Why Are Teachers Quitting? Inside America's “Most Vulnerable Profession” | Amanpour and Company

Comments · 1.7K

• PO

  @polarpalmwv4427 · 3 years ago (edited)

  I taught for 23 years - leaving 3 years ago due to a complete mental breakdown.  Let me tell you.  The hell that teaching is WAS ALWAYS THIS WAY FOR MY ENTIRE 23 YEARS.  This is nothing new.  For every 4 days that students are in class, teachers need one FULL DAY of uninterrupted time for planning and grading.  No meetings.  No 'PD' (and the PD is 95% AWFUL AND IRRELEVANT).  This is in ADDITION to a daily lunch OF AT LEAST 40 MINUTES DUTY-FREE and a daily planning period to do the necessary daily tasks.  Classrooms need to be FULLY STOCKED with books, learning materials, and consumables (such as pencils, paper, tape, glue, crayons, markers, colored pencils, facial tissues, dry-erase markers, etc...).  At present none of this is happening anywhere in America.  There is nowhere near enough time during a planning period (and in many schools 1 planning period a week is lost to a required meeting) to prepare and organize materials that are immediately needed, grade student work, and plan quality lessons in the time provided.  NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH TIME.  This is why most teachers work at least 2 extra hours each weekday as well as half or all of the weekend.  And the reward for all of this?  You can't even afford to buy a house in most areas.

  805

• UN

  @unbreakable7633 · 3 years ago

  My father taught for decades and saw the changes in education.  He left teaching in disgust, mostly because parents stopped supporting the schools and would complain about the grades their children earned and wouldn't discipline their children for acting up.  But he also didn't like the changes to the curriculum that lowered the quality of the classes he taught.

  444

• BL

  @bluestatechampion · 3 years ago

  Teachers/professors are in an abusive relationship, and you don't stay in abusive relationships. The lack of respect for the teaching profession, and education in general, is sickening.

  283

• OR

  @orffrocks5667 · 3 years ago

  with all due respect…this just skims the surface of what (we) teachers are experiencing. Not to mention the challenging children and nonexistent parenting.

  510

• DA

  @dawnsturman4359 · 3 years ago

  I taught for thirty-six years and she is right on with her assessment of how demanding it is to be a good teacher.  Talk is cheap, we need to find away to support teachers.  I won awards, but that didn’t help with the day to day stress.

  189

• AG

  @aggedyran · 3 years ago

  After just one semester in a high school, I will never, ever, return to teaching in K-12. Everything she said is true...and more. My heart breaks for teachers.

  126

• KE

  @kens2623 · 3 years ago (edited)

  My sister was a teacher as was her husband. She had a masters degree and was working on a PhD. They both were working in a restaurant and had a working farm in order to make ends meet. My parents gave them the land they lived on, but they financed the home they built there. It was very hard for them to make ends meet with just their paychecks as teachers. Somewhere in there she contracted a virus that destroyed her heart, she died as a result of that. During the school year she was continually sick, so teaching for her took a toll on her health. She was not the only teacher there who was exposed to viruses that threatened their lives. Now with these political pressures and guns-school shootings, I wouldn't ever want to be a teacher.

  173

• HE

  @healingasthmaacasestudy9851 · 3 years ago

  The educational system is built on unpaid teacher time.

  205

• LI

  @lindylee1139 · 3 years ago

  Retired early due to demoralization because of impossible workload and lack of administrative support not to mention difficult parents and kids with severe behavior problems. It’s sad when a job you once loved ends up feeling like it’s killing you.

  106

• JU

  @JuJu-v1g · 3 years ago

  My son’s tutor is a full time teacher. She tutors on the side and works at a restaurant as well to afford to live! They don’t get paid enough and it’s shameful.

  47

• MA

  @marialipscomb6988 · 3 years ago

  I left teaching in '21, and I have 4 credentials, and a master's degree. After what I experienced during the pandemic, I realized we weren't really valued for what we do. Parents were ugly to us, demanding we open our classrooms so they could send their kids to school. They had no care about teachers being exposed to the virus, teachers have families too, and many have elderly parents. They didn't care, they wanted their babysitters back. It was bad enough the amount of our money and the time that we spent on the children. I just had it, I miss the children but I don't miss their ungrateful parents.

  292

• HE

  @healingasthmaacasestudy9851 · 3 years ago

  Utah English teacher here. I also have over 260 students. Just imagine grading: if I just spend  1 minute on each piece of writing a student turns in, it would take 260 minutes. I can’t do this while I’m teaching, so that means it’s all done on the weekend.

  27