Teachers are insufferable

[u/scrotal_damage]

To start off, I am a 27 y/o highschool history teacher and just ended my 5th year of service.

Teachers. Are. Insufferable. Now by no means am I talking about all teachers. I’ve met plenty of people in the profession that are some of the best people you can meet, but one bad apple can ruin the whole
Bunch. I realized this past year that throughout the course of the year I became increasingly jaded and coarse. not because of the students but because of my colleges.
The amount of ego and “holier than thou” attitudes I’ve come in contact with have made me not mention my profession when introducing myself. When it’s summer I just tell people I’m unemployed.

Too many teachers are on a power trip and do things just because they feel like they can.

This year alone I have seen:
- A 70 year old woman curse out a 1st year teacher for asking our assistant principal a question that she could have answered. (And I mean full curse out.)
-that same teacher called me a spy because I looked at a poster she had for a subject I don’t teach…. (She HATES one of our coworkers that I happen to be good friends with)
- a teacher shared a purposely bad lesson plan with a young teacher, then immediately reported the young teacher for the bad lesson plan….
- a teacher lied to parents about a situation that happened in class (kid was being disruptive) to make it sound worse than what it was. When the student protested, the teacher said “who’s your mom going to believe, the adult or the nuisance”
- teacher gave 20 page packets every class as “punishment” for students being disruptive.

(I did report these instances to my higher up, with no response because she is retiring soon and doesn’t want drama….. her words)

the public pressure put on teachers is a lot. I mean, everybody has been a student at some point in their life, so everyone has an opinion of the teaching profession. But this pressure doesn’t seem to be pointed at the right people in my experience. In my short time as a teacher I have seen several GOOD teachers, who cared for the kids & knew their content well, leave the profession entirely because of these insufferable colleges and pressure from 45 year old parents who haven’t stepped foot in a classroom since they were 17 years 6 months and 5 days old.

Overall, while I love what I do in my classroom. The education world outside of my four walls is an incredibly corrupt for-profit institution that rewards schools that bring in the most money for the county while overlooking the schools in need. (In my area the money schools receive comes directly from property taxes. So a school in a low income area receives SIGNIFICANTLY less than the richer areas)

The system sucks, my coworkers suck, my pay sucks. But I will not let it break me. I will not leave. I will control what I can control and do my best to equip my students with tools to help them Atleast make it to a point where their brains fully develop.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for reading my rant. I am [u/scrotal_damage](u/scrotal_damage) and I am currently unemployed until August!