The filter comes off now.
I think it's easier for people to believe that I left teaching because of the lousy pay. It was easier for my former HR director to believe it was because I found something that I was more passionate about. Some would allow them to assume that... let them be comfortable in their assumptions because your truth may lead to discomfort of others. Well... I'm not some. That ain't me .
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Let me tell you why those who ooze passion for teaching are leaving the occupation like their hair is on fire...
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1. The old excuse "the kids have changed". No. No friggin way. Kids are kids. PARENTING has changed. SOCIETY has changed. The kids are just the innocent victims of that. Parents are working crazy hours, consumed by their devices, leaving kids in unstable parenting/coparenting situations, terrible media influences... and we are going to give the excuse that the KIDS have changed? What did we expect them to do? Kids behave in undesirable ways in the environment they feel safest. They test the water in the environment that they know their mistakes and behaviors will be treated with kindness and compassion. For those "well behaved" kids--they're throwing normal kid tantrums at home because it's safe. The kids flipping tables at school? They don't have a safe place at home. Our classrooms are the first place they've ever heard 'no', been given boundaries, shown love through respect. Cue "the kids have changed" 🙄.
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2. In the midst of all of this... our response is we need to be "21st Century" schools. 1 to 1 student to technology. Oh. Okay. So forget the basics of relationship building and hands on learning. Kids already can't read social cues and conduct themselves appropriately in social settings... let's toss more devices at them because it looks good on our website. During an interview, one division asked me "how are you with technology? That's important to us". Uhhh... I hear Bobo the chimpanzee is pretty tech savvy... I consider myself pretty great with kids 🙄.
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3. And since our technology approach doesn't seem to be working, teachers must need more training. So take away two planning periods a week. And render that time utterly worthless when it comes to ADDING to the quality of the instruction. Just this year, a new math assessment was introduced for K teachers. We had to attend a training on a school day (time missed with students) then it took us THREE WEEKS to administer it... one on one... to 21 students. Such. A. Waste. All of the info I could have told you about them without taking away from precious instructional time.
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4. Instead of holding parents accountable... and making them true partners, we've adopted a customer service mindset. I've seen the Facebook rants about attendance and getting "the letter". Well, here's the thing... I can't teach your child if he's not in school 🤷♀️. I was cussed out by parents who wanted to attend field trips but missed the THREE notes that went home--and when they did attend a trip, sat on their phone the entire time. I've had parents stand me up multiple times on Conference Days then call to tattle on me when I refused to offer an after school option. I've had parents tell me that I'm not allowed to tell their child 'no'...
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5. My mental and physical health was in jeopardy every.single.day. Knowing that your kids need and deserve more than they're getting. Sitting in one meeting after another, begging for more support, only to be told 'don't lose sleep over them'... when you LOVE your kids and are PASSIONATE about your mission... these messages tear you apart. Watching them come in... dirty clothes... chaos at home... and knowing they need more than you can give them in a classroom of 21, with less and less support, multple languages spoken, several different disabilities... it breaks you. We become emotional eaters. We become couch potatoes to zone out. We become so short fused that our families suffer.
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So... that's why.
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I finally realized... you can't save them all. You can't even help 21 if you aren't healthy yourself. If your mental and physical health aren't a focus, you aren't even good for the 21.
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I left my retirement fund... my paid sick leave (46 days left on the table, unpaid). I didn't leave for better pay.
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I decided to start with my 1 at home... and work to help other mommas be able to show up for their ones at home. Because... I really do believe it starts there ❤ I found something that allows me to impact the environments that those 21 go home to. I found something that I can make an impact with... that doesn't leave my tank empty, rendering me useless for others.
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I may have left the classroom... but I am still advocating for those kiddos. It just looks different now 😘
36 comments:
This is so absolutely 100% true! Yes, we need to start speaking up and being more honest about these things! I am a social worker and couldn't agree more! Well said!
Can't live in the past. Can't teach in the past. Teachers work with the hand they are dealt, just like every other profession. She couldn't adapt to today's changing values and cultures. She blames parents and parenting. Go figure. Looks like she a single mom herself. She, and other parent(s) like her are the problem, just like she says. She did the right thing. She couldn't teach anymore. She was done.
I totally agree with her, but she failed to mention Agenda 21/Common Core crap she's tasked with; tasked to feed this Indoctrination crap to our children...
Jessica explain, are you home schooling your kids? And 1:21 exactly how is she a problem?
Will written! I could not even imagine talking and treating my teachers the way they are treated now! I can recall a Saturday morning my algebra teacher showing up at my home to talk to
My father about my grades and actions in school and can you guess who paid the price,me! I went to Delmar wick was a great school and town and community and my teachers had the support of my family and to this day (I graduated in 88) I consider them as my friends and mentors. Thank God I wa was held responsible for my own actions!
Couple of observations on the post:
Parents and guardians are very much part of the problem. Kids get generally positive info and directions at school but when parents don't have similar goals, standards, habits the good from school doesn't get reinforced. And when the homelife is aggressively at variance with school the kid takes the path of least resistance, or what seems less work.
The author is accurate about the ed biz playing CYA by designing and installing elaborate models so all will get same instruction and that it will be documented so it can fend off the feral parents when Johnny or Susie come short of the ever lower standards.
1:21 is not comprehending. Too bad the author decided to step away from the formal classroom.
Raised Old School, but still involved in the current school.
Mr bob says:
I will be retiring in a year or so.
I hereby volunteer my services to walk up and down the school halls with a wooden paddle and will gladly indulge in "child abuse" (not the real kind,of course).
Just another part of parenting that was abandoned by parents.
well to begin with you say parents are the problem i would say some of it yes but the reason the kids act the way they do now is because to many people telling parents how to raise there kids. you cant touch your kid (spank them) unless you want to go to jail. when i was growing up my dad believed spare the rod spoil the child but now if you even look like you going to spank them someone and yes even you teachers call social service on the parent you teach the kids if they feel threaten at home come tell you and we will take care of the problem. next thing you know you have police knocking on your door and a welfare worker wanting to speak with the kids not the parents but with a kid that didn't get his or her way so no its not the parents fault its everyone's because we let government get involved in raising our kids
1:21 - Put the pipe down.
1:21 is obviously one of the new age parents who want to blame teachers. Education is just another system that is broken and the very Liberals who broke it like mr 1:21 have no clue how to fix it. My son decided it was safer to be a prison guard than to teach. At least the prison has structure and results for actions.
@ 1:21
LMAO, You are the exact thing she is talking about. The kids she teaches are not hers. The parents instill no discipline at home so the kids have no respect for authority. You're comment about "Can't live in the past, can't teach in the past" is so off base!.
So here's what happened. Liberals destroyed decorum, morals, discipline, and morality. They killed the family, esp. the black family. And then they made the teachers pick up the slack. It was all the plan to destory the family and replace it with the State.
People forget that MOST education happens at HOME.
has nothing to do with the looney left wing teachers my kid has at bennett high? didn't think so!
idiots like them as role models / teachers helps immensely!
I’d say Ms Gentry presents a great case. Best wishes. Btw, your hot!
This is what we have become. Imagine where we’re gonna be in another 10-15 years
Working in the school system we hear and see a lot from the kids. There are too many single parent families where mom has two jobs and is not home to help her kids. Then the kids get involved in the streets, gangs, video violence and then they try to emulate! I am not a male chauvinist, but in really tough schools, they need a strong male principal. These kids deal with women all the time, so,they don’t pay attention to them. Also, the government needs to keep out and let the school system do what is necessary to keep the kids and teachers safe! Trouble makers need to be dealt with no matter of color, or gender!
Just look at her and those dinga ling clothes and clueless look. You want some respect dress for the part. These kids would shit if they had to deal with mean Nun's in Catholic School the rulers the smackings the pinchings the before the class humiliation. The having to apply yourself and buck up. LOL the toughest of love. These frigid old bags married to Jesus had their own issues but they were serious teachers. Looking back I always wondered how they knew Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Physics and Walt Whitman and Poe. Thank goodness they did they saved a poor immigrant like me.
People have and make cruel demands of educators. I learned to read and write at home before I went to school and my mother was chastised for being the earliest of working mothers. House keeper cook and maid to all of us and mommie to her husband too.
My dad knocked me out for not Setting the table.... table was always set after that.
I fought three nuns at once when I was 14. They got the better of me but gave me the courage to become golden gloves champion. I will always respect them.
What "lousey" pay?
snowflakes! single moms working 2 jobs? definitely in the minority, how about single moms sitting at home smokin crack and watching their stories! total bs!
June 17, 2019 at 2:57 PM:
And you obviously have no idea who 1:21 is. Stick to what you KNOW, not what you think.
Teachers attend college knowing all to well what the job consists of and what the pay is! Then they get there and they cry about the pay, the parents and the system! I do believe the parents have responsibility for their kids action but the teachers have a job to do also! The same case can be made about workers that companies hire now a days but they still have to train them! I think teachers are paid fair, have great benefits, and a retirement package most people do not have. So if putting up with some unruly and smart mouth kids fluster you then you made the right decision to quit!
100k a year. Summers office. Pension and a separate 401. Full health,dental and optical. Sick, vacation, personal and holiday leave. All for 36 hours a week.
maybe they ought to address this in their union contract? oh that's right that union contract is a joke! teachers are not held to any standard other then don't touch a kid! works both ways!
Sounds like a snowflake millennial that thought teaching was going to be a gravy job, like going to college. She doesn't belong in a school if she can't handle it. And she admits she can't, only she wants to blame everybody else, but herself. No sympathy. She CHOSE the wrong profession. Go work in retail.
Isn't it funny that they talk about how great there school is, and yet their kids go to a private school.
It was this way when I was in school back in the eighties. I used to ride the school bus for Saint Peter and Paul school in Easton and rode the bus to finish out the last month of my Freshman year.
A lot of the kids riding on the bus were teachers kids! Knowing just how bad the public schools were back then and are today, if I had the means, I would have done the same.
Luckily I could at least afford to send them to a good christian school during their elementary school years so they had a good moral foundation.
You said, "the government needs to keep out and let the school system do..."
Get a clue, the school system is the government.
I KNOW 1:21 is an idiot.
The school system, along with families and all the horrific events that occur daily within our society are simply results of godlessness that has permeated every facet of our society. From the elimination of school prayer, attacking religious concepts, values and symbols, coupled with very little respect shown in any manner for a “third person authority” , and the Christian principles on which our Country was founded, what should we expect. Based on the path that as a Nation we are on and according to the message contained in the Book of Revelation, it is going to continue and even get worse.
Northwest Woodsman: I absolutely love this young woman and her comments appear to have upset a couple of butt hurt liberals commenting on this page. Truth sometimes hurts and this is one of those times. In all honesty, segregation worked and will still work if it were applied. Groups have different values, abilities, and interests. Trying to combine them in one classroom with one size fits all style of instruction is doomed to continue failure. Segregate students by group and I’d be willing to bet you would see a remarkable improvement.
@1:21 is an idiot
‘dingaling clothes and clueless look’?
who are you to judge??
*their
100k a year? Not around here! Or in 95÷ of school districts! 36 hours a week? Where is this teaching Utopia!?
My Daughter In Law is a teacher in Somerset County. I can guarantee you that she doesn't make $100.00 a year!!
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