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Quit teaching: The past few articles I’ve written have been controversial. 

The craziest response I’ve received has been, “Wow! Can tell you are young and have a long way to go! In fact get out now! Your students and parents deserve it…”

When I first read this response, my “irritated, frustrated, and over it” reaction was, “I’m already on the way out. Don’t worry.” 

But then, when I read it again, I got offended. 

Why? Because I’m not going anywhere. No matter how hard this job gets, I cannot bring myself to…leave. 

If you’re reading this article, you’ve faced the same crossroad but always chose the same path…to stay. 

In spite of the chaos, the behaviors, the administration, and the district, you have decided to stay. 

You and I have stayed. We might’ve changed districts and grade levels and moved to another country to try it somewhere else. “It can’t be like this everywhere!” you’ve told yourself, and yet it is. But still, we stay. 

Aside from benefits and a decent (if you’re lucky) paycheck, here are the reasons why we haven’t quit teaching.

Quit Teaching: We hope that it will get better

There have been times when I came home in tears from my day at school. I sat at my desk and sobbed. I’ve gone to co-workers and complained about all the changes that need to happen for the school to improve. 

There have been curriculums that made no sense and didn’t take into consideration the levels, learning strategies, or culture of my students, but I was expected to teach it to the best of my ability and ensure that students would meet mastery within a short period of time. 

I’ve worked late into many nights and gotten up early to finish. I scarfed down my lunches and ran from hall to hall, rushing to make copies, get water, use the bathroom, and pick up my class in two minutes or less because my planning period was taken once again. 

[bctt tweet=”But somewhere…DEEP DEEP DOWN inside of my teacher heart, I know that someday and in some way, it will get better. ” username=””]

But somewhere…DEEP DEEP DOWN inside my teacher’s heart, I know that someday and in some way, it will get better. 

I have no idea how or who will bring back the respect for educators in our lifetime, but I’m praying that, at some point, it will return. 

In that same DEEP DEEP place, I’m hoping that I’m in a classroom somewhere to see it. 

So do you. It’s a large part of why we haven’t quit teaching.

Whether you’re in the classroom, an administrator, or on Capitol Hill, you want to be a part of that change somehow.

We still view teaching as the high-esteem position it’s always been

The kids can be disrespectful. The parents are sometimes unbearable. Window watchers swear they know what teachers need the most, and to many of them, they believe we’re fine with what we’ve got. 

The respect for the educator’s position has been diminished in so many ways over the last 20+ years. From The White House to the schoolhouse, teachers have gone from professionals, esteemed for their impact on every child, teen, adult, and senior citizen, to people who get summer vacation and shouldn’t complain about the “good deal” we have. 

Excuse me as I roll my eyes.

I’m reminded of a great quote posted by the copy machine in my building. 

“Engineers Make Buildings. Artists Make Paintings. Scientists Make Rockets. But Teachers Make Them All.”

PERIOD.

A teacher touches the lives of youth in ways that many people can’t imagine and don’t have the heart to do. Every single president, ruler, dictator, Noble Peace Prize winner, New York Times Best Seller, magazine editor, and INCLUDING the Secretary of Education has come through a long line of teachers. Teachers spend day and night preparing lessons, gathering materials, checking papers, giving hugs, sending e-mails, and a million other tasks to ensure that each of the people in the positions listed above is well-prepared before being sent off into the world. 

Show me the most powerful man or woman in the world, and I’ll show you the long line of educators behind them who taught them how to get there. 

We refuse to let another child fall through the cracks

Not on my watch. 

It disturbs me for days when I see a video or article about another child taking their life. I think about all the life that the child had before them that they’ll never see. I think about the change teachers were meant to make in our world. Was it to cure cancer? Become the next president? 

When I receive new students each year, I’m passionate about teaching and encouraging them. I’m passionate about exposing them to new career paths and opportunities they’ve never heard of before entering my room. I desire to give them so much hope and wonder that when they leave my room at the end of the year, they realize that there is no glass ceiling and that possibilities are endless. 

Every student in our class has the ability to become the next president one day. There’s a chance that one of the students in our class can create a flying car, space stations for us to live on, or the next surgeon who performs a groundbreaking surgery. But there’s also a chance they become well-rounded people who make this world a better place by setting an example of being a model citizen, community advocate, or the house on the block where kids know they are safe.

As teachers, when we walk into our classrooms and turn on that light, we prepare to open the door to new possibilities. Students may talk while we teach, catch an attitude when we give out consequences, or even storm out of our rooms without permission. But when we return the next morning and turn on that same light, we never stop opening that door to new possibilities.

Hearing those “Oh I get it!” exclaims and the “Thank you for being my teacher” moments we all experience makes it all worth it. It’s why we haven’t quit teaching.

Understand this

To those outside the classroom looking in, this article isn’t for you to use against a teacher. Don’t use this article to take advantage of teachers’ pure hearts. 

Everyone still deserves conditions and a salary that helps us keep the lights on, our children fed, and our sanity intact. We go on strike, not because we don’t care about the education of our students, but because there’s no way we can pour out of an empty cup. We can’t be teachers, counselors, mediators, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, tutors, and nurses when our basic needs aren’t met. 

But it’s with tears in our eyes, blisters on our hands, hoarse voices, paper cuts, bad backs, and unpaid bills…you better believe we’re still going to teach our hearts out. 

Quit Teaching

With a deep commitment and passion for all things youth, Allyson began her teaching journey in 2014....

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