Why do I hate Teaching?!?!

Ok I'll bite... I had a teaching job and I hated it. I hated just about everything other than coaching my XC team.

Every morning when the alarm went off I would spend that morning trying to think of a way to get a job doing just about anything than going into that school.

After one year I was done and I got a job in the "real world". Granted I dont get to coach, or have Summers off or the generous holidays and vacation; but I do get to run and I dont hate waking up in the morning.

To add to my own post:

I was in a school that was filled mostly with poor kids from not so great backgrounds, very few were college bound. I felt like I was asked to be more of a prison guard than a teacher.

The principal was a 1st Class @$$hole. That was not just my opinion, it was prevalent throughout the new and old teachers there.

I was only there for one school year, maybe year two would have been easier.

JackofAss, what is your new job?

I'm on the fence about teaching. I've been doing it for 9 years. I don't think I want to do it for the rest of my career. Why not? Well, here are some things I dislike:

Lack of respect from students (many students do respect me; in fact, most do. but the few that don't make me hate teaching sometimes).

Lack of support from administration (they just don't stand up for their staff).

B.S. from parents (when I was a kid, parents sided with the teacher; today, parents side with the kids, do their kids work, beg for their kids to be able to turn stuff in late for full credit, call admin to get kids out of trouble, etc.)

Meaningless change. Most of the "changes" in education have been calling an old thing by a new name, learning a new process to do the same thing. Plus, we gradually have become accustomed to expect less and less out of kids. I'm not against adapting to society and having real world applications, but students needs to learn. They need to know things. We shouldn't just learn skills. I think kids need to memorize some things. There are things you need to know to be an intelligent human being. There are things you need to know how to do to be an intelligent human being. I hate stupid people who say things like, "I stopped listening as soon as you started talking numbers because I just can't do math." Yes you can. Anyone can do math.

What else do I hate about teaching? Not the schedule. The schedule is great. In the winter, when I'm not coaching, I love being done early. I love going to work early. I love the time off.

But what else do I hate? Probably lots more. Those are just some examples to get you started.

Because you don't think that 3 months of paid vacation is enough?

JackOfAss wrote:

To add to my own post:

I was in a school that was filled mostly with poor kids from not so great backgrounds, very few were college bound. I felt like I was asked to be more of a prison guard than a teacher.

The principal was a 1st Class @$$hole. That was not just my opinion, it was prevalent throughout the new and old teachers there.

I was only there for one school year, maybe year two would have been easier.

Yes, year two would have been much easier. Year one of teaching is super hard no matter where you teach. All those things you learned in college? None of them really help. Neither did student teaching. The only way to learn to teach is to actually get in the classroom and do it. When you are a student teacher, you usually have a well-respected teacher backing you up.

sssssssss wrote:

Because you don't think that 3 months of paid vacation is enough?

Sigh. The "vacation" isn't paid. I get 9 paid sick days a year plus a few paid holidays. Don't get paid for summer break or winter break. Wanna read my contract? Do you get paid for the weekends?

While that is technically correct, most people (I was a teacher once upon a time too) consider the salary of a teacher to be a full-time salary. Doesn't really matter if you consider the money to be dished out to you over 9 months or over 12. $40,000 a year or whatever your salary is, is still $40,000 a year.To the OP and others here who don't like teaching secondary school kids. If you can, consider getting more education and teaching at the college level. WAY more students will give you respect at that level, even if you go to a college like Furman University. :)

dontflushwhileyousit wrote:

sssssssss wrote:

Because you don't think that 3 months of paid vacation is enough?

Sigh. The "vacation" isn't paid. I get 9 paid sick days a year plus a few paid holidays. Don't get paid for summer break or winter break. Wanna read my contract? Do you get paid for the weekends?

I think that teachers have the idea that they could be making a lot more money "in the real world". It's a grass is greener thing. In the real world you also have to deal with bad bosses, bad customers, and you might not get good benefits. Maybe the job doesn't mesh with the personality.

I don't necessarily like teaching a lot, but there aren't really any real world jobs that appeal to me. I think that it would have been different if I had studied something different in college. Maybe I could have studied geography or geology and worked in those fields and enjoyed it.

I'm not sure I'd call teaching (in the public education system) a "real world" job.

ballpeen wrote:

I'm not sure I'd call teaching (in the public education system) a "real world" job.

Nice reading comprehension. If only you had better teachers...

ballpeen wrote:

I'm not sure I'd call teaching (in the public education system) a "real world" job.

I think that you didn't understand my post.

Fact is, after working a few years, teachers make a years salary in 9months so in fact, you do get three months vacation even if it dkesn't read that way in your contract...and most teachers don't work 8 hour days.

I wonder if primary school teachers like their jobs more than secondary school teachers.

because it is difficult and you are a coddled/spoiled child.

http://unicornfree.com/2012/why-blacksmiths-are-better-at-startups-than-you

um, duh wrote:

Fact is, after working a few years, teachers make a years salary in 9months so in fact, you do get three months vacation even if it dkesn't read that way in your contract...and most teachers don't work 8 hour days.

Um, to call it a year's salary isn't necessarily accurate. I'm paid for my time, not for my time off. Yes, I might make more than the average salary in the nation, but that doesn't mean that I am paid for the whole year. If the school year were extended by three months, teachers would certainly get paid more. Well, actually, tons of teachers would be fired (and lots would quit) to adjust to the increased cost, but you know what I mean.

I worked for 10 years out of college in the "corporate" world. I got laid off in 2008 and went back to school, got my master's and became a HS science teacher. In my experience, bosses in the corporate world tend to be better qualified to tell their staff what to do than most HS administrators.

That said, I am never giving up my summers again. Even though my days are much more demanding as a teacher than they were working in an office at a desk, I'll do that for the rest of my life to save those summers.

I'm a teacher and today I was the worst day of my 14 year career. All of my colleagues agreed- mostly because of some very stupid administrative decisions.

We all also agreed that it is still the greatest job any of us have ever had.

We are unique in that 5 of us had other careers before teaching.

I made it a point to tell my students how much I like them and enjoy spending my time with them- they all know were negatively effected by the decisions, too.

I can't imagine NOT loving this job.

Progressive public education is a parody of what real education ought to be. The system drives smart, motivated teachers out of the profession and rewards horrible educators who want to stagnate. The system as we currently know it cannot be fixed and will NEVER get better.

um, duh wrote:

Fact is, after working a few years, teachers make a years salary in 9months so in fact, you do get three months vacation even if it dkesn't read that way in your contract...and most teachers don't work 8 hour days.

Fact: No, teachers salary's are based on 10 months of employment. If they worked the two months in the summer then they would get paid more. They don't work those two months so they do not get paid more. I don't understand why this is hard to understand. They are ten month employees plain and simple.

Fact: Most private sector workers don't work anywhere near 8 hours a day either. So what's your point? I teacher 4:30 Hours a day. I have a 1:30 planing period. I have to stand and watch kids eat as I eat for 30 minutes. I am required to be at work 30 minutes before the bell and can't leave before 30 minutes after the bell. We want count the required two hour tutoring season I have to do every Wednesday. That's roughly 7:30 hours a day of work. But unlike private sector employees I can't take an hour lunch break, stand around the water cooler talking, and heaven forbid I take a bathroom break when I actually have to go.

But I do love my job. I'm willing to bet if you took summer breaks away you would lose 75% of the teachers. The job's hassles would not be worth it. I'd love to trade my 1.2% raise last year for the average private sector raise over the same time period. In bad times people hate teachers but no one wants to be a teacher in the good times.