10 Educators Confessed What They Hate Most About Their Jobs, And I Don't Blame Them For Wanting To Quit
As many schools across the US have resumed classes, the country is confronted with a big issue — a national teacher shortage.
Since March 2020, over 300,000 teachers have quit their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last week, 12 public school educators told us what made them quit their jobs, which prompted many more teachers in the BuzzFeed Community to share their own horror stories.
Here's what 10 more teachers had to say about their experiences in the field:
1. "I quit teaching after 23 years. I miss it very much, but I don’t miss administration, ridiculous policies, and 24-hour stress."
"We were told to focus on our basic (middle of the road) kids to get them to place as 'proficient' on state testing. I actually got nervous teaching my below basic students. I am not proud of this, but when I was called out for some of my honest and informative report card comments, I told my principal to fuck off and that I QUIT!
This came after about three years of absolute rotten treatment by the district and admin toward everyone. I had friends cry after the superintendent called them out for a drop in their students’ test scores. One day, I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I’m very ashamed about how I left, and it’s been seven years. I miss teaching terribly. My husband makes a good living, so I am very lucky…one could never survive on a teacher’s pay alone."
2. "My mom was a teacher and has many horror stories. She had a parent who expected her to pick up the child, drop them off, buy them school supplies, and 'just give her a granola bar or something.'"
—Ehch
3. "It is a lot of pressure and it’s like carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. We are the ones to blame if a student is not showing progress, misbehaves, or is hungry, etc."
"Last year I had a student who missed around 75% of the school year. I called the parents all the time and had conferences with them about it. They even had a court order because of this, and at the end of the year, of course, it was one of the students who showed less progress on the tests (oh boy do not make me talk about tests) and parents went to fight the school about not doing enough for the kid. Administration was also trying to blame us for this (apparently they wanted me to go to this student’s house and bring her to school by myself maybe).
We will always be the ones to blame for everything and it is not fair. Everyone has a responsibility — parents, the student, administration, and us of course — but it’s not fair we get all the fingers pointed at us when things don’t work."
4. "I left education for tech and do not regret it for a minute. I make almost double what I used to (and it's only my first year in the field) and the reduced stress level is beyond compare."
"Teaching is a super important job but you can't expect people to be martyrs for their whole career with shit pay, no upward mobility, unpaid countless hours, often no respect or support from management and parents, and literally risking your physical health and safety. Unless it is your absolute calling in life and you'd still do it for free, it's not worth it. It shouldn't have to be that way."
5. "I am starting year 18 as a public HS school English teacher this fall. I have always loved my job because I operate under the mantra of “just shut your classroom door and teach,” but that has become increasingly more difficult each year as the school board and admin cave to pressure and attempt to dictate curriculum and policies that have less to do with what is best for kids and more to do with pleasing parents and politicians."
"Likewise, I get tired of constantly defending my schedule to non-educators and reminding them that my 10-month employee status is just the amount of time I get paid — my holidays, nights, and weekend work is all voluntary, not to mention my BA, MS, and MA degrees would be getting me a much better salary in the corporate world. If it wasn’t for the love of my students, who really are some of the best, funniest, and most wonderful humans, I would have left years ago."
6. "If I knew of a job that paid the same as what I make, I would quit teaching."
"Teachers can never do anything right. Parents are ridiculous. Admin doesn’t give two shits about you. This year we were given one day to plan, get our rooms ready, and get ready for 'meet the teacher.' One day. And I looked like the bad guy because I didn’t come up during the summer or on a weekend when I’m not paid. So yeah…the teacher shortage is not a surprise at all."
7. "I left after three years because I was tired of getting cussed out by my students every day, tired of the admin who always put it on teachers to deal with consequences for bad behavior, and tired of parents who always backed their kids up and sometimes cussed me out, too."
"I loved my subject, loved most of my students, and genuinely enjoyed educating and empowering kids to learn and find confidence in themselves. The handful of students and parents that pretty much abused me just took too much of a toll on my mental and physical health to stay.
I just accepted a job in fintech that’s mostly remote with a $33K pay increase, better benefits, more time off, and I’m already getting more support from my manager than I ever did from my admin and I haven’t even started yet.
I left the school saying it was a break since it was so early in my career, but I’m never going back. The average time teachers stay in the profession has been 3–5 years for too long — the education system needs a huge overhaul, and fast, if they want to mitigate the shortage and keep good teachers."
8. "I left 10 years ago. I had no support from my admin. I didn’t have a classroom (I traveled throughout the day). When I tried to discipline the kids they got sent back. The evaluations were super biased, and to top it all off, I was making $32K. I switched to retail and have no regrets."
9. "I’m in year 19. Admin sucks. No one should be allowed to be a principal if they don’t have at least 15 years in the classroom. Don’t tell me what to do when you were only in the room for six years."
"Most teachers are paid for 10 months work. We don’t get 2 months off. We have two months uncontracted and unpaid. So yes, we may need other money avenues. But also, the salaries make sense for 10 months when you realize you are paid based off of local tax revenue and not profits like other professions.
Most people don’t understand the nuances of what we actually do. Instead, they only hear the political arm of the profession talking so of course society all thinks we are just political monsters. I just want kids to feel safe in my classroom and for them to learn. I believe most teachers are that way. Some are just better at ignoring all the other crap while others will get beaten down by it."
10. "I have taught in Texas for 28 years in Title I schools — over 85% of kids live below the poverty level. I mailed in my retirement papers this weekend. I am 55 years old and thought I would teach until I was 65. COVID broke me — three teachers in my district died."
"I taught in person all day — with no mask mandates because the moron governor of Texas had the AG sue any district that tried to keep kids and staff alive by requiring masks — and then had to go home and make online lessons and grade/edit/correct/send back the work that the online kids did. Seven days a week/ten hours a day and I didn't get an extra dime or a thank you.
Now my state is forcing schools to display god posters if they are donated. The governor is trying to pass a parent bill of rights where parents can sue and we can lose our licenses if we teach facts that they don't like. We are accused of ridiculous things because of lies that elected officials are pushing to motivate their bases.
Between active shooter training, COVID, paperwork, more paperwork, more lesson plans, kids attacking and cursing us, adding more minutes to the teaching day (yep - now working 30 more minutes a day for no extra pay), changing TEKS, parents complaining, the politics, admin not having our backs — goodbye!"
