WEEK 26 - Why do teachers quit?

Why do teachers quit?

"I mean, seriously...they have so much vacation time, summers off, they only work from 8-3, they get benefits, a steady pay, and a nice pension. Teachers are so spoiled!"

How many times have you heard those words? I hear this a lot, and while some things are true (we get benefits, a steady pay, and a pension, and we're not technically on the clock during the summer), it still doesn't explain why the average career of a teacher is only 5 YEARS.

That's right 50% OF TEACHERS QUIT BY YEAR 5.

Yikes!

If all of the benefits listed above are so great, then why would half of all teachers bail, some even after gaining tenure? For those of you who think that teachers are pampered and should be paid less because students aren't doing as well as in the past, the aforementioned statistic indicates that teaching is probably not such a cakewalk as one might think. I mean, in order for someone to walk away from "such awesome benefits," it must mean that the job is harder than it seems.

So why do teachers quit?

Here is my 2 cents.

1. Paperwork
We do paperwork every time we have an observation, every time there is a substitute teacher, every time we have to order books, tissues, post-its, etc, every time we have a special ed student who needs to be evaluated, every time a student is not behaving well, and every fall, winter, and spring when we have to write our "professional development plans." There are more instances when paperwork has to be filled, but these are just the ones off the top of my head.

2. Changing curriculum
Believe it or not, most teachers can't simply reuse all of their materials year after year after year. Students change, attitudes change, cultures change, current events are different, state and federal standards change, and the district buys new books that are different. Another big factor is that there is always research "uncovering" the newest, best ways to teach.

Schools also often change. For example, Washburn recently became an International Baccalaureate school, and in a couple of years we will become a Middle Years Programme school. What this means is that all of our lessons have to fit the format of the IB and MYP programs. These programs also come with a host of new assessments that are...guess what? NEW to all of us. Even the most seasoned teachers at our school have been adjusting their curriculum to all of the changes.

3. Babysitting
Let's face it. Even though I teach high schoolers, sometimes I feel like I am babysitting kindergartners. For some reason, many students haven't been taught to value education and haven't been taught how to act appropriately in a school setting. When I call home to report on what little Johnny did in class, many times the parents don't know what to do either.

Also, I've got a good handful of students who have been mentally checked out most of the year, but there is absolutely nothing I can do but try and try and try to get them to do something.

4. Parents
It seems like there are 3 types of parents. The majority of parents fall under what I would call "normal" parents who care about their child's education and support their child's teachers.

The second is the "helicopter parent" who is far too involved in his/her child's life, micromanaging everything and questioning why their child got an A- on an assignment when "she clearly did the best she could." These parents many times put pressure on the teacher to give a higher grade than their child deserves.

The last parent is the absent or enabling parent. This parent either does not take an interest in their child's education or does not know how to instill the value of education in their child. This parent would also not think twice about calling or texting their child in the middle of class, and then would be angry at the teacher for not letting their child answer their phone in the middle of class (this happened to me 2 weeks ago).

5. Poor funding
Funding for education is being cut left and right. The result is that teachers are left with very few supplies, many times having to buy their own supplies. Last year alone I spent over $300 in supplies for my classroom. We are only 2 months into the calendar year and I am already at about $160. Yes, this is tax-deductible, but the fact that I have to make extra trips to the store because I don't have tissues or pencils for my classroom is not something most people realize we teachers have to do.

6. Class sizes
Another consequence of low funding is that class sizes are much larger now than they used to be. In my first year of teaching, most of my classes were between 33-36 students. That's A LOT OF BODIES and A LOT OF MINDS to shape. Also, it can be extremely stressful to have to grade 150 papers rather than 100 papers. One of my colleagues figured out that if she spent 5 minutes on each of her Spanish 3 students' essays, she'd spend 11 HOURS grading 1 assignment.

7. Pay
Yes, pay. Teachers in the US average about $50,000/yr salary. This is a nice, comfortable pay, in my opinion. Yet, it is far lower than what most people with similar educational degrees make. Many teachers have master's degrees, and could be making more in another field. For some, the amount of pay coupled with the amount of work is just not worth it, and they leave for greener pastures.

8. Social backlash
As students' scores go lower and lower, more and more vitriol is directed towards teachers. Many think that it's the teachers' fault that our students aren't performing on par with other nations' students. Teachers hear this and quite frankly, are spinning their wheels trying to do everything they can to get kids up to snuff in their academic abilities. But it is really unfair to place all the blame on the teachers, as teachers are not the only educators in a child's life. In order for a student to be successful, s/he needs to have the support of the family and the community, not just the teacher. When people start talking about slashing teacher pay because students aren't performing as well as they used to, the teachers who are doing everything they can start to think, "well, what's the point?"

9. Meetings
I wish I had tallied the amount of time I have spent in meetings this year. At the very least, we have 1.5 hours of meetings every week for staff, committee, or department meetings. On top of that, we have 1 IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting for every special education student (I have 18 this year). We have emergency meetings when there are incidents like brawls or racial incidents. When a student is not being successful in our class and is acting out, many times we have meetings with that student and a Dean, or with a parent. Meetings, meetings, meetings. If you're not a teacher, you have no idea...

10. That evil copy machine
Every business has one. Teaching is no different. Aaaaaarrrrgh. :)

My hours for week 26:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	2/17/2013			0
M	2/18/2013			0
T	2/19/2013	7:30 AM	5:00 PM	9.5
		6:30 PM	8:30 PM	2
		9:15 PM	9:45 PM	0.5
W	2/20/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
Th	2/21/2013	7:15 AM	5:45 PM	10.5
		6:30 PM	7:30 PM	1
		8:00 PM	9:30 PM	1.5
F	2/22/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
Sat	2/23/2013			0
	Total			42