five days a week. It gets old.

Will I quit? No. I am not stupid to leave a job, in this economy, or any other time, unless I have something already set-up.

Am I looking at other jobs? Sure. I'd be silly not to.

For the most part teaching is a good deal. But, when it's bad, it's bad.

[ash14vwb]

Thanks for all the responses.

First, let me say that just because I find teaching frustrating, that I do a really good job. I have the respect of my older co-workers, my students do well on the dreaded standardized tests, and on the state level assessments. They also shown a great increase in writing ability, etc.

It's just that I feel constantly guilty if a student doesn't learn. I know it falls to them, but I never feel like I am doing enough.

I also get tired of the negative attitudes, the know-it-alls, the students that take something near and dear to your heart and try to tear it down in one or two sentences. It's silly.

Think of the favorite thing or activity of yours. Now, understand that you will spend time with 15 students in a class of 30 that absolutely hate your activity, and hate you because of your profession, not because of the person you are. That happens on the hour, for five hours, five days a week. It gets old.

Will I quit? No. I am not stupid to leave a job, in this economy, or any other time, unless I have something already set-up.

Am I looking at other jobs? Sure. I'd be silly not to.

For the most part teaching is a good deal. But, when it's bad, it's bad.


I feel like I could have written this post and your original post. I feel, verbatum, EXACTLY like you do. My question to you is - will you leave if you find another job? I am actively looking for other jobs right now, too. I am hoping I will find one that I am better suited to/feel less stressed out doing, but fear that once or if I do, then I will regret it. But the feelings and environment you described is not healthy for anyone. As Amy said, it's good to re-evaluate the school you are in, and I try to do that. But the general student response will still be the same, I fear. The fact that I am still falling asleep, dreaming, and waking up thinking about school makes me sooo anxious. You can NEVER be "off," and it's tiring. The guilt is, too. Well, with all of this said, while I do love many aspects of teaching, I know that it would be bad for me in the long run. I'm looking endlessly for other possibilities and hoping that I'm not making the wrong decision or one that others will look down on in doing so.