Who has quit teaching in their 30s and gone off to successfully do something else?

If you are teaching sciences apply for a job with a wildlife or environmental concern.

There is no common core for science. He teaches English or Math.

You're probably not a very good teacher so if you have lost control of the kids over a few years, I agree that it's time to move on. It takes a very educated and gifted person to be a great teacher. If it's just the adults you hate, you're at the wrong school. You can always try moving schools.

I understand you pain. I'm not in my 30's (late 20's) but I taught High School Math for 5 years before having all the same problems you described and decided enough was enough. I did go back and get a Masters (for free) but I am now working in technology consulting. It's actually pretty flexible, I feel like I'm making a positive impact and I am a lot happier. The biggest thing is that it is more challenging in the ways that I enjoy being challenged and I feel like I have room to keep learning and continue to grow.

Your girlfriend does wrote:

There is no common core for science. He teaches English or Math.

You're probably not a very good teacher so if you have lost control of the kids over a few years, I agree that it's time to move on. It takes a very educated and gifted person to be a great teacher. If it's just the adults you hate, you're at the wrong school. You can always try moving schools.

You're right. I'm not a very good teacher because I don't give a shxt anymore.

Coaching is different. I could coach all day everyday until the end of my days.

"I'm not even sure what a modern education should be. You would think that with 11 years experience in public, private and charter schools and an Ivy League degree I would be able to answer this question. I cannot."

This is the crux of the problem in education today. There is no consensus, or even clear majority opinion, on the purpose of primary/secondary education. Educational change is driven by those in charge and that changes too frequently for any new approach to be done with fidelity and for long enough to accurately measure effectiveness.

Our politicians are largely in control of educational decisions. The extremes that make our presidential campaigns good entertainment make for wild changes in the world of education that typically only last for a few years. It makes it hard to buy into any new efforts as there is an underlying belief that they will be for naught as a new program will be implemented before the effects of the current one can even be measured.

In a society where thanks to cable tv/social media we usually consume news that only reinforces our own viewpoints, it's not clear to me how we even maintain a public educational system that is coherent and maintains the support of the community necessary to make it work.

To the OP - I don't have any answers for you. I did the opposite. I played the corporate engineering game until I was in my 30s and then went into education. I still feel that the investment I make into student's life has value that can never be wiped out. If that belief ever goes away, I'm out. Until then I proceed knowing there's BS in every profession, so you might as well do something that you believe has inherent value.

I want out wrote:

Your girlfriend does wrote:

There is no common core for science. He teaches English or Math.

You're probably not a very good teacher so if you have lost control of the kids over a few years, I agree that it's time to move on. It takes a very educated and gifted person to be a great teacher. If it's just the adults you hate, you're at the wrong school. You can always try moving schools.

You're right. I'm not a very good teacher because I don't give a shxt anymore.

Coaching is different. I could coach all day everyday until the end of my days.

I, yes, I teach English/Special Ed.

You went to Ivy League to end up teaching English and Special Ed? Ouch.

The misconception is the more educated or better degree make you a good teacher. It doesn't.

The answer to education is universal home school. One day simply stop public education throughout the country and close the doors. Within days parents would be losing it, not knowing what to do, how to discipline and having no one to blame for their inept parenting. Company output would come to a grinding halt as parents can no longer work 12-14 hour days.

Problem fixed.

Having homeschooled our child it is not the answer for everyone.

Op could Transition to professional trainning, or teach homeschoolers online.

Special ed is especially brutal on teachers. Add to that an average administration and it's no wonder you want to quit.

Try private school teaching. Find a good cultural fit and most of your dissatisfactions go away. Get to keep all the best parts of the job too!

I quit teaching at 31. I am now 34 and making more than twice as much as I made teaching. I am the lead content writer for a web design company. The trade-off is that I work a lot more days during the year, but the total time commitment is roughly the same.

Taught for five years beginning with middle school, then a first grade bilingual class, then back to middle school and then high school Spanish/History while coaching XC/soccer/track. Teaching as a man, even a coach, opens you up to bushwacking students and their mothers. With one word, one false accusation, they can ruin your career and tie you up even if innocent. I've seen it happen to about three other male teachers.

Luckily running led to a job with a top Fortune 10 company which had an ad hoc running team. I was a good enough local runner to be encouraged by a friend/salesman there to apply for a job which I got. It was an administrative job and as hard I as worked at it, I hated it. Vacation went from three months to two weeks. It was wait your turn for a better job when an opening came. I eventually went from administration, to a call center, to finance, to financial sales over a 25 year career. Finally, I was in over my head competing with MBAs while I had a BS in education and a BA in a foreign language.

Then my wife divorced me when a disc popped in my neck that had to be fused. She left me and the courts expected me to keep earning a six figure income to keep her in the lifestyle that she was accustomed to although I was transitioning back to teaching for a much needed break. While she had a Master's degree, she refused to work and family support was over $5,000 a month. It was hell. Lost 5 rental houses, $500,000 and became estranged from my kids until the juvenile court and guardian ad litem gave me custody of the youngest two so they could finish high school at age 19 and 21.

Taught for five years while my sons finished high school.

Now live on half of my pension as my ex got the other half. Not motivated to work another day of my life nor pay another dollar of taxes to support a government/court system that took it away.

Be careful what you work you choose and don't get married.

Damn man.

Curious to know. How did your wife turn out?

I quit after 2 years. I was teaching World History and coaching. I really enjoyed coaching but I seriously disliked the classroom.

I found a job working for the government. I make about as much as I made teaching, I still get a lot of holidays, weekends off, easy work schedule but significantly less stress and liability.

I do miss coaching the kids but I get to do a lot of my own running.

I should add that I was teaching in a pretty bad school. It was rotten in all aspects. The administration was openly hostile towards staff, the staff moral was terrrrrrible, and the students, well they were difficult, disinterested at best.

Everybody in the building was miserable.

Hello!

I use to teach but went back to school for IT and have worked at some prestigious companies while making $$$.

I worked at AT&T,Blackberry contracted at Google and some fortune 500 companies. I do some volunteering teaching on the side for ESL because Adults like to learn and its very rewarding. If you like teaching don't give up just move somewhere where your gifts will be appreciated and invested wisely.

I taught 6 years of high school in public and private. I left at 31 for law school. Now I am a lawyer and considering going back to teaching.

The driving factor for me is that schools are more full of hope and positive energy. Many people I have encountered in the real world are grinding out the days for the paycheck. When I was teaching, I was focused on doing the job, not what I was getting from the job. It makes a huge difference.

Find ways to make your job better as a teacher and stick with it.

The school (and school system) can make all the difference in the job. I have had friends that were on the verge of quitting the profession but they moved to new better, positive, functional schools and now they are re-energized.

Before you get out of the profession, work on getting out of your school

Two notable people that I can think of that quit teaching in there thirties and became successful are Bill Gates and Robert de Niro.