Negative Teachers Get Out

I have just read on twitter @MrLeBrun @TheWeirdTeacher have been discussing teachers proclivity to quit and write editorials to the newspaper proclaiming why they just couldn’t hack it anymore. We hear all the time about the outside interests taking over education. National lobbyists and government pushing their way into evaluations through standardized testing, sgos, slos, and the implementation of the common core. Boards of Education members are in charge of making decisions about the direction of schools without being required to have any knowledge or understanding of how schools run. There are millions of reasons why teachers are feeling the squeeze from every direction.

Really teaching is easy though!! Schools are unionized. The weak teachers are protected. All you have to do is get tenure. Then you can just float through doing nothing because getting rid of a bad teacher is a costly endeavor that is rarely done. Teachers only work 10 months a year. Their benefits are first rate and costly. They only work 6-7 hours a day. Out of that they get a lunch and a prep that combined can total 90 minutes. The easiest job is being a physical education teacher! After all those who can, do, those who can’t, teach, those who can’t teach, teach gym.

Teaching is the easiest job! My only question is why doesn’t everyone teach if the job is so easy? The reason is simple. It is because it is not as easy as people want to portray it. This blog is not about how hard it is teach or the amount of hours and money that a teacher puts in above and beyond their contractual obligations. It is about the burnt out teachers who have only negatives to say about the profession. It is about the teachers who can no longer connect with this generation of students coming through the schools. It is about ADHD becoming the norm. It is about technology furthering education and teaching not supplanting it. It is about teachers preparing kids for life not just for tests. It is about people who would teach for free if money were not a necessity. Teaching is an honorable job that when done right can change lives for the better. For all those that retired due to burnout I applaud you. We don’t need you in our schools creating negativity, dragging your feet when the inevitable change comes. We don’t want you in our classroom berating kids and whining about how things used to be. When I get there I hope some young punk teacher walks up to me and says you should quit and write a negative editorial whining about how teaching just isn’t what it used to be.