31 Teachers Shared Moments That Made Them Nearly Quit

14.

“Two factors caused me to quit. One, in an effort to be ‘data-driven,’ schools are constantly spending an increasing amount of time on testing. As a result, teachers are constantly given more and more responsibilities. We have state tests, district tests, weekly tests, and every student needs to read one-on-one with a teacher, who counts how many words are read correctly in a minute. However, the time allotted to us remains constant. That means we must remove other parts of the curriculum or cancel recess to make time for more testing. Teachers have to spend more and more time after school in addition to other duties. I was working an average of 12 hours a day physically in the classroom. This included preparing the classroom, making copies, writing lessons, emailing parents, creating newsletters, entering grades, and attending meetings.”

“This 12 hours was an average, so for every day I could get out ‘early’ at 6:30 p.m., there’d be a day where I was working until 8:30 at night. Most nights, I had my wife bring dinner to me and we’d eat in the classroom while I was working. This time doesn’t even count my work at home, where all the test, homework, and paper grading was done. Most Saturdays were spent grading Friday’s comprehension, spelling, and writing tests, then entering all those grades. 

The second factor was that school admin was unable or unwilling to discipline the middle school students. After three years of overwork, I accepted a position teaching art (I was an art major in school). Everything was much better, except for students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. They thought my job was to entertain them. If something wasn’t ‘fun,’ they thought it was optional. They showed their disapproval by destroying camera equipment and personal items I’d brought in. Every day, I’d have to repair broken equipment. Some of the students were beyond disrespectful. I was constantly shouted at, insulted, or ignored. One class prevented me from teaching any lesson for three consecutive weeks. The admin refused to discipline any students, and even allowed athletes to continue to play ball while earning Fs in my class. Some days, it took all my willpower not to just walk out and go home.

I told the admin that certain classes were no longer allowed in my classroom, but they said I was not allowed to do that. When I stated examples of how students were completely out of control, I was told that ‘an effective teacher would find a way.’ I was told to ‘be consistent’ and use the existing discipline policies. An additional hour was spent each day making phone calls to parents, per the policy. Nothing happened. So, per policy, I started assigning detentions for repeat behavior. My principal told me that the high number of detentions was making the school look bad to the rest of the district. I explained that I was just ‘being consistent’ and using the established procedures, as instructed. I challenged my principal to look at any of the recorded behaviors and find any which did not warrant a detention. She could not find any, but still complained that the numbers were too high. I explained that each detention was assigned only after contacting home three times. My principal then said I was calling home too often and needed to stop. 

While teaching art, I was an overqualified babysitter for several hours a day. Grades K-5 were fantastic, but there was a reason the school had gone through four art teachers in two years. I was number five. After a three-year hiatus from teaching, I returned to teaching at another school. Each year, I watch that school hire and lose art and music teachers as a result of student behavior. The teachers simply quit because the school won’t enforce its own rules.”

—Anonymous