Why do I hate Teaching?!?!

I'm a lowly substitute teacher searching for a full time position. I like teaching, but here are some things about the gig I don't like:

1. inclusion classrooms - 19 times out of 20 this means there are border line retarded children in the room slowing the pace of everyone else, no child left behind, remember. This causes the teachers to slow instruction down to the lowest kids level, boring everyone else while that student struggles to get it. ABout 2/3 of the time, but not always, is a special ed teacher in the inclusion classroom to assist the full time teacher, but most of the time he ends up just being a glorified babysitter for the kids with IEPs (individualized education plans aka special ed kids). The worst part of this is that the inclusion students are usually class clowns who disrupt other student's learning, the lesson, and the teacher's teaching. Its tough to deal with the disruptive, disrespectful inclusion students while trying to teach the other 21-29 students as well. A lot of the times this can create a toxic environment leading to other kids acting up in the class as well. The inclusion kids are not always the class clowns, regular students can do this in inclusion classes as well. It seems they put the lower-average performing students in inclusion classrooms as the regular kids. Acting up is less common in non-inclusion classrooms and advanced/honors/ap/dual enrollment classes.

2. Class Size - trying to help individual students when there are are 22-30 kids in the class can be a struggle. I couldn't spend more than 5 minutes with each student in a 100 minute class. The smallest class I've had while subbing has been 22 and the largest has been 41.

3. Teachers can't leave to go get lunch, can't take a break for lunch, or whatever when they want - unless its a planning period. Can't go to the bathroom if students are in your classroom which can sometimes be as much as 4.5 hours in a row, though 3:20 to 4:05 is more common.

4. Start time. My school district's high schools start at 7:25, teachers have to be there by 7 in the morning. This means my morning runs get done at 5 am, so its dark for almost the entire school year and dark and cold for like 2/3 of it.

There are a lot of positives in teaching too that I won't go into here. If you really enjoy education, but not teaching maybe consider working at a museum or similar place.

My guess is you got in to teaching because you thought it would be easy. Now that you realize that its hard work you are screwed because you can't think of anything easier to do and you aren't good at anything else plus you spent 5 years getting a degree in it. Don't worry soon you will just become another bad jaded teacher waiting out their 20 years for a crappy pension.

Stick with it though....the 3 months of paid vacation is pretty nice.

I taught high school for two years just out of college in the late 80's. I feel sorry for the OP, but I understand. At the core of much of the dislike of teaching is the disrespect that is much more prevalent now than when I taught. I see it where I now coach high school, and it has destroyed any desire to return to the classroom. But when I taught, EVERY day flew by. Most days, I couldn't believe I was getting paid to teach and coach.

Part of the attraction was that it was a Catholic school. It was all boys in a white urban neighborhood (with about 15-20% minority) with mostly tough kids. Still, the kids were generally well behaved.

Discipline was strong, the path of Christ could be referred to every day and there was an unmistakable understanding of the importance of the authority of the teachers. My smallest class had 38 boys. The largest had 44. There were still teachers using corporal punishment at this high school when I taught. One week into my first year, a mom at the "Meet the Teacher Night" told me in her thick Irish brogue that her son Pat had the hardest skull of her 10 kids, and don't be shy about getting his attention by driving some sense into his head with my hand.

I got to school at about 6:30 to 6:45 when it was still fairly quiet. I would do whatever paperwork was undone (track season was the toughest) and be in my 1st period classroom very early. Sometimes, a track kid would come in just to talk, or occasionally a student would stop by for extra help.

I would usually leave at around 6:00 after practice. Meet days of course went much longer. No matter how late I got home, there were always papers to grade or preparation to be done. I ran an optional remedial grammar class my second year in the evening because the kids in the (non prep/honors) class were so poorly educated in basic grammar.

It wasn't perfect and I had my share of challenges, but it was as much fun I've ever had when I was receiving a paycheck. To the OP's point, I see how things have changed.

Not that this is the OP's issue, but some people are not cut out for the disciplinary side of teaching. Without a strong presence by the teacher and the firm backing of the school, teaching and learning can get dicier.

Reading through this tread make me sad. I havent been in the classroom in 10 yrs, but I see so many others on here that arent, or are thinking of leaving- none of it due to pay, or long hours. Its mostly due to work conditions.

It's a shame because I think there are lots of people out there with a ton to offer (I know I coached XC and Track for a grand total of $1200), but the conditions are such that we find other things to do where we dont have to put up with that stuff.

What you end up with is a school full of people that arent there because they are the best teachers, they're what's left over because they are simply too scared(or unable)to do something else.

You would have to take time off work or you wouldn't make it? Oh boo freakin' hoo. Man up. You think you have it harder than everyone else with summers odd, spring break, and Christmas breaks. What is so much damn harder about teaching than anything else. Would you rather be a ER doctor, trauma surgeon, criminal attorney? Talk about stress and having to deal with scum. Oh, but go ahead and continue to think your administrators don't understand or that your kids don't give you the respect you think you deserve.

I'm the first one to get p!ssed off at teachers for constantly making themselves into martyrs, but comparing teachers to trauma surgeons, criminal defense attorneys, ER docs isn't really on point.

Teachers are more like prison guards mixed with day care workers. I dont think anyone would say either of those two jobs is "low stress" but a different kind of stress than say a Navy test pilot.

In the 1980's only the worst of my students majored in math ed. Teacher pay was in the basement. By the mid 90's about half of my best students were majoring in math ed.Teacher pay had improved. Now, we are back to the worst of my students majoring in math ed. Occasionally a very good one starts out in math ed., and then switches to something else. Student teaching, ed. courses, and the culture kills their desire to teach math at the high school level.

... and also, my best students come from schools that have the sharpest teachers. The future does not look good.

Brazo, do you hate teaching, or do youhate trying to get information into heads that do not want to learn?

For awhile now Ive been saying that the way we approach secondary education need to be completely redesigned and refocused. We've tried to make education more about a social experiment as the primary goal than really educating students for skills needed as adults.

And those skills are not the same for everyone (SURPRISE!!) Some folks will need real world vocational training, and this is not a bad thing!

I sincerely believe that if high school were made to be real and relevant to more young people they would be dialed in and focused. Instead what we do is feed them a lot of stuff that is completely extraneous to them and their lives and their future adult lives so they tune out (and rightly so.)

I taught four years in a small, Catholic high school before getting burned out and leaving the profession. I'm now in grad school chasing some bullshit masters degree which will not help my chances of future employment.

No one has mentioned the REPETITION factor in secondary school teaching, where you basically have to say the same thing all day long for 5 or more periods.

I think that's what got me in the end, not the discipline or lack of administrative/parental support. I did not feel like an expert in my subject area and would have to almost script my entire lesson and then repeat it ad nauseum for the entire workday.

My last year, the seniors were just intolerable. They began tuning me out, nobody cared. I still think that's because I sucked at being a teacher, despite having the noblest intentions to educate.

vdfvd wrote:

I taught four years in a small, Catholic high school before getting burned out and leaving the profession. I'm now in grad school chasing some bullshit masters degree which will not help my chances of future employment.

No one has mentioned the REPETITION factor in secondary school teaching, where you basically have to say the same thing all day long for 5 or more periods.

I think that's what got me in the end, not the discipline or lack of administrative/parental support. I did not feel like an expert in my subject area and would have to almost script my entire lesson and then repeat it ad nauseum for the entire workday.

My last year, the seniors were just intolerable. They began tuning me out, nobody cared. I still think that's because I sucked at being a teacher, despite having the noblest intentions to educate.

I should have added this to my list, repetition can make the school days monotonous - it helps if you teach 2 or 3 different classes, though that adds work. However, teaching is a lot less repetitious than many other jobs. Think how repetitious filling out forms, going through files, all those office jobs are. Working with the general public can be pretty monotonous too.

I can see in practice that many of you so called "teachers" hate to teach in that my children constantly come home with homework that requires me to spend hours of MY time teaching/tutoring them. My kids frequently come home with massive quantities of homework that require me to teach them because their teachers have either 1) taught the material incorrectly/ineptly; 2) have not yet taught the material and instead want me to take the first pass (i.e., to ease their efforts in subsequent days); or 3) have taught it in part in an attempt to teach to a lower, basic level and expect the parents to pick up the slack.

I am in my 7th year of teaching. I will say for the most part that I enjoy my job. To be honest I can deal with the disrespect, administration, and lack of discipline in the school. The thing that bothers the most about being a teacher is the misconception that the public has about how easy it is.

As far as the hours. School starts at 8:30 this means that I have to be there at 8:00. I get a 25 minute lunch of which I have to work in the cafeteria 25% of the time. The school day ends at 3:55 and I have to be at school until 4:15 as a teacher. I also coach but I look at that as volunteering like I do for my childs baseball team and not part of my school job because honestly I get paid $600 to coach cross country and $1000 to coach track. Now if you do the math you will see that I work about 7 hrs and 50 minutes a day. I have 5 minutes in between class periods that I am supposed to be in the hall way but I can go to the bathroom if I would like. I also have a 50 minute prep period in which I work the entire time so please lets not act like I don't do anything during this time. On most days I will get to school 30 minutes earlier as well and do work. I also put in probably 3-5 hours a week at home getting things done.

Now lets look at a general business job. This is just from what my friends have told me and all I can go by. MOst of mine work from 8-4:30. They get an hour lunch which a lot of times they stretch out to close to an hour and a half. This means that they are working 7 horus and 30 minutes a day or 7 hours. They go to get a snack when they want and go to the bathroom multiple times a day. They also tell me that almost every day they spend 30 minutes to a hour chatting with people they work with. None of my friends have to bring work home or work at home. A couple of them do have to stay late a few times a month however.

Now the money. Whether I get paid for 10 months or a year the fact is that yes I get paid $42,500 a year. That is pretty good money but I am in my 7th year. I have a mssters degree and honestly I have no chance of getting more than a $800 to $1000 pay raise a year.

In the business world however someone with my experience and education could possibly be making a good bit more on the other hand they may make as much as I. The place in which I see the greatest difference is that they will most likely be able to move up in the company and be making a good bit of money later on in life.

Summers off. I do get 2 months off! that is correct. Everyone saying there is three really needs to look at when school is in session and when the teachers are in session. I have to be at school a week before the students and stay a week after students get out. This means it really is 2 months not 3. Also during this past summer I had to go to two conferences for 4 days each and I had to attend 6 professional development days. This isn't bad at all but it is putting in almost 3 weeks of work during this "time off" that I have.

The thing that bothers me the most about my current job is that we are looking at going to incentive pay. One of the aspects to this is test scores. I teach high school biology and in my school there are two teachers. I teach the low level students and the other teacher teaches the upper level Pre AP students. To be honest I am damn good at teaching the low level gang banging students that I have. Just this year I have had 8 students who have commited crimes and are currently in jail. The thing though is that there is nothing that i could possible do to get my test scores as high as this other teachers. I will defnitely get my students to improve more but that doesn't matter.

I end my rant with a few other points. First off, my profession is one of the only ones that needs a substitute when I am absent which by the way I have to make sure to get material ready for. Secondly, if everyone thinks that being a teacher is so great then please come do my job I will switch you for a week. I enjoy learning about other aspects of the world. I will however come back because deep down I do like teaching.

irate taxpayer wrote:

I can see in practice that many of you so called "teachers" hate to teach in that my children constantly come home with homework that requires me to spend hours of MY time teaching/tutoring them..

The horror of taking responsibility for the education of your own children.

So yeah, you better do that because if your little chitlin decides to stay at home until he's 35 that's your burden, not mine.

Lets Gunner

Your post is not going to get one ounce of sympathy from the public. Not. One.

See everyone went to school, not everyone has been a tax accountant, or an attorney, truck driver, hospital administrator. We have a decent thumbnail sketch of what teachers do because we all spent 12 years watching them do it.

The description of your work day simply boils down to "I have to work hard." Well join the club, dude... we all do. And none of us have tenure either.

ataglance wrote:So yeah, you better do that because if your little chitlin decides to stay at home until he's 35 that's your burden, not mine.

My "chitlin" won't stay home until they are 35 y.o. because they have an engaged, hard-working, intelligent set of parents for role models. Nevertheless, teachers these days vs. yrs ago feel entitled to lessen their teaching burden by delegating work to parents. This strategy works for society only when parents are engaged, hard-working and intelligent. Further, teachers should keep in mind their salaries are in large part paid for by the very parents they are burdening/overwhelming with school work. Parents will eventually catch on and become resentful and less inclined to support teachers in their school districts.

You hate teaching because the grading system is a joke. It rewards memorizing over learning/application. Calvin nailed the education system in the following comic:

http://bestofcalvinandhobbes.com/2012/05/calvin-mocks-education-system-and-teacher/