EDUCATION MATTERS: Teachers tell us why they left the classroom

Forcing education on all doesn’t add up

I taught high school math to seniors for five years. I’ve not returned because of the unpaid overtime hours required in order to meet the expectations from my students, their parents, my department head, the principal, the superintendent, and the state curriculum standards. Every year, more responsibility was piled on us while nothing was taken away. Planning times were shortened, more meetings were scheduled and tasks previously held by administration and counseling were being passed onto teachers. I always had hours of work ahead of me after the last bell.

More and more, I felt as though I was trying to handle deadbeat parents’ problems rather than my students’ problems. If we followed the lead of other countries like England, Ireland, Japan, China, France and Switzerland, we’d see that our model isn’t working. Students should be given a choice to continue higher (usually at age 15/16) into areas that they are interested in, not forced to complete 13 years of education in topics that they see absolutely no relevance in using in real life. Those who choose not to get more school right away, they will find other avenues to get an education when they’re ready: GEDs, two-year schools, associate degrees, online classes, intern/work study programs.

With more choices to help those who don’t want college, teachers can focus more on the ones who do want to be there, who do want to learn. When you get kids who like learning, teaching is a completely different experience … and when my “bad” kids were not there, I had a fun time with my kids. I loved teaching students. When they are willing, I will bend over backwards to help them understand something … but I cannot spend 90 percent of my efforts on the 30 percent who could care less.

I now am an academic adviser to college students. I also tutor math to a few high school and college students. I still love helping kids learn, but my stress level has gone down to almost nothing and I’m much happier now.

AMANDA ROLLASON, Cartersville

Discipline problem drove me from teaching

I retired from teaching in 1995 after 25 years as a reading specialist in DeKalb County. In the early years, I loved working with young children, even with the challenges of helping students who needed extra instruction in reading skills. But toward the end of my career, discipline was becoming more of a problem, and affected not only the quality of my teaching, but also my morale.

When you dread going to work in the morning, it’s time to retire. I have much admiration for those teachers who teach for 30 years, or more, but for me it was not an option, and I have no regrets about making that decision.

FRANCES SHUMAKE, Winder

Too much heaped on teacher’s plate

I have practiced law, been a Naval officer and a teacher. The finest and most ethical people I knew were teachers. The laziest, most dishonest, most evil people I knew were also teachers.

The reason I left teaching is that we were overly micro-managed. Everyone from the Legislature to Congress to supervisors on many levels gave us extra responsibilities, but nothing was ever taken off the plate. Instead of hiring teachers, school systems hire teacher supervisors who make more money and do not get to know what the teacher is actually doing in the classrooms. Teachers are frequently let go while supervisors remain forever. Teachers have huge educational debts to pay and in addition must frequently outfit their classrooms with their own paycheck.

Finally, it does not help teacher morale to have everyone from parents to supervisors to politicians make speeches about holding teachers accountable while doing nothing to help them with an increasingly difficult task.

ED GRIFFITH, Smyrna