Response

I want to respond to the person who said that it made them sad to hear me talk about teaching, because they love their job. I am not trying to in any way critique teaching as a profession or teachers who love their jobs and are fantastic at it. I was a pretty good teacher, but my heart wasn't in it. And when you aren't there to do your best and give your all, it's time to go.

I love a lot of aspects of teaching, but you have to agree, there sure is a lot of non-teaching going on in the classroom these days that really makes it hard to get to what you love about the job. The teaching part, that is. I also missed the team aspect of work. Teaching is by and large a very individual, and often times lonely, profession. And, another thing, I miss merit-based pay. My mom just said yesterday "It's really true, you don't do it for the money." And I exploded. Actually, that's EXACTLY why people work. For the money. It's often a bonus when you loooove your job. It's total bullshit that people should have to put up with that attitude, that teachers have to wait it out for years to get a raise, that there are no bonuses, no monetary incentives for working hard and getting results. If I were to be a volunteer I would be in Louisiana. The people educating the kids are not volunteers, they work damn hard and they should be paid accordingly. However, as a female-dominated industry, much like nursing, you can bet that won't happen in our lifetime. I applaud those who go into teaching, because I think if you love it that's what you should do. I also think that you should recognize my leaving as a good thing, because there are plenty of apathetic teachers who don't leave, and they are doing a disservice to each and every one of their students and fellow teachers by skating by in a job that demands more than they are willing to give, but who stick with it because they can, because they are waiting to retire or whatever. Most of my friends are teachers and love their work. It wasn't for me, but it doesn't mean it wasn't a great experience and something I took a lot from and that taught me a great deal as well.