Teacher explains why people are quitting the education profession: 'It's not even funny anymore'

The teaching profession is one of the most respected positions in the world. Teachers contribute to society by shaping the young minds of tomorrow. However, in recent years, teachers have been struggling to make ends meet with less pay and lack of support. Ali, a teacher by profession is highlighting these issues and explaining why teachers are quitting the education profession on a large scale. She says that several people ask her why would someone go to grad school to be a teacher and become one if they hate teaching. Ali—who goes by @teachinyour20s on TikTok—explains that the very basis of this question is wrong as she doesn't know one teacher who is on the brink of quitting or is going to school to change professions because the person hates "teaching."

She is surprised that people are so out of touch with reality. The main reasons people become teachers, as per the creator, are because of their love of teaching. She says, "We all love to teach. The problem is, teaching is not our job." People would be surprised to hear when she says that nowadays, being a teacher involves everything but teaching. She says, "We try to teach. If our job was simply just lesson planning, prepping for standards, prepping lessons and teaching, I bet you we would all be a lot happier."

She shares that teachers are underpaid, undervalued and underappreciated. Ali says that people need to realize that the reality of the classroom is drastically different from what most people grew up with. She says, "Kids are so disrespectful. They do things and say things that I would have never as a child." She says that no actions are taken to solve this and many parents are not supportive. She explains that there are no boundaries to deal with crazy parents and teachers are so undersupported "that it's not even funny anymore." According to her, the respect people and communities had for teachers is not there anymore

She says, "The teaching profession right now is literally showing up and trying to teach all day, every day, while everything around you is trying to make it extremely difficult to do your job." She says that people don't have basic patience, grace, support and respect for teachers and people expect teachers to deal with all of it. She concludes with mentioning that teachers can't do anything but watch the education system crumble because they can't take it anymore.

People have a lot to share about the matter. @cdorn1 wrote, "I'm so sad for current teachers. Retired 15-20 years ago, I did teach and I loved it. Everything you say is spot on." @gabysoto_789 shared, "We're in February and my 'teaching' has become more of 'let's review rules and expectations and talk about how to handle different situations.'" @la.taylor03 echoed the sentiment and said, "I'm an English teacher in Argentina and I just can't believe you're describing the same situation teachers here go through every day." @byefeliciiia noted, "Yeah. It feels as if you get to teach about 20% of the time while the other 80% is spent dealing with teenage hormones, judgy parents who are mostly out of touch with reality or their kids."

You can follow Ali (@teachinyour20s) on TikTok for content about teaching and mental health.

This article originally appeared 5 months ago.