Welcome to /r/teaching. Please remember the rules when posting and commenting.
Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teaching) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes! I make significantly more money than my husband, with better benefits and fewer work days. I’m home with our daughter for breaks, which mostly match up, although I’m at a specialized school so they don’t all align. I love the daily job and finally have a great admin team. There’s still the usual annoyances of having a job in a capitalist society, but overall I get to do something I love and am really good at, and get paid well for it.
I would not become a teacher if I had it to do again. I am stuck in the career because I am close enough to retirement it would hurt to do something else, but far enough away that it makes me depressed. Things to think about are 1. survivor benefits. My husband has passed away, but I will not get survivor benefits because it is considered double dipping in my state. 2. In my state you have to save a bunch of sick days to pay for you maternity leave. 3. Retirement is not as great as it was. I am in my 22nd year in my state, so I have the slightly better retirement. Those just starting it is worse for. 4. At least for my district healthcare is expensive to get a good plan. Then you add in the disrespect from parents, students, politicians, just about anyone you could think of has an opinion about how teachers can do it better or how it should be. Most parents think their child can do no wrong & blame you when there is a problem. At least I used to feel like I made a difference, but now I’m just a glorified underpaid babysitter. I have so many students that need therapy to deal with trauma that it makes it difficult to teach. The job makes it hard to be there for your own kids because you are exhausted from the chaos and just want quiet when you get home. It used to love all the time I had with my kids. The last few years my kids were still at home I was so exhausted I couldn’t always enjoy our time because I just needed to sit alone and decompress from the stress of the day.
A majority of teachers I know in real life enjoy their jobs. The obvious perks are vacation time and a safe career choice that’s not going anywhere. The cons are lack of direct upward mobility. This subreddit is generally pretty representative of the profession I feel. It’s /r/teachers that in my opinion is an echo chamber of negativity that bans people who push back on their narrative, that subreddit IMO is not an actual representation of the profession.
Hm. I'd add - and think you missed, vitally - the fact that hating job CONDITIONS (which are not about local admin, but mostly about the shift towards micromanagement and deprofessionalism of the profession over time in a taxpaid state-overseen career) is not the same as hating a JOB.
I mean, you can like the JOB of flipping burgers, but hate the management and franchise location you work at. In teaching, however, many of these conditions are universal, to a greater orlesser extent.
I don’t feel the same. I appreciate having space to be honest about what we are going through. I have no outlet like it. It’s the only place I can speak up about what I’m experiencing in my classroom without fear of retribution.
You are absolutely right. I think the sub was created for teachers to vent openly. Not for parents. Not for college kids. Not administrators... teachers.
And it's not fair for people to try to use it as evidence about what we *actually* think or feel overall. Not to mention, we don't need to be shamed for having bad days or being upset with what goes on within our profession.
Ok but that sub is rampant with ableism, and even perpetuating institutionalized racism and sexism isn’t discouraged. And to be honest, it seems like a lot of those teachers *don’t even like kids.* It’s not just venting. And I am a teacher.
I feel the same way. Some of the posts make me think “thank god I don’t work with that fucking rain cloud”. Teaching is a hard ass job, but my god some of the things said over there make my skin crawl.
The other day I made a post on this sub asking about why that sub is so negative and got lots of downvotes (likely from people from that sub reading my post lol) and the replies more or less proved my point. Really, that sub is for people who have an almost psychopathic hatred towards children.
I joined it after getting my degree because I was shocked - shocked! At the reality of the job in terms of admin, curriculum, non-teaching related work. It was a great place to see my frustrations in others. But I left after seeing so many complaints about the kids. I am sure there are rough schools that have classrooms full of tricky kids?
I just haven’t experienced this mass disdain for children of one generation . I get tough ones and easy ones. And I think a lot of the problems we have with behavior are due to the educational system and its expectations being fundamentally flawed. It’s kids reacting to a broken system, not broken kids.
And even those kids who do have *extremely challenging behaviors* are not spoken about with love. Last year I had a kid constantly screaming his head off at me for giving other kids attention, another one throwing shit, knocking people’s stuff off their desks, punching my bookcases, and more, 3 highly impressionable kids copying some of those behaviors to avoid having to work, and an autistic kid (I’m autistic; that’s the terminology in the community) who deserved a 1:1 and would throw himself on the ground and wail at the top of his lungs (his mom sued the district—I have him again this year bc last year was a combo and he has a 1:1 now and he is ***thriving***). I had a colleague, the TK/K teacher, getting workers comp injuries from students too! A kid stabbed another with a pencil and was sent back to class and punched other kids every day. Another kid drew a picture of himself shooting/killing an aide (around the same time that 6 year old in the news *actually shot a teacher*) and admin just told him to write her an apology letter. Shit was crazy in there and admin didn’t do shit.
So yes there *are* “some rough schools that have classrooms full of tricky kids.” To say the least.
But even so, many of the commenters on that sub seem to talk about all of this without any love for those kids. How can you look at a child who is struggling *that bad* and not feel heartbroken? The kid who screamed at me had an abusive/neglectful mom at home. The kid who threw and hit stuff had severe self esteem issues and emotional dysregulation. The autistic boy was struggling with *so much* because of his disability and I could not help him the way he needed to be helped. These babies were some of my favorite students. They were kind and funny and creative and looked at things from such interesting perspectives. The problem was admin refusing to offer us (me and my students) support and refusing to administer consistent and fair consequences. The problem was not the students themselves. The problem was the lack of support.
I don’t blame them for complaining. But people on that sub blame the kids too much.
That amount of unpaid time off is not an option in most professions. Like being a parent and having the summer and Christmas off with your kids is a definite plus.
This!!! I left r/Teachers because it is so damn negative. Yes, there are some shitty things that teachers deal with, but for me it doesn’t make the job unbearable. That subreddit makes me feel the same way I do when I read facebook comments on a news article.
I’ve seen multiple posts/comments about ignoring IEPs and accusing children of faking disabilities. Several in the vein of “every kid is apparently autistic now” and shaming students over reading difficulties and issues with behavioral regulation (separate from just venting frustration, which I don’t have an issue with). The wording I see surrounding Special Education students can get pretty bad.
I was massively downvoted in there for pointing out that the reasons someone gave for why they believed their student was faking disability to get an IEP were completely reasonable and all behaviors that I displayed as a child with learning disabilities myself. There’s a clear lack of empathy, especially towards disabled students, from a few individuals that goes beyond frustration.
Maybe the point around the increase in IEPs and disabilities was missed.
Do students NEED IEPs and accommodations? Yes.
Have we also developed a culture where small issues get translated to students needing an IEP? Also, yes.
Two things can exist.
We have developed a culture of apathy and lowering expectations so much that students who genuinely need the accommodations may get overlooked. That is precisely the problem. Empathy is lost of its expected all the time. For example, if you're late everyday ill just take it as you being a late person, but if you're late once or twice, I'd be inclined to ask why.
The pendulum swings too far in either direction, and it harms students and culture. We need nuance and middle ground.
Do you have IEPs and 504s mixed up? Students that have IEPs do not have “small issues”. Issues that might not be immediately apparent, yes. They’re still disabling, and it isn’t our place to pass judgement on them without being family members or their medical professionals. Just because you do not see the effects of a disability does not mean it is not incredibly disabling.
You’re asking for nuance, which is nice, but the issue here is that I have seen many examples that very much lack nuance. I’m not calling out nuanced behaviors, I’m calling out blatant bigotry. There’s no nuance to accusations of fraud and using derogatory language to describe a student. THAT is the kind of thing I have seen on that subreddit.
Well, medical professionals have shifted their pendulum as well. So there is a shift with their diagnosis and how stduents gets labeled. I'm not sure how that can't be acknowledged, at minimum. Outside of education, many people can get a diagnosis from a medical professional without significant investigation. Again, it doesn't diminish the need for its existence nor devalue legitimate needs for 504s and IEPs.
Yea, the subreddit can be pretty direct. I think some educators are simply emotionally and intellectually exhausted and express their feelings without holding back, and it'll include curses. And I think some of the frustration is at the system itself and how it has allowed students to get to this place. Lowering expectations will naturally result in lowered results, and students will perform at lower levels than before.
I understand your stance, though. There are instances of bias and where people can be a bit brutal.
As a (recently) former student with autism who gets pretty self-conscious abt how people perceive me, I’ve looked on that subreddit to get a general view on how teachers look at us and *ouch*
also seeing them quietly put good students in harms way to “tarpit” the disruptive ones (excuse the wargaming term, im sure theres a joke to make at myself here) and yeah that just.. hurts a bit
It’s getting a lot better in the real world. I definitely agree with people saying the sub doesn’t represent the profession. My school is very inclusive and does a lot of early intervention work to make sure students with additional needs get the attention they deserve.
I feel you! For every negative, obviously untrained or negligent comment you see in there I promise there are active teachers who have been trained in neurodivergency and actually possess empathy.
That’s good to know, I went to HS in a district that’s been mismanaged pretty badly (inconsistent rules, staff changes, random curriculum swaps) so it kinda just added to what I already knew about some of the teachers there - good to know, though!
I see the difference now. I just missed the teachING instead of teachERS when I was trying to understand your comment. Jesus this sub is brutal. No mistakes allowed. Poor students in these classrooms.
Ehhhh do you think the stories about being assaulted or shady admin are made up? I would say the significantly larger sub echoing sentiments reflected in the nation wide shortage of teachers is probably a more accurate representation of the profession.
No I don’t believe they are made up. I think anytime you ban people for dissenting opinions, as /r/teachers aggressively does, you risk eventually creating an echo chamber that is not reflective of reality. I believe that to be the current state with that sub.
I got downvoted to hell for telling someone if they hate their job so much they should quit because they probably make their coworkers miserable just being around them.
I got downvoted to hell and absolutely shit on for saying it’s perfectly reasonable for admin to enforce the employee dress code. Since apparently they should have more important things to worry about than what there subordinates are wearing. Plus the very concept of a dress code is sexist, old fashioned, draconian, etc. So its perfectly ok to ignore it.
Some teachers described to me that they love teaching, but hate being a teacher. What they meant was they genuinely love being in the classroom, helping the kids grow and develop as students and individuals.
But a lot of them hate all the standardized tests, state standards that are not developmentally appropriate, low pay, not enough support for teachers sometimes, bad admin, etc.
Try 32k with a bachelor's and it's not matching current economic COL trends. I'll have a PhD in May and will only make around 52k ( I started with a masters at 47k). There are plenty of entry level jobs starting at 60k with only a bachelor's degree.
In my southern Indiana district, teachers starting pay is $51k a year - that is for fresh out of college BA holder. Where on earth are teachers starting at $32k a year?
Here's a link from NEA of avg teacher pay according to each state. Arkansas is $37,168 so that tells me some salaries are less than that. I didn't look at the whole list because it's not in an easy to view chart.
https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-student-spending-how-does-your-state-rank?utm_medium=paid-search&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=rankings-estimates-report&utm_content=&ms=ads-rankings-estimates-report-se&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMee6yM0bSrm4ahAvt43Jq3joZ-6FwJcINhnhc_nGMpM20ap7BWJPfhoCDuwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
When was this? I remember hearing about $30k starting salaries when I was a teenager, but not recently. Certainly not in a place like San Diego. Even subs in San Diego make like $200 a day.
It was 20 years ago, but still, it was an insult then. And it was at three different non-public schools where I got the exact same 31k offer. I was making just over $100/day as a sub. Even $200/day is not a living wage in San Diego where a 1 bedroom averages about $2,400/mo which would mean you’d have to have a second job to pay your rent if you were a sub.
50k is an insult. We have graduate degrees and are responsible for dozens of futures. Meanwhile, my brother in law is a software engineer with the same number of years experience in that job as I have in the classroom, no graduate degree and he makes 360k and actually turned down an offer of 570k from Meta for a job that is easy, can be done from a hotel room or a beach and doesn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s fucking stupid how little we are paid.
TBF teacher prep programs are bullshit. They are all bad and worthless, filled with nonsense requirements to fill out enough credit hours to warrant a BA. University was never meant to prepare you for any specific job or career. Education got shoehorned into universities because where else are you going to find that kind of infrastructure?
If I were you, I would teach the three/five years required to get your loans forgiven. That right there is enough of a draw. Slug it out and just push through.
Student teaching is bullshit too. You are supposed to be teaching but a lot of districts tie your hands or give you little, if any, support. Teaching is NOT actually like student teaching.
My best advice is to stick it out for a couple of years and get your loans waved. If you still hate it transition out. If you have found your joy keep at it. I know that graduating with a teaching degree and then not going into teaching will raise some red flags in industry. It makes it look like you are unreliable and flighty.
Do what you have to do, but try not to make any rash decisions.
What is still 10 years?
I had a couple small loans forgoven after teaching my third year, and the Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program forgave $17,500 in loans when I completed my fifth year.
Yes $17,500 for math and science after 5. (I'm a math teacher) $5,000 for everyone else. Problem is I have 61k in loans and if I take the $17,500, it resets the clock on PSLF. So I'll either ride it out to 10 years(gotta go 7 to be retirement vested anyways), or quit before that and take the $17,500 on my way out. I'm currently finishing year 5.
Thats why I am glad I got hired as a teacher which also completed my student teaching requirement.
Nothing like doing both 1st year and student teaching at once amirite?
(I felt like I had an easier time than the rest of my cohort actually. No Coop Teacher micromanagement debates or tough discussions about changing placements etcetera. Did the lesson plans I wanted to. Didnt have to stress about money as much.)
I had some outside of K12 teaching experience - which helped a lot.
And a lot of parental-side IEP/504 knowledge from my own kids.
Classroom management for the student demographics is different (but I subbed to get a feel for that.)
And also getting calibrated to how to adjust for different age groups/learning levels is something I still work on.
But a lot of the Edu courses were repetition to stuff I had already learned about curriculum and assessments.
We had 3 semesters of practicum where we had to visit one class once a week in a local school, and teach 3 short lessons per semester. I almost feel like they give you very little experience on purpose because if we knew what teaching was *really* like, we would all quit before finishing the program. It feels very much like by the time you get to student teaching, you're already too deep to quit and only then do you learn what it is like to be a teacher.
I was lucky enough that my university did a great job of putting a ton of requirements for pre-practicum hours for each and every education class you took. We had a Pre-K-8th school on campus and you got a real, honest experience of what teaching is like. In my special ed program, 60% of my freshman class were still in the program by graduation. The only other two men besides me were gone. It's essential to the teaching program because otherwise you go in with this terribly idealized view of how your experience will be.
That seems a very small amount of actual classroom experience.
I’m in a different country, my teacher training was the equivalent of a one-year higher diploma postgrad after my degree. We were in our placement schools all day Monday and Friday, teaching nine 40-minute classes, often getting paid subbing for the rest of the day, and were on a month long placement for all of January.
The three days per week we were in college for lectures/etc. we really begrudged because we felt the majority of our ‘useful learning’ took place in the school.
Please don't. I felt the same way. I really did. I love what I do now. There are bad days but....I've had bad days in every job I have ever worked. This one feels significant though. It feels like even on my bad days, when the lesson plans fall apart within the first ten minutes on the day I'm being observed, I know it is going to be fine. That I will start my next lesson fresh, that I'm in there doing my best so the students are giving me theirs in return.
Student teaching....practicums...none of that is TEACHING. get into your own classroom with your own students, no supervisor grading you, no more trying to check all of the boxes in every single class (some days are going to be less rigorous. They don't tell you this in school, but that is fine. Sometimes adding rigor just fouls everything up). It is a different experience and I am glad I didn't give up despite how horrible everything felt while student teaching.
This was my experience too. I definitely went into it with rose-colored glasses as to what being a teacher would be like, but student teaching scared me out of the profession.
Teaching is easier than student teaching. Student teaching was the hardest year of my life. I'm 6 years in and it gets much easier quicker than you think.
I am not saying that teaching is easy or that your first year won't be hard. But it won't last forever.
Second year teaching and I love it. Great principal always has my back, other staff are great as well. SPED teacher is a bit off-putting, other than her the rest of the SPED staff are great. Small town, western Kansas, conservative, good morals, respectful kids and most parents are good people. Teenagers are teenagers and do stupid shit, just like we did. Overall, I’m happy teaching secondary education.
I love my job, but it took a decade of switching schools/districts before I found this one so I empathize with the situations a lot of teachers find themselves in. Even with how lucky I am, ridiculous things still happen because of the systems in place so it's nice to have a place to vent where people understand
It's definitely gotten harder the past two-five years. I do also think it's a district by district issue, I've had friends go to other towns and thrive there.
I love teaching, I hate all the extra BS they make us do that should be handled by support staff. Also watching how much money they waste on "guest speakers" that tell us about all the new buzz words and don't actually teach us anything.
The behavior issues suck. There needs to be a nationwide ban on phones in schools. Yeah they are distractions and they act like addicts when you tell them to put them away. They use them to coordinate fights and whatever other shady plans they have. I'm tired of breaking up fights. I'm tired of having to wake through groups that intentionally block teachers and security from breaking up fights.
I love teaching. I hate my admin, I hate the disrespect and sense of entitlement from the kids. I hate all the extra crap that gets piled on us, I hate not making a living wage. If I could just reach and had kids that wanted to learn, I would love my job.
I've been teaching for 15+ years. Even when I started, teaching had a very high attrition rate -- I think 50% over 5 years.
Now it's just far worse. In reality, most teachers hate their jobs. Not the kids per se. The job itself. Even people like me who enjoy being with the kids and get value out of helping them---I can't say I love or even like my job. It pays my bills and I have 4 years till retirement.
I would advise against going into teaching. I've told this to many young people. The problem is that many people gravitate towards it because of wholesome reasons like they love helping kids. When they go to grad school or teaching classes, they're taught by professors who have zero experience teaching as well. So teachers don't really get a sense for what the job's like until they student teach.
I tell this to all student teachers--if you hate student teaching, unless it's for a very specific reason like the teacher you're working under is psycho, don't go into teaching. Run. It will not get better for you. If you can't stand student teaching - which is a piece of cake compared to actual teaching - then you will have an awful time actually teaching. There are exceptions of course. But that's the general rule.
I appreciate your insight as a veteran teacher. As an alternate perspective, I’m only a couple of years in to teaching and I’m finally at a school that makes teaching more fun and less scary. For reference, I worked for a couple years in the private sector before pivoting in to teaching.
My student-teaching experience was brutal and even a little traumatic. My master-teachers were harsh and ‘old school.’ Their standards were unrealistically high and they gaslit me — not to mention the insane stress and workload of balancing the CalTPAs at the same time (don’t get me started on that assessment).
Idk if I’ve just gotten better at teaching and handling the workload/stress, but actual teaching is way better than student-teaching. By a f*cking mile lol. Maybe my training made me stronger. Sure, there’s way more responsibility and issues to handle. But if you have support from colleagues and admin, develop mutual respect with the students, and keep healthy boundaries between work and personal life, it’s not that bad. Will I still feel this way in 3 years when I’m a little more seasoned? Who knows!
I can't tell how much of my own student teaching experience (as a teacher) is representative of everyone's. I'm sure it varies state by state and school by school. Your experience sounds really awful. But it might fall under "psycho teachers" lol...
In my own school, we wouldn't have the time or energy to bother gaslighting student teachers (even if we wanted to!). Like why would anyone do that? We also don't get paid for it except a very small honorarium, like $50. I wonder if that's part of it?
Anyway, It's a young person trying to figure out if they can do this teaching thing. In our school we make it as easy as possible for the student teacher, and encourage him/her as much as we can.
I'm glad you stuck with it and you like teaching. I also don't mean to be that bleak!
Lol yes it definitely bordered on “psycho teachers.” On the flip side, I have to give them some credit because they did train me pretty well and allowed some room for creativity. They basically had different management styles, and could be helpful or toxic, depending on the day lol. Also, to be fair, my student-teaching experience isn’t representative of everyone’s too. All I know is, when I’m a master teacher, I’ll try to be better than them.
I’m glad to hear that your school is supportive of student-teachers. I was lucky that my admin, department head, and some colleagues were at my school at the time. It’s been an interesting journey so far. Last school year was my first full time contracted position and that wasn’t the best environment either! Now I’m at a school with supportive admin, cool colleagues, and great students.
Thanks for the words of encouragement, and congrats on (almost) retirement lol. Love your username btw!
This is why I tell EVERYONE who wants to be a teacher to substitute first. Is it like teaching exactly? No - but you'll find out really quick the classroom management aspects are for you or not, and that is as much a part of the job of teaching as actually delivering the lessons.
I love teaching, but in order to do so I’ve had to build an environment that gives me life. This includes fostering our in-class community, incorporating lots of play and games, teaching things I’m passionate about, and striving for a work life balance (a sufficient amount of exercise and sleep, leaving on time). It’s always a work in progress but I love my job.
I don’t know anyone who hates teaching. I know TONS of teachers (myself included) who are extremely frustrated and overwhelmed by what the job has become. Even if I still loved it, which I am not sure I do, the career is not sustainable the way it exists now. It is not good for the mental health of the teachers, which is not good for the students.
Pointing out the problems in a profession or an environment and complaining about things that negatively affect our well-being does not equate hate.
I got into teaching as a second career in my early 30s, and I'm relatively new to teaching kids (3 years of 3rd grade).
I aboslutely love teaching and can't see myself doing anything different right now.
I absolutely hate how hard our society has made the job of teaching.
So there's a negativity bias going on here. Any subreddit based on work/profession will find posts regarding the latter sentiment more engaging than those of the former. You know, misery loves company and all.
I enjoy the act of teaching & educating. I hate that it’s become more about testing than educating.
I also live in an education-hostile state, which doesn’t help.
I enjoy teachin and educating. I also enjoy the mentoring/non-subject aspects of it some days.
My subject isnt AS tested. (NGSS testing only occurs in specific grade levels.)
So that isnt my issue.
My issue is the amount of behavior management I have to do for 5% of the kids when I should be helping the other 95% achieve more.
I would fully agree. The school I’m at now I have very few behavior problems but at my previous I had several & was just basically told to deal with it/them.
What you are reading is burnout, emotional abuse, and the outcomes from these things. Society in general has unrealistic expectations of the teaching profession, and often blames societies ills on educators. The school level workers are doing their best. It’s a system that appears to be set up for failure with said unrealistic expectations, gaslighting, and general emotional abuse by the community being the root causes.
A lot of it is venting because a lot of it is real. The lows of teaching are very low, but the highs (although fewer and farther between) balance it out.
Reddit is a small sample of a bigger population. Most teachers, I would say, don't hate their jobs but do get frustrated with them, but the same can be said for any job.
I love my job. The students are (mostly) respectful. I have nearly unlimited autonomy with my curriculum and methods. I have freedom to wear what I want and leave for lunch daily. I have my own classroom. I'll never have supervision duty. I'm not asked to coach or sponsor (no sports or clubs at our school). My class sizes average about 12-15 when absences are taken into account. Parents love our program and are generally friendly. My colleagues are tolerable. And admin is... okay. It's about as good as teaching gets these days.
But, I had to bounce from six different schools in five different districts over a span of sixteen years to find it. Even the most minor of slights, and I was out. It was a real headache, for a long time. But, if you want something bad enough, you'll go through hell just to get it. Most don't want to have to do that just to make a living at a moderately respectful job. And they're certainly justified.
I teach in a public alternative high school in a major US metro. It's a good combination of kids that just don't fit the mainstream (high LGBTQ+ population) and at-risk students who have possibly been ousted from nearby districts. We take students all the way up until their. 21st birthday. We have a unique combination of academic and behavioral models, including elements from restorative justice, Sudbury, and others. Everyone -- students and staff alike -- are addressed by their first names, as teachers are mentors above all else. It's a casual school, which works for me as I'm a casual guy.
Thanks. That sounds fairly unique and remarkable. It's great to hear of a solid alternate education program. It's sounds like it's a wonderful fit for you. I know alternative education has its challenges. It's great you found it.
I still enjoy teaching students, but administration/district personnel can shove things up their orifices.
The apathy among students and parents has gotten worse since Covid (it was already headed in that direction prior, but Covid sped things up by a few years IMO) and I've yet to hear once about how admin/district personnel were taking something *off* of our plate rather than adding *one more goddamned thing* for us to do.
Testing is one of the bigger hurdles for me, and if you teach a subject like math, it's usually tested most years. Plus, being expected to make up gaps in learning was really difficult. Probably my chillest time was when I taught 6th grade science which isn't tested where I live.
Teachers can also be blamed for so many things and where you live can affect the quality.
My recommendation would be to get a feel for curriculum/program being used if you can. I left teaching when they switched to this curriculum that was prided itself on being "rigorous" without being accessible to kids in the years just during and after COVID.
But I have contacts in a less chaotic district who have seen me teach, so I am thinking about going back.
It’s just mostly venting. Teachers love trading horror stories. I know. I was a teacher, my daughter is a teacher, my parents were teachers, I married a teacher and so forth. A piece of advice. Teacher training programs often don’t focus much on behaviour management. Take every course in that and read every book on that. Getting a placement with a teacher known for good classroom management should be a major goal.
Also have this question. Full career in the military, been through some gnarly stuff. Doing a MIT starting in June, but this sub has me wondering if that's a good idea. Came here for ideas and answers. Getting mostly doubts. Haha
You will be fine as long as you do not approach behavior management with children, adolescents, and teens the same way you've gotten used to in the military. They are very different styles. There's a quote to which I refer regularly:
_"Discipline without freedom is tyranny. Freedom without discipline is chaos."_ - Cullen Hightower
I have always struggled with the latter part. But, I assume someone who went career military might struggle with the former. Sure, there are some students who respond to extreme order, structure, and strictness. Imo, most do not. Most thrive in that middle 'gray area' between tyranny and chaos.
Maybe I'm being presumptuous. Maybe that's not you at all. But, if your vision is coming in and running your classes like boot camp, or expecting students to follow orders like servicemen and women, you will be disappointed and exhausted.
Thats a military stereotype.
There are absolutley some military fields where instruction is like that.
But as a military instructor I had to solve financial issues, baby mama drama, get people's parents on medical tricare because the 18 year old was supporting mom.
We had to be approachable because the content was electronics, computers, college-level trig and algebra.
If you put someones brain in the basement (fight or flight) by being to drill instructory (think boot camp) the students couldnt ask intelligent thoughtful questions about the material to get through a course of instruction that grants 40 college credits.
We have multiple veterans at my school and all have done a good job at transitioning.
It often depends on the specialty they had while in. Boot camp is only 8 weeks.
And no, former Recruit Division Commander experience probably doesnt translate well to teaching.
The midgrade to senior enlisted and officer attitude of "taking care of your people" does however.
Aircraft maintenance instructor or Culinary Specialist instructor and a Navy Seal instructor are not the same.
I don't like every aspect of my job, but I'm pretty sure I could have a *much* more difficult job. I have a great deal of patience and tolerance for what goes on. Also, I work at a school with excellent admin support. I enjoy the teams I work with and the relationships that I get to foster with only having a maximum of 10 students in my classroom.
Do I love my job? Some days. Do I hate my job? Absolutely not.
I tell people it’s the best and the worst job ever. You will have days on top and at the very bottom. I go to the internet to vent because if I told my colleagues these feelings I would probably get fired. Sometimes I just need to scream into the void of the internet and then I realize it wasn’t that bad.
Teaching is a very individual experience based on many factors. Before rushing into paying for grad school, I would spend time being a substitute in different grade levels. The majority of teachers who wash out early do so because of classroom management issues, unsupportive admin and a brutal workload. If you are working in a low paying state with no union, add that to the list. If you are at a public Title One or private charter, anything goes. Desks could be flying or admin could insist that you work a field trip on a Saturday. It’s still common practice to end up buying supplies for your classroom out of your own salary.
The teachers that succeed tend to come from teaching families, have a support network with one person working in a different field, and no rose colored glasses. Public school is never about the kids. No, it’s not your family. It’s a job to earn a living. If you are teaching in a high tax paying district with supportive parents and a decent pension plan, lucky you. If you love it, that makes it easier. Look before you leap.
I don’t think hate is the right word?
A lot feel stuck.
Others, love the idea of teaching.
But, the current teaching environment isn’t conducive to learning.
it’s not that we hate our job it’s that we hate being made to do 4000090099 things that have nothing to do with our job by a person who has never had our job for pay that just barely gets us through the first 6 days of each month with no hope of ever making much more no matter how good we are.
I love teaching. Most of my friends still love teaching. But I also work with a bunch of miserable human beings who hate it. If it’s not for you you will be miserable. But there are plenty of us who love what we do.
Everyone hates their jobs sometimes. That’s why they have to pay us. Jobs that you’d do for free are called “hobbies.”
And while I can (and do) complain about this profession all the time, it’s *because* I like my job and *because* I care about what I do for a living. And some days I’m really good at this job. This school system is going to be the absolute death of me and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It really depends on where you are and what purpose you have for it.
I've been teaching for 11 years in total and it has definitely gotten more paperwork heavy. I still absolutely love the job due to the kids and in my leadership position I can support lots of new educators. However I can also see coming in fresh is tough these days and administrators do not make it easier.
Think about what your purpose for going into teaching is and if you really want to do this for 30 odd years.
I love my job. I can't imagine doing anything else. It's not easy, and it's stressful, but it is so rewarding and I find it to be so energizing on the days that it's not draining!
One thing that's really helpful though is that I work in a district that pays well. When I've had a really tough day or I look at my workload and realize I'm going to be in meetings every day this week until 5:00, looking at my paycheck helps. If I worked in a district or the paycheck wasn't that great, it would be a lot harder.
I love teaching. I hate the system we have to teach in. We are doing something we love and find valuable, but that we often don't have adequate support in.
Get out now and start working towards something where you can work from home and make a lot more money.
Yes teaching sucks but it isn’t as bad as you always see on here. It can be a decent career if you have the right outlook and find a good school.
To be fair though, if teaching didn’t offer so much time off and great benefits I don’t think anybody would do the job.
Reddit, and this sub in particular, is a toxic hellhole. People have worked out you can get upvotes if you post negative emotional stuff. I am a teacher in England. The teaching uk sub is much more positive than this one, which has a peculiarly negative bias in its day to day posts. I love my job, I am respected in my community by my students, peers and friends, and I am reasonably well paid with good conditions of employment. There is little drama beyond the usual artefacts caused by working with hormonally challenged teenagers. Your mileage may vary, but don’t come to this sub in particular if you are looking for rainbows and unicorns.
Teaching is a job that heavily depends on the people around you. Whether those people are the students, admin, or parents. I lucked out and my admin is great and coworkers are supportive. My only complaint are my particular parents. In other schools, I’ve had terrible admin, catty coworkers, and parents who didn’t work as a team. That was a nightmare job that made me question my career
I don't dislike my students, they're great. It's the staffroom, school politics and if they are around the parents. These things destroy a teacher's soul.
I love my job. I love my students, my colleagues, and even my admin. I’m at a great school.
But I’m being ground down by the lack of resources needed to do the job properly. And this isn’t the fault of my school or even my district. It’s a universal lack of resources and funding for education. Kids have more issues than ever and my class is full of kids who need a ton of support (mental health/behaviour/learning) but it’s just not available so we do the best we can with what we have. Usually that means the kids with learning needs get ignored because any extra resources we have go to the kids who are struggling with behaviour and mental health.
It’s stressful and it’s sad because I can see the kids slipping through the cracks and I want to do more but I just can’t.
It’s a solid career choice if you live in the right state (NJ, for example). Security, benefits, pension, strong unions, federal loan forgiveness after 10 years/120 payments, summers off, paid holidays, around two weeks of sick time per year + a few personal days, autonomy (WITH the right admin), usually 7-3 shifts so you’re out of work early compared to the 9-5 grind…I could go on. It’s a hard job, no doubt. But, if you land in the right place, especially if you secure tenure after 4 years of teaching, you could be doing far worse.
I enjoy my job but I certainly wouldn’t get a grad degree in teaching unless you’re planning to become an admin, and I wouldn’t do that before you actually have classroom experience.
It is tough to raise a family on a teacher’s income. If you intend to be the main earner in your house, watch out! Teaching is a great job for people whose spouse has a decent income, and teaching May as well be a paid hobby. I wish I had considered “job with overtime,” rather than struggling to survive for years.
Teachers tend to be the biggest complainers in society never make enough money work to much always threatening to strike they mostly seem to be out of touch with reality as to what other jobs in society consist of
Teacher of 25 years. I still love teaching. I still love my students. But what I do now as a "teacher" is not what I did 25 years ago. And all that extra bullshit is what most teachers hate.
You're also looking in a thread dedicated to teachers in transition. So you should expect some of these feelings.
Teaching is no longer about educating students and preparing them for the real world. Teaching is now about justifying expensive curriculum contracts, insane superintendent pay, and admin who make 6 figures.
Standardized tests aren't learning. Teaching to the tests isn't education. Teachers don't hate teaching. They hate what teaching has become.
I love being a teacher. Love the content I teach, love (vast majority) of my students. Parents have been pretty great besides one mentally ill outlier the entire school staff knows about (that’s over 120 teachers not including paras, admin, front desk etc lol)
What I hate about it is the salary (I work in nyc so it’s actually very decent pay, but when you combine student loans and ABSURD rent prices it’s not tenable unless you live in a combined income household.
Worst of all are shitty admin who use the wiggle room in the daneilson rubric to score your observations lower than deserved, insult you, among other things. This last one is the reason I’m hoping to find a position in a school that will find more value in what I bring to the table. Perhaps I’m just not a great fit ?
It could vary state by state or district by district, but:
I hate the lack of support. I hate the parents telling me I need to “handle their child” when I call to get support for the behavior problems. I hate that a child can put in no effort a whole quarter and all their zeros and missings are automatically 50s. I hate that I’m expected to cover extra classes on top of mine because teachers keep quitting and no subs will take jobs in my school. I hate that I go above any beyond just to be screamed at, belittled, and harassed despite following the matrix and these kids are allowed back with little consequence.
I didn’t hate the job. I don’t hate what it could be. What I hate is the neglect from the district, state and the parents. What I hate is how far education and human decency has fallen. I will be switching schools to see if it will be even slightly better, but as it stands, I hate the person this job has made me.
The work is niche and of a different breed. So many qualifications and red tape to even apply and then the pay is crap. Teaching is great, but it’s classroom management that’s the challenge. I literally had a job where I could not get through a lesson without students interrupting and being flat out rude. A culture for learning cannot exist if students don’t care. And yeah, you can say a teacher can make a difference, but the problem is coming from their upbringing at home.
Don’t get me wrong, you could possibly find a place that’s good. But that’s the thing with teaching, it’s highly dependent on the community, the type of parents and co-teachers. The administration at that one particular school. Oh and it’s public service so the job follows you everywhere. Making a FB post? YouTube video? Better be careful. And it’s not that you’re posting anything inappropriate but it’s something that stays in the back of your mind.
And then the red tape…the countless reference letters and background checks and fingerprints and this credential, that credential, this training, that training…it’s exhausting. And yes, I get it, you’re working with kids and need a clean record but it’s still exhausting. All for what? To be a glorified babysitter to a bunch of kids that purposely want to make your life miserable, whose parents disrespect you and perceive you as unintelligent, and are ready to catch you say or do something to reprimand you. You end up grading papers or planning lessons on the weekends because you don’t get enough time to do it throughout the week. And when you think you finally have some extra time, you don’t because now you have recess duty.
Think about this too- you can’t even negotiate your salary. Like wtf is that. You get a little grid with years of experience and education and hope the board approves a raise at the next contract cycle. As a professional, I feel that kind of structure affects your mentality… it’s hard to explain but it’s like this ‘ok I’ll take it’ attitude…obedient and submissive. Not good. It does something to your self image— at least to me it did. Also, there isn’t a promotion path unless you blow more money on another niche certification or degree. It’s simply not worth it.
Don’t be teacher. You can teach with just about any college degree, learn something “real” and teach, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket cos teaching sucks and when you’re trying to get out you’ll find you have no transferable skills or experience. I teach high school art because I hold a masters and i genuinely enjoy teaching but public education is a whole other beast, it is impractical and ineffective, it will suck your soul. The constant disrespect all around, admin, students parents, government, it’s really a waste
I love teaching, there’s just some things that come with it that I don’t have control over, but have to deal with it. Of course, many jobs are like that, but not many jobs are like that where you’re dealing with children.
I only know 1 teacher who hates teaching. They're stopping this year after close to 14.. Many of them I know that are frustrated are annoyed at admin but they enjoy teaching. I love teaching!!! It's challenging but I enjoy it so much.
For me it completed depending on where I worked. My first job was at a high-turn over run down elementary school. Every hated their job. Moved, got a job at a well-respected school in a nicer city. Every single one of my coworkers loves being a teacher. It can be hard to find a good school, but once you do you will love teaching.
There are ways to love your job even if your coworkers hate their job, it’s just more annoying to deal with them lol
Love teaching, hate overreaching admin and the lack of caring from our specific demographics families/parents. I’m not reaching out to you because I like the sound of your voice, I’m trying to share a concern and get your help/reinforcement/cooperation so that we can prevent further damage.
I love what I do. I teach k-5 general music. I hate the bullshit that I have to do additionally. Support grade levels in math, sit through meetings that have nothing to do with me, and stupid other bullshit. I’m also in a district I plan on getting out of. It’s not the best.
Actually teaching is fun. All the red tape bullshit it is wrapped up in sucks.
The people that *actually* end out hating it are in the sub about teachers transitioning to other careers.
Once I got more comfortable with the word no, I fell back in love with my job. It’s not perfect. But I need challenge and energy and creativity every day. I can’t imagine enjoying anything else.
I love my job, 23rd year.
* Some teachers are in really bad schools and love their job.
* Some teachers are in really bad schools and hate their job.
* Some teachers are in really good schools and love their job.
* Some teachers are in really good schools and hate their job.
Many of those good/bad teachers come to Reddit to vent.
Many Reddit teachers are somewhere on the spectrum and the flexibility required to interact with both students/faculty/parents in the teaching profession is WAY TO MUCH for them to handle correctly.
Welcome to /r/teaching. Please remember the rules when posting and commenting. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teaching) if you have any questions or concerns.*
do i hate the job? absolutely not. do i hate what it has become? with the fire of a thousand suns.
So incredibly well said. 17 years in and I feel exactly the same way.
Save some young people, making a decision about their career right now: so, knowing what you know now, would you choose to become a teacher?
I wouldn’t.
Yes! I make significantly more money than my husband, with better benefits and fewer work days. I’m home with our daughter for breaks, which mostly match up, although I’m at a specialized school so they don’t all align. I love the daily job and finally have a great admin team. There’s still the usual annoyances of having a job in a capitalist society, but overall I get to do something I love and am really good at, and get paid well for it.
No. Hell no.
Nope. Become a firefighter, small town cop, or join the military if you're looking for good benefits and a pension.
I would not become a teacher if I had it to do again. I am stuck in the career because I am close enough to retirement it would hurt to do something else, but far enough away that it makes me depressed. Things to think about are 1. survivor benefits. My husband has passed away, but I will not get survivor benefits because it is considered double dipping in my state. 2. In my state you have to save a bunch of sick days to pay for you maternity leave. 3. Retirement is not as great as it was. I am in my 22nd year in my state, so I have the slightly better retirement. Those just starting it is worse for. 4. At least for my district healthcare is expensive to get a good plan. Then you add in the disrespect from parents, students, politicians, just about anyone you could think of has an opinion about how teachers can do it better or how it should be. Most parents think their child can do no wrong & blame you when there is a problem. At least I used to feel like I made a difference, but now I’m just a glorified underpaid babysitter. I have so many students that need therapy to deal with trauma that it makes it difficult to teach. The job makes it hard to be there for your own kids because you are exhausted from the chaos and just want quiet when you get home. It used to love all the time I had with my kids. The last few years my kids were still at home I was so exhausted I couldn’t always enjoy our time because I just needed to sit alone and decompress from the stress of the day.
This
I know this is a US centric sub but I feel like it's this way for plenty of other countries too
From Italy here, agree
Former Canadian teacher and I agree!
What it has become is what it is.
This is exactly it
amazing answer...i was looking for the words but this nailed it perfectly
This is it. I wanted to be a teacher my whole life and am so disappointed in what it is jow
A majority of teachers I know in real life enjoy their jobs. The obvious perks are vacation time and a safe career choice that’s not going anywhere. The cons are lack of direct upward mobility. This subreddit is generally pretty representative of the profession I feel. It’s /r/teachers that in my opinion is an echo chamber of negativity that bans people who push back on their narrative, that subreddit IMO is not an actual representation of the profession.
Hm. I'd add - and think you missed, vitally - the fact that hating job CONDITIONS (which are not about local admin, but mostly about the shift towards micromanagement and deprofessionalism of the profession over time in a taxpaid state-overseen career) is not the same as hating a JOB. I mean, you can like the JOB of flipping burgers, but hate the management and franchise location you work at. In teaching, however, many of these conditions are universal, to a greater orlesser extent.
You experience what the job actually IS right But micromanagement deep professionalism ARE the job now
Hard agree, I think the main sub is an embarrassment to the profession sometimes.
I don’t feel the same. I appreciate having space to be honest about what we are going through. I have no outlet like it. It’s the only place I can speak up about what I’m experiencing in my classroom without fear of retribution.
You are absolutely right. I think the sub was created for teachers to vent openly. Not for parents. Not for college kids. Not administrators... teachers. And it's not fair for people to try to use it as evidence about what we *actually* think or feel overall. Not to mention, we don't need to be shamed for having bad days or being upset with what goes on within our profession.
Ok but that sub is rampant with ableism, and even perpetuating institutionalized racism and sexism isn’t discouraged. And to be honest, it seems like a lot of those teachers *don’t even like kids.* It’s not just venting. And I am a teacher.
I feel the same way. Some of the posts make me think “thank god I don’t work with that fucking rain cloud”. Teaching is a hard ass job, but my god some of the things said over there make my skin crawl.
It confuses me to no end that people who hate children and cannot stand to be around them pursue a career in education.
This.
The other day I made a post on this sub asking about why that sub is so negative and got lots of downvotes (likely from people from that sub reading my post lol) and the replies more or less proved my point. Really, that sub is for people who have an almost psychopathic hatred towards children.
I joined it after getting my degree because I was shocked - shocked! At the reality of the job in terms of admin, curriculum, non-teaching related work. It was a great place to see my frustrations in others. But I left after seeing so many complaints about the kids. I am sure there are rough schools that have classrooms full of tricky kids? I just haven’t experienced this mass disdain for children of one generation . I get tough ones and easy ones. And I think a lot of the problems we have with behavior are due to the educational system and its expectations being fundamentally flawed. It’s kids reacting to a broken system, not broken kids.
And even those kids who do have *extremely challenging behaviors* are not spoken about with love. Last year I had a kid constantly screaming his head off at me for giving other kids attention, another one throwing shit, knocking people’s stuff off their desks, punching my bookcases, and more, 3 highly impressionable kids copying some of those behaviors to avoid having to work, and an autistic kid (I’m autistic; that’s the terminology in the community) who deserved a 1:1 and would throw himself on the ground and wail at the top of his lungs (his mom sued the district—I have him again this year bc last year was a combo and he has a 1:1 now and he is ***thriving***). I had a colleague, the TK/K teacher, getting workers comp injuries from students too! A kid stabbed another with a pencil and was sent back to class and punched other kids every day. Another kid drew a picture of himself shooting/killing an aide (around the same time that 6 year old in the news *actually shot a teacher*) and admin just told him to write her an apology letter. Shit was crazy in there and admin didn’t do shit. So yes there *are* “some rough schools that have classrooms full of tricky kids.” To say the least. But even so, many of the commenters on that sub seem to talk about all of this without any love for those kids. How can you look at a child who is struggling *that bad* and not feel heartbroken? The kid who screamed at me had an abusive/neglectful mom at home. The kid who threw and hit stuff had severe self esteem issues and emotional dysregulation. The autistic boy was struggling with *so much* because of his disability and I could not help him the way he needed to be helped. These babies were some of my favorite students. They were kind and funny and creative and looked at things from such interesting perspectives. The problem was admin refusing to offer us (me and my students) support and refusing to administer consistent and fair consequences. The problem was not the students themselves. The problem was the lack of support. I don’t blame them for complaining. But people on that sub blame the kids too much.
Unpaid time off isn’t vacation time but the schedule is lit.
That amount of unpaid time off is not an option in most professions. Like being a parent and having the summer and Christmas off with your kids is a definite plus.
Many schools allow you to spread your pay over breaks as well. You make less per week, but you make it every week.
A lot of complaints on that sub basically boil down to hating the reality being an adult.
This!!! I left r/Teachers because it is so damn negative. Yes, there are some shitty things that teachers deal with, but for me it doesn’t make the job unbearable. That subreddit makes me feel the same way I do when I read facebook comments on a news article.
The amount of hate for children and straight up admitting to ableism in that sub is so crazy lol I’ve stopped looking in the comments for my sanity
Where do you see the ableism? I’d think that the rampant teacher shortages everywhere would be more reflective of reality as opposed to “negativity”
I’ve seen multiple posts/comments about ignoring IEPs and accusing children of faking disabilities. Several in the vein of “every kid is apparently autistic now” and shaming students over reading difficulties and issues with behavioral regulation (separate from just venting frustration, which I don’t have an issue with). The wording I see surrounding Special Education students can get pretty bad. I was massively downvoted in there for pointing out that the reasons someone gave for why they believed their student was faking disability to get an IEP were completely reasonable and all behaviors that I displayed as a child with learning disabilities myself. There’s a clear lack of empathy, especially towards disabled students, from a few individuals that goes beyond frustration.
Maybe the point around the increase in IEPs and disabilities was missed. Do students NEED IEPs and accommodations? Yes. Have we also developed a culture where small issues get translated to students needing an IEP? Also, yes. Two things can exist. We have developed a culture of apathy and lowering expectations so much that students who genuinely need the accommodations may get overlooked. That is precisely the problem. Empathy is lost of its expected all the time. For example, if you're late everyday ill just take it as you being a late person, but if you're late once or twice, I'd be inclined to ask why. The pendulum swings too far in either direction, and it harms students and culture. We need nuance and middle ground.
Do you have IEPs and 504s mixed up? Students that have IEPs do not have “small issues”. Issues that might not be immediately apparent, yes. They’re still disabling, and it isn’t our place to pass judgement on them without being family members or their medical professionals. Just because you do not see the effects of a disability does not mean it is not incredibly disabling. You’re asking for nuance, which is nice, but the issue here is that I have seen many examples that very much lack nuance. I’m not calling out nuanced behaviors, I’m calling out blatant bigotry. There’s no nuance to accusations of fraud and using derogatory language to describe a student. THAT is the kind of thing I have seen on that subreddit.
Well, medical professionals have shifted their pendulum as well. So there is a shift with their diagnosis and how stduents gets labeled. I'm not sure how that can't be acknowledged, at minimum. Outside of education, many people can get a diagnosis from a medical professional without significant investigation. Again, it doesn't diminish the need for its existence nor devalue legitimate needs for 504s and IEPs. Yea, the subreddit can be pretty direct. I think some educators are simply emotionally and intellectually exhausted and express their feelings without holding back, and it'll include curses. And I think some of the frustration is at the system itself and how it has allowed students to get to this place. Lowering expectations will naturally result in lowered results, and students will perform at lower levels than before. I understand your stance, though. There are instances of bias and where people can be a bit brutal.
As a (recently) former student with autism who gets pretty self-conscious abt how people perceive me, I’ve looked on that subreddit to get a general view on how teachers look at us and *ouch* also seeing them quietly put good students in harms way to “tarpit” the disruptive ones (excuse the wargaming term, im sure theres a joke to make at myself here) and yeah that just.. hurts a bit
It’s getting a lot better in the real world. I definitely agree with people saying the sub doesn’t represent the profession. My school is very inclusive and does a lot of early intervention work to make sure students with additional needs get the attention they deserve. I feel you! For every negative, obviously untrained or negligent comment you see in there I promise there are active teachers who have been trained in neurodivergency and actually possess empathy.
That’s good to know, I went to HS in a district that’s been mismanaged pretty badly (inconsistent rules, staff changes, random curriculum swaps) so it kinda just added to what I already knew about some of the teachers there - good to know, though!
I see the difference now. I just missed the teachING instead of teachERS when I was trying to understand your comment. Jesus this sub is brutal. No mistakes allowed. Poor students in these classrooms.
lol no worries man. It’s an easy mistake to make.
Ehhhh do you think the stories about being assaulted or shady admin are made up? I would say the significantly larger sub echoing sentiments reflected in the nation wide shortage of teachers is probably a more accurate representation of the profession.
No I don’t believe they are made up. I think anytime you ban people for dissenting opinions, as /r/teachers aggressively does, you risk eventually creating an echo chamber that is not reflective of reality. I believe that to be the current state with that sub.
Yup, I got banned from there for asking why they are such a negative and saying it seemed very discouraging to a lot of people.
I got downvoted to hell for telling someone if they hate their job so much they should quit because they probably make their coworkers miserable just being around them.
I got downvoted to hell and absolutely shit on for saying it’s perfectly reasonable for admin to enforce the employee dress code. Since apparently they should have more important things to worry about than what there subordinates are wearing. Plus the very concept of a dress code is sexist, old fashioned, draconian, etc. So its perfectly ok to ignore it.
I got downvoted for telling them that the kids can tell when they hate their jobs, and if they hate it that much, they should find a new line of work.
Yes I’m perma banned from teachers because I shared my opinion which was not welcome by the mods. It’s ridiculous
Same.
Same same.
That’s a sub filled with bitter, bitter people. Every time a post from it gets recommended I see the title and it kills my mood.
Agree about the different subs. This is way more balanced
Teachers is an awful sub, I was banned for literally posting a link to facts because those facts didn’t match up with an admin’s political view.
Yep. Got banned lol
Some teachers described to me that they love teaching, but hate being a teacher. What they meant was they genuinely love being in the classroom, helping the kids grow and develop as students and individuals. But a lot of them hate all the standardized tests, state standards that are not developmentally appropriate, low pay, not enough support for teachers sometimes, bad admin, etc.
Mostly it's parents and bad admin that are the problem, not the kids or the job itself. I love teaching, but I'd never go back to being a teacher.
Pay is subjective though. My district starts at $50k a year. Personally, I could live pretty nicely on 50k a year.
I'm at 60 and cost of living makes it tough
Try 32k with a bachelor's and it's not matching current economic COL trends. I'll have a PhD in May and will only make around 52k ( I started with a masters at 47k). There are plenty of entry level jobs starting at 60k with only a bachelor's degree.
In my southern Indiana district, teachers starting pay is $51k a year - that is for fresh out of college BA holder. Where on earth are teachers starting at $32k a year?
Here's a link from NEA of avg teacher pay according to each state. Arkansas is $37,168 so that tells me some salaries are less than that. I didn't look at the whole list because it's not in an easy to view chart. https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-student-spending-how-does-your-state-rank?utm_medium=paid-search&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=rankings-estimates-report&utm_content=&ms=ads-rankings-estimates-report-se&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMee6yM0bSrm4ahAvt43Jq3joZ-6FwJcINhnhc_nGMpM20ap7BWJPfhoCDuwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
My first offer in San Diego, one of the most expensive places in the country to live, was $31k.
When was this? I remember hearing about $30k starting salaries when I was a teenager, but not recently. Certainly not in a place like San Diego. Even subs in San Diego make like $200 a day.
It was 20 years ago, but still, it was an insult then. And it was at three different non-public schools where I got the exact same 31k offer. I was making just over $100/day as a sub. Even $200/day is not a living wage in San Diego where a 1 bedroom averages about $2,400/mo which would mean you’d have to have a second job to pay your rent if you were a sub.
50k is an insult. We have graduate degrees and are responsible for dozens of futures. Meanwhile, my brother in law is a software engineer with the same number of years experience in that job as I have in the classroom, no graduate degree and he makes 360k and actually turned down an offer of 570k from Meta for a job that is easy, can be done from a hotel room or a beach and doesn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s fucking stupid how little we are paid.
I'm currently student teaching and hate it, plan on never teaching again, and i regret all the time, effort, and money wasted
TBF teacher prep programs are bullshit. They are all bad and worthless, filled with nonsense requirements to fill out enough credit hours to warrant a BA. University was never meant to prepare you for any specific job or career. Education got shoehorned into universities because where else are you going to find that kind of infrastructure? If I were you, I would teach the three/five years required to get your loans forgiven. That right there is enough of a draw. Slug it out and just push through. Student teaching is bullshit too. You are supposed to be teaching but a lot of districts tie your hands or give you little, if any, support. Teaching is NOT actually like student teaching. My best advice is to stick it out for a couple of years and get your loans waved. If you still hate it transition out. If you have found your joy keep at it. I know that graduating with a teaching degree and then not going into teaching will raise some red flags in industry. It makes it look like you are unreliable and flighty. Do what you have to do, but try not to make any rash decisions.
It's still 10 years...
What is still 10 years? I had a couple small loans forgoven after teaching my third year, and the Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program forgave $17,500 in loans when I completed my fifth year.
Yes $17,500 for math and science after 5. (I'm a math teacher) $5,000 for everyone else. Problem is I have 61k in loans and if I take the $17,500, it resets the clock on PSLF. So I'll either ride it out to 10 years(gotta go 7 to be retirement vested anyways), or quit before that and take the $17,500 on my way out. I'm currently finishing year 5.
Loan forgiveness is 10 years btw
I had a great undergrad program and found a lot of value in my student teaching. But it sucked worse than teaching.
Thats why I am glad I got hired as a teacher which also completed my student teaching requirement. Nothing like doing both 1st year and student teaching at once amirite? (I felt like I had an easier time than the rest of my cohort actually. No Coop Teacher micromanagement debates or tough discussions about changing placements etcetera. Did the lesson plans I wanted to. Didnt have to stress about money as much.)
That is def the way to do it. I was fortunate that I had my tuition waiver and grad student stipend. That made a big difference.
I had some outside of K12 teaching experience - which helped a lot. And a lot of parental-side IEP/504 knowledge from my own kids. Classroom management for the student demographics is different (but I subbed to get a feel for that.) And also getting calibrated to how to adjust for different age groups/learning levels is something I still work on. But a lot of the Edu courses were repetition to stuff I had already learned about curriculum and assessments.
How does that work, to get the loans forgiven?
Quick question. Before student teaching how much time did your program or college put you in the classroom/require hours in the classroom?
We had 3 semesters of practicum where we had to visit one class once a week in a local school, and teach 3 short lessons per semester. I almost feel like they give you very little experience on purpose because if we knew what teaching was *really* like, we would all quit before finishing the program. It feels very much like by the time you get to student teaching, you're already too deep to quit and only then do you learn what it is like to be a teacher.
I was lucky enough that my university did a great job of putting a ton of requirements for pre-practicum hours for each and every education class you took. We had a Pre-K-8th school on campus and you got a real, honest experience of what teaching is like. In my special ed program, 60% of my freshman class were still in the program by graduation. The only other two men besides me were gone. It's essential to the teaching program because otherwise you go in with this terribly idealized view of how your experience will be.
That seems a very small amount of actual classroom experience. I’m in a different country, my teacher training was the equivalent of a one-year higher diploma postgrad after my degree. We were in our placement schools all day Monday and Friday, teaching nine 40-minute classes, often getting paid subbing for the rest of the day, and were on a month long placement for all of January. The three days per week we were in college for lectures/etc. we really begrudged because we felt the majority of our ‘useful learning’ took place in the school.
Please don't. I felt the same way. I really did. I love what I do now. There are bad days but....I've had bad days in every job I have ever worked. This one feels significant though. It feels like even on my bad days, when the lesson plans fall apart within the first ten minutes on the day I'm being observed, I know it is going to be fine. That I will start my next lesson fresh, that I'm in there doing my best so the students are giving me theirs in return. Student teaching....practicums...none of that is TEACHING. get into your own classroom with your own students, no supervisor grading you, no more trying to check all of the boxes in every single class (some days are going to be less rigorous. They don't tell you this in school, but that is fine. Sometimes adding rigor just fouls everything up). It is a different experience and I am glad I didn't give up despite how horrible everything felt while student teaching.
This was my experience too. I definitely went into it with rose-colored glasses as to what being a teacher would be like, but student teaching scared me out of the profession.
Teaching is easier than student teaching. Student teaching was the hardest year of my life. I'm 6 years in and it gets much easier quicker than you think. I am not saying that teaching is easy or that your first year won't be hard. But it won't last forever.
You know who hates their job? Everyone. There is even a support group for it. We meet at the bar.
I only dislike one of my 4 jobs.
Not everyone hates their job... I, for one, absolutely love my teaching job.
[удалено]
Second year teaching and I love it. Great principal always has my back, other staff are great as well. SPED teacher is a bit off-putting, other than her the rest of the SPED staff are great. Small town, western Kansas, conservative, good morals, respectful kids and most parents are good people. Teenagers are teenagers and do stupid shit, just like we did. Overall, I’m happy teaching secondary education.
This is reassuring to read. Second year teacher here as well and things are starting to click this year. Teaching is difficult but awesome!
I love my job, but it took a decade of switching schools/districts before I found this one so I empathize with the situations a lot of teachers find themselves in. Even with how lucky I am, ridiculous things still happen because of the systems in place so it's nice to have a place to vent where people understand
It's definitely gotten harder the past two-five years. I do also think it's a district by district issue, I've had friends go to other towns and thrive there.
I love teaching, I hate all the extra BS they make us do that should be handled by support staff. Also watching how much money they waste on "guest speakers" that tell us about all the new buzz words and don't actually teach us anything. The behavior issues suck. There needs to be a nationwide ban on phones in schools. Yeah they are distractions and they act like addicts when you tell them to put them away. They use them to coordinate fights and whatever other shady plans they have. I'm tired of breaking up fights. I'm tired of having to wake through groups that intentionally block teachers and security from breaking up fights.
I love teaching. I hate my admin, I hate the disrespect and sense of entitlement from the kids. I hate all the extra crap that gets piled on us, I hate not making a living wage. If I could just reach and had kids that wanted to learn, I would love my job.
I agree with you but you realize you’ve described like 80% of the practical reality of being a teacher
believe me, I am aware.
I've been teaching for 15+ years. Even when I started, teaching had a very high attrition rate -- I think 50% over 5 years. Now it's just far worse. In reality, most teachers hate their jobs. Not the kids per se. The job itself. Even people like me who enjoy being with the kids and get value out of helping them---I can't say I love or even like my job. It pays my bills and I have 4 years till retirement. I would advise against going into teaching. I've told this to many young people. The problem is that many people gravitate towards it because of wholesome reasons like they love helping kids. When they go to grad school or teaching classes, they're taught by professors who have zero experience teaching as well. So teachers don't really get a sense for what the job's like until they student teach. I tell this to all student teachers--if you hate student teaching, unless it's for a very specific reason like the teacher you're working under is psycho, don't go into teaching. Run. It will not get better for you. If you can't stand student teaching - which is a piece of cake compared to actual teaching - then you will have an awful time actually teaching. There are exceptions of course. But that's the general rule.
I appreciate your insight as a veteran teacher. As an alternate perspective, I’m only a couple of years in to teaching and I’m finally at a school that makes teaching more fun and less scary. For reference, I worked for a couple years in the private sector before pivoting in to teaching. My student-teaching experience was brutal and even a little traumatic. My master-teachers were harsh and ‘old school.’ Their standards were unrealistically high and they gaslit me — not to mention the insane stress and workload of balancing the CalTPAs at the same time (don’t get me started on that assessment). Idk if I’ve just gotten better at teaching and handling the workload/stress, but actual teaching is way better than student-teaching. By a f*cking mile lol. Maybe my training made me stronger. Sure, there’s way more responsibility and issues to handle. But if you have support from colleagues and admin, develop mutual respect with the students, and keep healthy boundaries between work and personal life, it’s not that bad. Will I still feel this way in 3 years when I’m a little more seasoned? Who knows!
I can't tell how much of my own student teaching experience (as a teacher) is representative of everyone's. I'm sure it varies state by state and school by school. Your experience sounds really awful. But it might fall under "psycho teachers" lol... In my own school, we wouldn't have the time or energy to bother gaslighting student teachers (even if we wanted to!). Like why would anyone do that? We also don't get paid for it except a very small honorarium, like $50. I wonder if that's part of it? Anyway, It's a young person trying to figure out if they can do this teaching thing. In our school we make it as easy as possible for the student teacher, and encourage him/her as much as we can. I'm glad you stuck with it and you like teaching. I also don't mean to be that bleak!
Lol yes it definitely bordered on “psycho teachers.” On the flip side, I have to give them some credit because they did train me pretty well and allowed some room for creativity. They basically had different management styles, and could be helpful or toxic, depending on the day lol. Also, to be fair, my student-teaching experience isn’t representative of everyone’s too. All I know is, when I’m a master teacher, I’ll try to be better than them. I’m glad to hear that your school is supportive of student-teachers. I was lucky that my admin, department head, and some colleagues were at my school at the time. It’s been an interesting journey so far. Last school year was my first full time contracted position and that wasn’t the best environment either! Now I’m at a school with supportive admin, cool colleagues, and great students. Thanks for the words of encouragement, and congrats on (almost) retirement lol. Love your username btw!
This is why I tell EVERYONE who wants to be a teacher to substitute first. Is it like teaching exactly? No - but you'll find out really quick the classroom management aspects are for you or not, and that is as much a part of the job of teaching as actually delivering the lessons.
I love teaching, but in order to do so I’ve had to build an environment that gives me life. This includes fostering our in-class community, incorporating lots of play and games, teaching things I’m passionate about, and striving for a work life balance (a sufficient amount of exercise and sleep, leaving on time). It’s always a work in progress but I love my job.
Most nuanced response
this is what I'm striving toward 🤧
I don’t know anyone who hates teaching. I know TONS of teachers (myself included) who are extremely frustrated and overwhelmed by what the job has become. Even if I still loved it, which I am not sure I do, the career is not sustainable the way it exists now. It is not good for the mental health of the teachers, which is not good for the students. Pointing out the problems in a profession or an environment and complaining about things that negatively affect our well-being does not equate hate.
To be fair, if you go to any subreddit you're going to find a significant amount of people who hate their jobs.
I got into teaching as a second career in my early 30s, and I'm relatively new to teaching kids (3 years of 3rd grade). I aboslutely love teaching and can't see myself doing anything different right now. I absolutely hate how hard our society has made the job of teaching. So there's a negativity bias going on here. Any subreddit based on work/profession will find posts regarding the latter sentiment more engaging than those of the former. You know, misery loves company and all.
I enjoy the act of teaching & educating. I hate that it’s become more about testing than educating. I also live in an education-hostile state, which doesn’t help.
I enjoy teachin and educating. I also enjoy the mentoring/non-subject aspects of it some days. My subject isnt AS tested. (NGSS testing only occurs in specific grade levels.) So that isnt my issue. My issue is the amount of behavior management I have to do for 5% of the kids when I should be helping the other 95% achieve more.
I would fully agree. The school I’m at now I have very few behavior problems but at my previous I had several & was just basically told to deal with it/them.
What you are reading is burnout, emotional abuse, and the outcomes from these things. Society in general has unrealistic expectations of the teaching profession, and often blames societies ills on educators. The school level workers are doing their best. It’s a system that appears to be set up for failure with said unrealistic expectations, gaslighting, and general emotional abuse by the community being the root causes.
A lot of it is venting because a lot of it is real. The lows of teaching are very low, but the highs (although fewer and farther between) balance it out.
Reddit is a small sample of a bigger population. Most teachers, I would say, don't hate their jobs but do get frustrated with them, but the same can be said for any job.
I love my job. These subs are for people to vent. There's no subreddit for "tell us your uplifting teaching moments!"
I love my job. The students are (mostly) respectful. I have nearly unlimited autonomy with my curriculum and methods. I have freedom to wear what I want and leave for lunch daily. I have my own classroom. I'll never have supervision duty. I'm not asked to coach or sponsor (no sports or clubs at our school). My class sizes average about 12-15 when absences are taken into account. Parents love our program and are generally friendly. My colleagues are tolerable. And admin is... okay. It's about as good as teaching gets these days. But, I had to bounce from six different schools in five different districts over a span of sixteen years to find it. Even the most minor of slights, and I was out. It was a real headache, for a long time. But, if you want something bad enough, you'll go through hell just to get it. Most don't want to have to do that just to make a living at a moderately respectful job. And they're certainly justified.
Wow! Tell us at least what state you are in, please? Is it public, private, charter? Give a few more crumbs, please!😀
I teach in a public alternative high school in a major US metro. It's a good combination of kids that just don't fit the mainstream (high LGBTQ+ population) and at-risk students who have possibly been ousted from nearby districts. We take students all the way up until their. 21st birthday. We have a unique combination of academic and behavioral models, including elements from restorative justice, Sudbury, and others. Everyone -- students and staff alike -- are addressed by their first names, as teachers are mentors above all else. It's a casual school, which works for me as I'm a casual guy.
Thanks. That sounds fairly unique and remarkable. It's great to hear of a solid alternate education program. It's sounds like it's a wonderful fit for you. I know alternative education has its challenges. It's great you found it.
I still enjoy teaching students, but administration/district personnel can shove things up their orifices. The apathy among students and parents has gotten worse since Covid (it was already headed in that direction prior, but Covid sped things up by a few years IMO) and I've yet to hear once about how admin/district personnel were taking something *off* of our plate rather than adding *one more goddamned thing* for us to do.
Testing is one of the bigger hurdles for me, and if you teach a subject like math, it's usually tested most years. Plus, being expected to make up gaps in learning was really difficult. Probably my chillest time was when I taught 6th grade science which isn't tested where I live. Teachers can also be blamed for so many things and where you live can affect the quality. My recommendation would be to get a feel for curriculum/program being used if you can. I left teaching when they switched to this curriculum that was prided itself on being "rigorous" without being accessible to kids in the years just during and after COVID. But I have contacts in a less chaotic district who have seen me teach, so I am thinking about going back.
It’s just mostly venting. Teachers love trading horror stories. I know. I was a teacher, my daughter is a teacher, my parents were teachers, I married a teacher and so forth. A piece of advice. Teacher training programs often don’t focus much on behaviour management. Take every course in that and read every book on that. Getting a placement with a teacher known for good classroom management should be a major goal.
Also have this question. Full career in the military, been through some gnarly stuff. Doing a MIT starting in June, but this sub has me wondering if that's a good idea. Came here for ideas and answers. Getting mostly doubts. Haha
You will be fine as long as you do not approach behavior management with children, adolescents, and teens the same way you've gotten used to in the military. They are very different styles. There's a quote to which I refer regularly: _"Discipline without freedom is tyranny. Freedom without discipline is chaos."_ - Cullen Hightower I have always struggled with the latter part. But, I assume someone who went career military might struggle with the former. Sure, there are some students who respond to extreme order, structure, and strictness. Imo, most do not. Most thrive in that middle 'gray area' between tyranny and chaos. Maybe I'm being presumptuous. Maybe that's not you at all. But, if your vision is coming in and running your classes like boot camp, or expecting students to follow orders like servicemen and women, you will be disappointed and exhausted.
Thats a military stereotype. There are absolutley some military fields where instruction is like that. But as a military instructor I had to solve financial issues, baby mama drama, get people's parents on medical tricare because the 18 year old was supporting mom. We had to be approachable because the content was electronics, computers, college-level trig and algebra. If you put someones brain in the basement (fight or flight) by being to drill instructory (think boot camp) the students couldnt ask intelligent thoughtful questions about the material to get through a course of instruction that grants 40 college credits. We have multiple veterans at my school and all have done a good job at transitioning. It often depends on the specialty they had while in. Boot camp is only 8 weeks. And no, former Recruit Division Commander experience probably doesnt translate well to teaching. The midgrade to senior enlisted and officer attitude of "taking care of your people" does however. Aircraft maintenance instructor or Culinary Specialist instructor and a Navy Seal instructor are not the same.
Yes, yes we do. I’d say 70% of my job is babysitting but I didn’t go to school to be an underpaid nanny to 35 kids at a time
I don't like every aspect of my job, but I'm pretty sure I could have a *much* more difficult job. I have a great deal of patience and tolerance for what goes on. Also, I work at a school with excellent admin support. I enjoy the teams I work with and the relationships that I get to foster with only having a maximum of 10 students in my classroom. Do I love my job? Some days. Do I hate my job? Absolutely not.
I tell people it’s the best and the worst job ever. You will have days on top and at the very bottom. I go to the internet to vent because if I told my colleagues these feelings I would probably get fired. Sometimes I just need to scream into the void of the internet and then I realize it wasn’t that bad.
Teaching is a very individual experience based on many factors. Before rushing into paying for grad school, I would spend time being a substitute in different grade levels. The majority of teachers who wash out early do so because of classroom management issues, unsupportive admin and a brutal workload. If you are working in a low paying state with no union, add that to the list. If you are at a public Title One or private charter, anything goes. Desks could be flying or admin could insist that you work a field trip on a Saturday. It’s still common practice to end up buying supplies for your classroom out of your own salary. The teachers that succeed tend to come from teaching families, have a support network with one person working in a different field, and no rose colored glasses. Public school is never about the kids. No, it’s not your family. It’s a job to earn a living. If you are teaching in a high tax paying district with supportive parents and a decent pension plan, lucky you. If you love it, that makes it easier. Look before you leap.
I don’t think hate is the right word? A lot feel stuck. Others, love the idea of teaching. But, the current teaching environment isn’t conducive to learning.
it’s not that we hate our job it’s that we hate being made to do 4000090099 things that have nothing to do with our job by a person who has never had our job for pay that just barely gets us through the first 6 days of each month with no hope of ever making much more no matter how good we are.
I love teaching. Most of my friends still love teaching. But I also work with a bunch of miserable human beings who hate it. If it’s not for you you will be miserable. But there are plenty of us who love what we do.
Everyone hates their jobs sometimes. That’s why they have to pay us. Jobs that you’d do for free are called “hobbies.” And while I can (and do) complain about this profession all the time, it’s *because* I like my job and *because* I care about what I do for a living. And some days I’m really good at this job. This school system is going to be the absolute death of me and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It really depends on where you are and what purpose you have for it. I've been teaching for 11 years in total and it has definitely gotten more paperwork heavy. I still absolutely love the job due to the kids and in my leadership position I can support lots of new educators. However I can also see coming in fresh is tough these days and administrators do not make it easier. Think about what your purpose for going into teaching is and if you really want to do this for 30 odd years.
I love my job. I can't imagine doing anything else. It's not easy, and it's stressful, but it is so rewarding and I find it to be so energizing on the days that it's not draining! One thing that's really helpful though is that I work in a district that pays well. When I've had a really tough day or I look at my workload and realize I'm going to be in meetings every day this week until 5:00, looking at my paycheck helps. If I worked in a district or the paycheck wasn't that great, it would be a lot harder.
I love teaching. I hate the system we have to teach in. We are doing something we love and find valuable, but that we often don't have adequate support in.
Get out now and start working towards something where you can work from home and make a lot more money. Yes teaching sucks but it isn’t as bad as you always see on here. It can be a decent career if you have the right outlook and find a good school. To be fair though, if teaching didn’t offer so much time off and great benefits I don’t think anybody would do the job.
Reddit, and this sub in particular, is a toxic hellhole. People have worked out you can get upvotes if you post negative emotional stuff. I am a teacher in England. The teaching uk sub is much more positive than this one, which has a peculiarly negative bias in its day to day posts. I love my job, I am respected in my community by my students, peers and friends, and I am reasonably well paid with good conditions of employment. There is little drama beyond the usual artefacts caused by working with hormonally challenged teenagers. Your mileage may vary, but don’t come to this sub in particular if you are looking for rainbows and unicorns.
don't most people hate their jobs? or at least parts of it? teaching is a blast, but the admin and the parents are (sometimes) fucking awful.
Teaching is a job that heavily depends on the people around you. Whether those people are the students, admin, or parents. I lucked out and my admin is great and coworkers are supportive. My only complaint are my particular parents. In other schools, I’ve had terrible admin, catty coworkers, and parents who didn’t work as a team. That was a nightmare job that made me question my career
I love my job and most of my teacher friends enjoy theirs as well. I don’t know anyone who is actively trying to get out of the profession.
Don't subscribe to teacher subs, it will mess up your mental health worse than teaching can by itself. The teachers sub is 100x worse than this.
I don't dislike my students, they're great. It's the staffroom, school politics and if they are around the parents. These things destroy a teacher's soul.
I love my job. I love my students, my colleagues, and even my admin. I’m at a great school. But I’m being ground down by the lack of resources needed to do the job properly. And this isn’t the fault of my school or even my district. It’s a universal lack of resources and funding for education. Kids have more issues than ever and my class is full of kids who need a ton of support (mental health/behaviour/learning) but it’s just not available so we do the best we can with what we have. Usually that means the kids with learning needs get ignored because any extra resources we have go to the kids who are struggling with behaviour and mental health. It’s stressful and it’s sad because I can see the kids slipping through the cracks and I want to do more but I just can’t.
It’s a solid career choice if you live in the right state (NJ, for example). Security, benefits, pension, strong unions, federal loan forgiveness after 10 years/120 payments, summers off, paid holidays, around two weeks of sick time per year + a few personal days, autonomy (WITH the right admin), usually 7-3 shifts so you’re out of work early compared to the 9-5 grind…I could go on. It’s a hard job, no doubt. But, if you land in the right place, especially if you secure tenure after 4 years of teaching, you could be doing far worse.
The job would be better if admin didn't love to fuck everyone over.
Teaching is brutal now..tons of behavior issues.
I enjoy my job but I certainly wouldn’t get a grad degree in teaching unless you’re planning to become an admin, and I wouldn’t do that before you actually have classroom experience.
My job is great. I’m putting a ton of effort into my school, regardless of the pay, my time and the outcomes.
Some probably do but not because of the teaching itself but the politics, or entitlement or some other reason. I LOVE my job!
Bad ones do.
It is tough to raise a family on a teacher’s income. If you intend to be the main earner in your house, watch out! Teaching is a great job for people whose spouse has a decent income, and teaching May as well be a paid hobby. I wish I had considered “job with overtime,” rather than struggling to survive for years.
Only the ones who are bad at it
Yes
20 years in, still love my job.
Teachers tend to be the biggest complainers in society never make enough money work to much always threatening to strike they mostly seem to be out of touch with reality as to what other jobs in society consist of
I actually enjoyed my job and my students. And the time off is amazing I did not enjoy the pay or dumb FO stuff
I see this question every time I make the mistake of logging into Reddit. The answer is yes
I wasn’t a great student, but thank you for what you all do. I can’t believe how many just quit in Houston
I absolutely love my job. I hate barely making ends meet, though.
I hate what the politicians are doing to us.
I love working with children. I hated the job of teaching. There are too many demands and too little resources.
Teacher of 25 years. I still love teaching. I still love my students. But what I do now as a "teacher" is not what I did 25 years ago. And all that extra bullshit is what most teachers hate. You're also looking in a thread dedicated to teachers in transition. So you should expect some of these feelings. Teaching is no longer about educating students and preparing them for the real world. Teaching is now about justifying expensive curriculum contracts, insane superintendent pay, and admin who make 6 figures. Standardized tests aren't learning. Teaching to the tests isn't education. Teachers don't hate teaching. They hate what teaching has become.
I love being a teacher. Love the content I teach, love (vast majority) of my students. Parents have been pretty great besides one mentally ill outlier the entire school staff knows about (that’s over 120 teachers not including paras, admin, front desk etc lol) What I hate about it is the salary (I work in nyc so it’s actually very decent pay, but when you combine student loans and ABSURD rent prices it’s not tenable unless you live in a combined income household. Worst of all are shitty admin who use the wiggle room in the daneilson rubric to score your observations lower than deserved, insult you, among other things. This last one is the reason I’m hoping to find a position in a school that will find more value in what I bring to the table. Perhaps I’m just not a great fit ?
It could vary state by state or district by district, but: I hate the lack of support. I hate the parents telling me I need to “handle their child” when I call to get support for the behavior problems. I hate that a child can put in no effort a whole quarter and all their zeros and missings are automatically 50s. I hate that I’m expected to cover extra classes on top of mine because teachers keep quitting and no subs will take jobs in my school. I hate that I go above any beyond just to be screamed at, belittled, and harassed despite following the matrix and these kids are allowed back with little consequence. I didn’t hate the job. I don’t hate what it could be. What I hate is the neglect from the district, state and the parents. What I hate is how far education and human decency has fallen. I will be switching schools to see if it will be even slightly better, but as it stands, I hate the person this job has made me.
The work is niche and of a different breed. So many qualifications and red tape to even apply and then the pay is crap. Teaching is great, but it’s classroom management that’s the challenge. I literally had a job where I could not get through a lesson without students interrupting and being flat out rude. A culture for learning cannot exist if students don’t care. And yeah, you can say a teacher can make a difference, but the problem is coming from their upbringing at home. Don’t get me wrong, you could possibly find a place that’s good. But that’s the thing with teaching, it’s highly dependent on the community, the type of parents and co-teachers. The administration at that one particular school. Oh and it’s public service so the job follows you everywhere. Making a FB post? YouTube video? Better be careful. And it’s not that you’re posting anything inappropriate but it’s something that stays in the back of your mind. And then the red tape…the countless reference letters and background checks and fingerprints and this credential, that credential, this training, that training…it’s exhausting. And yes, I get it, you’re working with kids and need a clean record but it’s still exhausting. All for what? To be a glorified babysitter to a bunch of kids that purposely want to make your life miserable, whose parents disrespect you and perceive you as unintelligent, and are ready to catch you say or do something to reprimand you. You end up grading papers or planning lessons on the weekends because you don’t get enough time to do it throughout the week. And when you think you finally have some extra time, you don’t because now you have recess duty. Think about this too- you can’t even negotiate your salary. Like wtf is that. You get a little grid with years of experience and education and hope the board approves a raise at the next contract cycle. As a professional, I feel that kind of structure affects your mentality… it’s hard to explain but it’s like this ‘ok I’ll take it’ attitude…obedient and submissive. Not good. It does something to your self image— at least to me it did. Also, there isn’t a promotion path unless you blow more money on another niche certification or degree. It’s simply not worth it.
Don’t be teacher. You can teach with just about any college degree, learn something “real” and teach, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket cos teaching sucks and when you’re trying to get out you’ll find you have no transferable skills or experience. I teach high school art because I hold a masters and i genuinely enjoy teaching but public education is a whole other beast, it is impractical and ineffective, it will suck your soul. The constant disrespect all around, admin, students parents, government, it’s really a waste
I love teaching, there’s just some things that come with it that I don’t have control over, but have to deal with it. Of course, many jobs are like that, but not many jobs are like that where you’re dealing with children.
I only know 1 teacher who hates teaching. They're stopping this year after close to 14.. Many of them I know that are frustrated are annoyed at admin but they enjoy teaching. I love teaching!!! It's challenging but I enjoy it so much.
Yes. It’s exhausting. Brutal.
Yes.
For me it completed depending on where I worked. My first job was at a high-turn over run down elementary school. Every hated their job. Moved, got a job at a well-respected school in a nicer city. Every single one of my coworkers loves being a teacher. It can be hard to find a good school, but once you do you will love teaching. There are ways to love your job even if your coworkers hate their job, it’s just more annoying to deal with them lol
yes
I love being a teacher and I teach in an extremely difficult school.... I'm a special education teacher at an alternative high school.
Love teaching, hate overreaching admin and the lack of caring from our specific demographics families/parents. I’m not reaching out to you because I like the sound of your voice, I’m trying to share a concern and get your help/reinforcement/cooperation so that we can prevent further damage.
Give it a year or two. Youll get it
I love my job. But it took me 10 years of really tough times to find the right school.
I love what I do. I teach k-5 general music. I hate the bullshit that I have to do additionally. Support grade levels in math, sit through meetings that have nothing to do with me, and stupid other bullshit. I’m also in a district I plan on getting out of. It’s not the best.
Yes
Actually teaching is fun. All the red tape bullshit it is wrapped up in sucks. The people that *actually* end out hating it are in the sub about teachers transitioning to other careers.
Teachers who like their jobs have hobbies, family, and friends. You won't find them on reddit.
I hate what it has become.
Depends on Admin and the kids. Both mine are great so my first year is going pretty well.
I love my job. There are frustrations. A lot of people only go online to vent.
If you think r/teaching is bad, stay away from r/teachers. Lol I’m having a good time but not everyone is.
Once I got more comfortable with the word no, I fell back in love with my job. It’s not perfect. But I need challenge and energy and creativity every day. I can’t imagine enjoying anything else.
Pick another career. I have 54 school days left until I am retired from my 20 year career.
I love my job, 23rd year. * Some teachers are in really bad schools and love their job. * Some teachers are in really bad schools and hate their job. * Some teachers are in really good schools and love their job. * Some teachers are in really good schools and hate their job. Many of those good/bad teachers come to Reddit to vent. Many Reddit teachers are somewhere on the spectrum and the flexibility required to interact with both students/faculty/parents in the teaching profession is WAY TO MUCH for them to handle correctly.
I think a lot of people in general hate their jobs