A teacher explains why she gave up a career she loved
Teacher Jordan Kohanim left her school and her room with a white board that was a focal point for her students.
Jordan Kohanim is a former Fulton County high school teacher and one of my favorite posters on the blog because of her eloquence, her candor and her willingness to put her name behind her comments.
She quit teaching. Here, she tells us why:
By Jordan Kohanim
I have decided to quit teaching. Maybe not forever, but definitely for a year or two. This is not a decision I came to lightly, and I did not feel triumphant in it at all. To be frank, I had never felt more defeated in my life.
It’s true that I am statistic. More than 50 percent of teachers leave teaching in the first seven years. Most of those are in the first five years. This was year seven for me.
I told a colleague that I planned on leaving the profession and he told me something that really hurt at first. He said, “Your leaving won’t change anything.” Emphasis on the anything. It felt like an arrow through my heart.
In the long run, he’s right, though. That is part of the reason I am quitting. I know —ego drives us all — but I really thought I made a difference. And I did — for about a dozen or so kids, but there is no way I can make difference enough for long enough, all while keeping my sanity.
I have lost my faith in public education. That means it is time to walk away.
It started last year when I was chair of the student support team, which addresses the needs of struggling students. I watched the neediest of students get declined services, while the most deceptive of parents used their lawyers to manipulate the system into giving their children unfair advantage. I saw so many students and teachers hurt in this process, so many adults whose sole concern was not education or the well-being of children, so many lawyers and politicians who cared nothing about learning, that I broke.
I broke. No one can fix education when everyone just wants to sue. No one can fix a system where every success is countered with a failure. Where blame-shifting is status-quo. Where the responsibility for success and failure relies on everyone but the child. I became disgusted. I stopped doing the student support team and went back to just teaching full time.
I thought this last school year I would regain my love for teaching. Maybe it was too late.
My classes were too big. If I work six-hour days with no breaks, it takes 28 days to grade essays for my 159 students. That is for one semester. I am an English teacher. My kids must write. I must grade it. I actually enjoy grading, but 159 is too much, 28 days is too much.
Merit pay is coming, whether I like it or not. It is already in effect in other places. My dad says they have been threatening it for years and it hasn’t happened. Well, now it is tied to federal dollars for Georgia. So, like it or not — our kids are data points. They are numbers on someone’s spreadsheet.
Their purpose in school is not learning — it is education. And there is a difference between learning and education. I didn’t realize it before. I guess that makes me very naive.
When I coached debate my kids learned. They learned about rhetoric, philosophy, policy, government, language and discipline. I spent so many hours making sure they truly understood just how powerful those concepts are. Even that, though, was so much time. I did it alone. I neglected my family, myself.
That’s what this boils down to. My family comes first. I have given so much to other peoples’ families. I have fought so hard to always do the right thing — and to be honest, I’m tired. I can’t do this job half-way. I just can’t. It’s too important. It means too much.
My husband stood up to his boss and moved to a better company. I guess I am doing the same thing. Funny, I don’t feel as victorious. I just feel sad and a little angry, but not satisfied.
This isn’t a decision I am proud of. I will ultimately be happier for leaving teaching. I will make more money, I will have more time and I will no longer neglect myself for the sake of others’ children. I would like to go back some day when the system finally figures out how lucky it is that people are willing to teach.
Maybe I could have found a different school. Maybe I should have gone to private school. Maybe I should just move on and not look back. That will be difficult, though.
On the bright side, I have a new job. It’s actually a lot like teaching — I just educate my clients on their health and Medicare supplement insurance options. I still get to serve a group of people. They are just a different group of people. That being said, I cannot ignore that I am leaving a profession I love dearly. Everyone in my family has been part of public education. I viewed it as a calling. I guess now the call has changed its tune.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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320 comments Add your comment
Jumbo Mahone
June 22nd, 2012
8:56 am
You’re leaving over merit. I’m not teaching because of seniority. Education has been a cesspool and over time, the big chunks have floated to the top. The system needs a good clean out. A person with 30 years of diverse career and life backgrounds should be given an opportunity to earn the same salary that a stump with 30 years seniority earns now.
June 22nd, 2012
8:58 am
“Seems we have many X-teachers/malcontents now jumping on the bandwagon. Please, no more of these pitiful storys as my tear glands are working overtime. Its a virtual waterworks over here.”
Wow, way to really contribute there, douchebag.
You’re an IDIOT and contribute nothing
mark
June 22nd, 2012
9:00 am
Due to cuts in my teacher pay, I had to furlough my barber. When my principal asked if we would check our school email, “at least twice a week during the summer”, I did not have the heart to tell him due to budget cuts at my house, we are doing away with internet.
Starving Teachers Lawn Service is my summer gig, along with painting, pressure washing and another odd job I can round up. No more PLUs, no more lesson planning in the summer. I have to make money. when school starts in the fall, I will think about hands on, student driven lessons. But until then, I too have to fill my budget gaps.
Teaching is worse in FL
June 22nd, 2012
9:06 am
@8:58 sorry you took the bait…..just ignore the comments.
I took a break after 3 years and taught overseas. Made it back and taught again. If I wasn’t too old, I’d consider leaving and going back into the military……and least I was appreciated there.
I was shocked to see the largest number of retirements ever in my county-Forsyth. It’s not just a numbers game-there must be something to it.
Solutions
June 22nd, 2012
9:08 am
Oh, there is a pattern to the teacher complaints: bad students, bad parents, bad administrators, low salaries, no raises, but I was a bright spot — did I miss anything? Yet not one word on how to change the system, how to improve it, no strategic thinking, not even tactical thinking. I had hoped my suggestion that we limit free public education to no more than 10 years would spark some strategic thinking, but no. Nor was any thought given to IQ testing the teachers to screen out those with low IQ’s, or to IQ testing the students so they can be grouped for IQ appropriate education (with a provision that a student can waive the lower level education and choose to try the more difficult path set for the higher IQ children). The system is in failure mode, it is time to rethink the very concept of 14 years of free public education for all.
Lee
June 22nd, 2012
9:10 am
You know, all the years I was in business, every employee who quit ALWAYS blamed something else when the real reason was staring at them in the mirror. This lady is no different. She blames deceptive parents, lawyers, politicians, classes too large, and something that has not yet occurred – merit pay.
So, teaching was not for you. We get it. You were able to get out and get another job. Good for you. At the end of the day, your coworker was right – it will not change anything. The system will hire another warm body for the front of the class and the machine will chug along.
Teacher
June 22nd, 2012
9:11 am
“All these public sector employees think they should be exempt from hard work and/or earning their keep.”
@ Mortimer: So far I haven’t seen any of these “X-teacher/malcontents” say they quit teaching and are now sitting on their couch living off the government. They all left teaching to work hard and earn their keep at something other than teaching. Luckily there is a big world out there, and I commend all the teachers who have left the profession in order to find other work.
For the teachers still working in Georgia, I tip my hat to you. Keep working hard!
Mortimer Collins
June 22nd, 2012
9:16 am
LOL…So many of these “teachers” preaching to the choir, fanny-slapping and reinforcing their own delusions of grandeur…LOL.
This gets so old
June 22nd, 2012
9:22 am
My guess is “Jordan” has actually found herself a job at one of the teachers’ unions, cranking out endless soap opera filler for education blogs.
For union bosses and other Democrats, the battle against education reform continues—despite the recent setbacks in Louisiana and Wisconsin. Dues revenues are just too lucrative to give up. Taxpayers who expect more and parents who dream of giving their children a better chance in life be damned!
SGaDawgette
June 22nd, 2012
9:23 am
Mrs. Kohanim, please trust me when I tell you that at least one private school produces an identical environment. With a change of a word here and there, you have written my exact feelings on leaving that school and, quite possibly, the teaching profession forever. Best wishes moving forward.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
June 22nd, 2012
9:23 am
Jordan Kohanim
I am sorry to hear you are leaving. I have enjoyed reading your comments here, and feel I know a bit about you from what you have posted. Your situation is not very different from a lot of us, and believe me, if I had fewer years in, I would be looking into an alternative career too – and I am at a supportive school! Good luck in your new job. I hope you find peace and happiness.
I always find it odd that folks who say they want the best teachers in the classroom, seem unable to do anything but belittle teachers, even when it is obvious the teacher is one of the better ones. So much hate in the world. As my grandmother used to say, “You can’t stop the haters from hating, but you can be a light in the darkness.”
Be a light Ms. Kohanim
TeacherMom4
June 22nd, 2012
9:25 am
Ms. Kohanim, I am envious of your courage. For those who suggest changing schools, that is an option, but in this economy, open positions are a rarity. My county is not filling all vacancies, and our transfer window occurs before all openings are known. I interviewed for a job at a “better” school that turned out to be contingent upon a teacher there getting a transfer. Hers didn’t happen, so neither did mine. Sometimes you reach a point where the only way out of a situation is to quit, no matter how good you are.
Melanie Snow
June 22nd, 2012
9:28 am
I was a teacher with Jordan at the same school. Those of you that question her dedication and effectiveness as a teacher are not only wrong but are missing the point of this post. It is difficult to do our jobs when it has been decided to implement policies that do not help students learn or become better learners. For example the class size issue. Some thought cutting the budget by increasing class sizes was a good idea. It does save money by cutting back on the number of teachers needed but to what end. More students equal more grading, less one on one time, lower quality lessons, increased classroom management issues, increased safety issues (I was a Chemistry teacher), and less focus on the individual. In a 55 minute class with 32 students I physically could not give them each 2 minutes of my time. It isn’t that we are complaining that we have too much work, it is the complaint that the teaching quality is decreased because of constraints outside of our control. The frustration comes from wanting to continue providing a high quality education but that comes at a cost to us personally. Some of it also comes from the priorities of the administration. When students are pulled out of class to prepare for the graduation test it makes it clear that what I do in the classroom isn’t valued or respected. Jordan is a teacher that I look up to. She was one of a handful of teachers that I would try to model even though we taught different subjects. Only a teacher committed to the welfare of students would take on the added responsibility to run the student service meetings. Meetings where at times some teachers and even parents didn’t care enough about the student to show up. Jordan is an example of what mindless policies are doing to the classrooms in public education. Why isn’t it our priorty to give students everything they need to be successful and invest in the future of our country? If we think private schools are better why aren’t we copying that model to keep the best teachers and create the best learning environments for students? Look at the bigger picture. Do not attack this teacher but rather question what is driving great teachers like Jordan out of the classroom.
Maureen Downey
June 22nd, 2012
9:30 am
@Lee, The machine will chug along, but, as a parent, I have seen wonderful teacher leave and they are missed. We need to ask this question: Are we losing the most talented teachers, the ones who push boundaries, who make waves because they want more for their students, who are professional and expect to be treated as such? I think Jordan was one of those teachers.
When those teachers leave, we all lose. Because, as in any profession, there are only so many talented, top people. We ought to keep those people in all professions, medicine, journalism, law enforcement and teaching.
Maureen
Progressive Humanist
June 22nd, 2012
9:39 am
Solutions- Apparently you, like everyone else, whether they work at a gas station or in an office, think you’re an expert in education because you spent 12 years or so sitting in a classroom. Opinions are like a&%$*#s; everybody’s got one. The reason your suggestion didn’t spark “strategic thinking” is because it’s the kind of suggestion that comes from ill-informed people who know little about learning or teaching (like “Why don’t we just run education like a business” or “It’s simple- just pay teachers according to their performance- duh!”). Learn a little about the field of education and the extensive variables that public education deals with, as opposed to the limited, controlled variables that private schools are able to manipulate, and then come back and give us a realistic “solution”. See you in four years.
Allison
June 22nd, 2012
9:45 am
Once a man walked along a beach that was scattered with hundreds of starfish. He picked one up and threw it back in the ocean. His companion asked, “why bother? It’s so many, it won’t make a difference.” He answered, “it did to that one”.
Mountain Man
June 22nd, 2012
9:48 am
“We are a private school who takes everyone and charges half of what other private schools charge”
Yea, right, and I have a bridge in New York I want to sell you. You are comparing yourself to Public Schools? So you take everyone? You take SPED students? You take discipline cases (oh, no, you throw them out.)
I am not out to destroy public schools, but I make suggestions and no one listens. End social promotion. Enforce discipline. Enforce attendance. Grow a backbone and stand up to parents (like the father who said his son’s verbal assualt on a bus monitor was “a little mistake”). Evaluate teachers on their knowledge of the subject matter and their presentation skills, not on the “product”. End these crazy requirements of NCLB (dumbest name possible – how can you drag children along who WANT to be left behind). We see these suggestions made day in and day out in this blog, but schools always keep doing the opposite. That is why I say no high school student should EVER go to college and major in education, and certainly don’t expect to “make a difference”. You can’t. Only those who control the school system have the power to make a difference. And what you end up with there are the Beverly Halls and the Michele Rhees. Give up and find a better career path until schools come crashing down and THEN maybe changes will be made.
stainless
June 22nd, 2012
9:49 am
After reading all of these comments I think I see something that is being overlooked, in a big way. The teachers posting here almost unanimously cite the joy of making a difference as there reason for being a teacher. I’m not a teacher but I have kids. I get a sense that they are talking about that rush one gets when, with your help or wisdom, a child “gets” something complicated or counterintuitive. One can definitely get a kick out of that. I imagine that for difficult children that joy is compouned.
It seems to me that most of the teachers cite the ability to do that being taken away by bad management, administrators, laws etc.. and I think most of us whove dealt with bad management know how insidious their tactics can be and how their goals can be completely different, but abstractly aligned, with the mission statement. It seems to me that administration adds a level of chaos that should be examined more closely. Perhaps instead of paying teachers less, increasing class sizes and eliminating programs we should see if anything can be done about administrative mindset. I’ve heard complaints about teachers unions being too powerful and propping up a weak and underperforming system but how is that any worse than administrators and managers with too much power and misunderstanding or spreadsheet based approach to achieving the mission statement of teaching children well. As a very good public school math teacher once told me ” numbers don’t lie but you have to make sure you understand what they mean” I’ve encountered many managers that really have no idea how things work in the physical world but they get jobs managing things they don’t understand because they have some sort appropriate pedigree. Shouldn’t they be required to understand what they manage?
HS Math Teacher
June 22nd, 2012
9:50 am
With all the “experts” under the hood of education trying to fix perceived problems, it’s like getting a haircut from 5 drunk barbers at one time.
I fully understand this former Teacher’s exit from this mess. Retirement is near, thank the Good Lord.
Beverly Fraud
June 22nd, 2012
9:51 am
Ironically the ‘free marketers’ have it right. Not necessarily with ‘privatization’ (though a private consortium that could convince an asteroid to have a moment of Christ-like consciousness and sacrifice itself by imploding on every government education apparatus would no doubt be of benefit)
No Jordan leaving won’t change a thing. But the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Jordans who are exercising their ‘free market’ rights by leaving will eventually make an impact when teaching conditions become so bad that the only way to get someone to set foot in a classroom is to make it part of their probation terms.
You might even say, in some small way, good teachers LEAVING are doing more for their students in the long run than they are staying, as eventually their loss will be noticed.
Eventually.
drew (former teacher)
June 22nd, 2012
9:53 am
Maureen: “When those teachers leave, we all lose. Because, as in any profession, there are only so many talented, top people.”
And while the good teachers leave of their own accord, the bad ones cling like barnacles to a sinking ship.
Miss Priss!
June 22nd, 2012
9:54 am
Jordan, I’m feel your pain and disgust. I really do …
One day, right in the heat of a parent-teacher conference it finally happened: a mother answered her cell phone and kept talking. We all looked at each other, dumbly. I finally said to the mother, with a wave of my hand … Oh, please. Take your time.
I had a mother say to me about her son … Well, good luck with him, she said, because he’s one straaaaange little guy. He really was one strange little guy, so I wasn’t shocked at all when she muttered those words to me. But right in front of him?
The parents who complained about homework were the parents who were doing the homework.
Sometimes I gave out homework just to see the sneaky ways parents who did the homework would try to make it look like their child did the homework.
I worked for a principal once who was afraid of the parents and his teachers. He was visibly unnerved by the kids. Watching him get through the day was a source of unimaginable entertainment for every teacher in the building.
There are very few teachers and parents who are confident enough in themselves to give out tough love. The ones who are confident enough give it to themselves, too. That’s how they back it up.
Some parents are crazier than their kids. These folks have jobs and own homes and drive around in local traffic and go to Rotary meetings and go grocery shopping. You have to know the other things to look for to know they’re crazy, though. When you get good at it … all it takes is about ten seconds.
lovelyliz
June 22nd, 2012
9:55 am
I wasn’t going to be the high school math teacher who changed the world. I was going to be the high school math teacher who made a difference. I got my degree and within 5 years ended up in the military. I saw that as badly as we needed math teachers, it was all talk. When it’s cheaper to get the football coach to teach math or to increase the class size from 28 to 32 than it is to hire a qualified math teacher, that is what school districts will do.
I also noticed that while “those” kids were labeled problem children, it wasn’t “those” kids who to gave the most grief. Try disciplining a star athlete or the the child from those “good” families. You know, the ones who can run with a football or wear an outfit that costs more than you take home in a week.
Homeschooler
June 22nd, 2012
9:55 am
@ Solutions. I actually like your solution. Teach kids from age 6-16. Pre-K and Kindergarten is nice but unnecessary. Many of us learned to read and write in 1st grade and went on to be very successful academically. At 17 kids are either on the path to college or on another path (technical school, working etc..) Why wait until 18 to start working or going to technical school. At 17 you are essentially an adult. The government could pay for 12th grade for only those kids who academically deserve it. the 12 grade would be full of pre-college, bright, interested students. Right now we are paying for 14 yrs of education that could easily be taught in 11 yrs.
I’ve said before that another solution is hybrid situation for high schoolers. Kids should attend brick and mortar buildings 2-3 days a week and do the rest at home. This would instantly decrease the cost of utilities and transportation by half as well as many other costs.
Many don’t want to think outside the box or hear solutions.
More on topic I’m sorry for this teacher and wish her the best. Working for DFCS I can certainly relate to doing an undoable job. I can relate to too many people making decisions for all the wrong reasons and I can relate to your heart being totally committed to the kids and knowing that they are the ones who are suffering because you can’t do your job as it was meant to be done.
Mountain Man
June 22nd, 2012
9:57 am
“I will say that ” Only the dregs are left in public school” as one poster alluded to is not the case at my school. There are plenty of top notch hard working professional teachers that do the job everyday. ”
I am guessing you work at Walton High or Pope High in Cobb County, where every teacher would love to work – where the students are bright and dedicated and love to learn. I doubt seriously that you work in an inner-city school in APS, where conditions are just above POW camps.
Jimmy62
June 22nd, 2012
9:58 am
It’s time for a revolution in education. Students have changed, society has changed, technology has changed, the old ways won’t work any more. And there are too many stakeholders unwilling to allow the changes that are necessary. What are those changes? That’s not for me to answer, but I can tell you how to find those answers. Stop ruling education from the top, allow experimentation, allow change, allow innovation, if it ain’t broke, break it and put it back together better, and if it is broken already, make something new from the pieces. See what’s working and what’s not and let it evolve the same way life evolves in nature. The systems that survive will do so because they are better, and everyone else can copy their success.
It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be quick, but the route we are following now is also not easy, and not quick. and has the added disadvantage of having no hope.
Beverly Fraud
June 22nd, 2012
9:58 am
“You know, all the years I was in business, every employee who quit ALWAYS blamed something else when the real reason was staring at them in the mirror.”
Yes Lee I’m sure the people who quit working at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan quit NOT because of working conditions, but because they somehow failed to “look in the mirror.”
AlreadySheared
June 22nd, 2012
10:00 am
@Maureen,
I am a professional and I am treated like one (for the most part). Teachers are not treated like professionals.
Ron F.
June 22nd, 2012
10:08 am
@lovelyliz: that’s one of the reasons I volunteer to take all the classes labeled “at-risk”. Those kids genuinely want you to care and there is no deceptiveness in their actions. I’ve grown to love them over the years.
Jordan: It’s a shame to see you go. I’ve enjoyed your insight and perspective on this blog. In the end, you have to do what your heart tells you to do. I’m giving it one more year, and depending on how that goes, I too may find something else. It’s a scary thought, but I look ahead to the rollout of Georgia’s “new and improved” teacher evaluation model, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach that it’s going to be more and more about the dog and pony show and less about actually teaching kids. I love teaching, I love the kids I work with, and I can’t imagine what else I would do with my life. But when the focus is on a number and a process, and not on the child, then I too have to wonder if it’s worth it.
Solutions
June 22nd, 2012
10:09 am
Progressive Humanist – I have 8 years post high school education, and multiple degrees, but I thank my lucky stars, none in the mumbo jumbo field called education. All my degrees are in the sciences or engineering, a field where we solve problems on a daily basis, hence my blog handle of “Solutions.” If we are going to solve the education problem, we are going to have to think outside the education “box,” but no one in education seems to be capable of doing so. Too bad for you and your future. The world has well over seven billion people, many of them much smarter than you, and I can assure you that some of them are thinking outside the box, they will surpass America in almost all fields if we do not change this disaster called public education. As the host dies, so too do the parasites die.
Another tired English teacher
June 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
I, too, have been experiencing the growing despair over the teaching profession. So much so, that I was shocked when one of my teenage students yelled at me, “Stop trying so hard to get me to pass! I’m going to fail!” This said despite working with his parents who were also trying to work with him. I do have much administrative support but am frustrated with most parental attitudes that if students aren’t learning it is my fault, the school’s fault, “I’ll sue” attitude. Students ultimately are responsible for their own learning. I don’t teach the accelerated classes as a choice. I teach those that don’t want to learn, yet I am amazed at the educational neglect prevalent in society. I have had several students who could not read. Once I discovered this and contacted the parents and administration to find a solution, the student was withdrawn and sent to another school, most of them were exceptional athletes who weren’t making the grade. I am finding that I cannot fix a societal ill, yet I see it every day in the classroom. I cling to the few successes in hopes that it will carry me through the continuous failures. Somedays the failures seem overwhelming, and I contemplate the rewards in the greener pasture on the other side.
Mountain Man
June 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
“With all the “experts” under the hood of education trying to fix perceived problems, it’s like getting a haircut from 5 drunk barbers at one time.”
The problem with all the experts is that they will look at everything except the real problems. It is like getting a haircut from 5 drunk barbers who think that the hair is located on the feet.
Seriously – Beverly Hall and Michele Rhee – what did YOU do to solve the problem of absenteeism? Discipline problems? Social promotion? Did you support your teachers over the Nazi parents?
Hmmm…vast silence.
No, all they did was say – give me these results on the tests…OR ELSE.
Jack
June 22nd, 2012
10:14 am
Someone above mentioned the “core” problem. That problem won’t be discussed in this blog or any other public forum.
This gets so old
June 22nd, 2012
10:15 am
Someone once described teacher union meetings as venues “where middle-aged women with broad bottoms and unhappy home lives gather to carp about the unfairness of life.”
Perhaps it’s unfair that Jordan’s grousings bring it to mind. Perhaps not. But really, she does go on a bit too much about things her co-teachers learned to successfully accommodate.
One hopes she took that lesson to her new career—whatever it is.
Teacher
June 22nd, 2012
10:16 am
@ Mountain Man: Do you honestly think that education is the only system in which the suburban areas have better conditions than inner-city ones? Yes, there may be better teachers at better schools in higher socioeconomic areas, but tell me which industry this is not true in?
Can you fault teachers for wanting to teach at good schools???
Sigh...
June 22nd, 2012
10:18 am
In less than twenty years, this state will be nothing more than a bunch of Ayn Rands and Billy Madisons. And they’ll still be arguing about how its the teachers unions (that don’t exist) and liberals (who barely exist in this state) at fault for why Georgia is falling further and further behind its peers…
catlady
June 22nd, 2012
10:19 am
Jordan, I had sensed a difference in your postings. Now I know why.
“Your kids” are going to miss you. Your colleagues will also. I am glad, however, that you have recognized the need to step back. This “job” is the most important one there is, IMHO. And you can’t do a good job half-way. Some teachers respond by pulling their hearts back, and go through the motions. You are one who cannot, and I applaud you for recognizing it.
For the first time, I am thinking about leaving teaching also. I thought I would do it forever. But I find it is making me sick, literally ill, and I may have to leave because my body can’t take it. Even more important is my heart. I am angry too much at stupidlty and laziness and folks who won’t address the needs of the students who quite obviously, if you have ever been in a classroom before, have problems that are compromising their learning, and have been for 4-5 years. Being angry is a killer also.
Thank you, Jordan. Best wishes. Please keep on responding here, as you frequently bring light to the darkness and calm discourse to the frustration we feel.
Mountain Man
June 22nd, 2012
10:19 am
Solutions – since you are an “engineer”, imagine at your job you are told to build a building, but you are only given half the amount of money you need, told you are not allowed to use any metal or wood, your are not allowed to tell your construction workers to show up or not, and you are given a blueprint that was drawn up by a TEACHER, and told you must follow it to the letter, and then told if the building is not built on time and under budget, YOU WILL BE FIRED.
Go to it, man.
Mountain Man
June 22nd, 2012
10:23 am
“Can you fault teachers for wanting to teach at good schools???”
Certainly not. Of course a lot of Education students probably go into teaching thinking “I will teach in East Cobb or in a private school”. Unfortunately, there are very limited numbers of openings in those shools and, to find a job, they end up teaching in some hell-hole of a school and then leave after 5 years. But with this seemingly endless supply of new, rainbow-eyed teachers coming out of colleges, the administrations of those hell-holes think they don’t have to improve anything. No shortage of teachers.
Jimmy62
June 22nd, 2012
10:24 am
Sigh: Right, because this is the only state where teachers get frustrated and parents like to sue. It doesn’t happen anywhere else.
Cindy Spradlin
June 22nd, 2012
10:26 am
I, too, left two years ago after 34 years of teaching. I gave up my passion – working with young people – because I could no longer stand the politics of education. It was never about the kids, they were wonderful but the adults running the system weren’t interested in students. I believed in “learning for the knowledge, not the numbers” but in Fulton County, as in many places, it’s all about the numbers. The attitude of the leaders forces those who are in the classroom to become frustrated and despondent. I taught because I loved seeing that “ah-ha” moment when a student learned something new but eventually the politics crushed my spirit.
Nikole
June 22nd, 2012
10:27 am
I will no longer neglect myself for the sake of others’ children.
I am not leaving teaching, but I am going to live by this statement. When I am with my students, they will get ALL of me. I am extremely dedicated to their learning and well-being. In the 30 minutes after they have gone, I will complete paperwork and attend meetings. And when that time is up, I will be go home.
BlahBlahBlah
June 22nd, 2012
10:27 am
In 20 years public school will be like Medicaid: used only by people who have no other option. We are able to homeschool. Yesterday my wife said a friend of hers was asking her about homeschooling because she found out her kid’s kindergarten class would be 30 kids (Dekalb County) and she didn’t see it getting better any time soon.
Those with money will go private. Those with time will go the homeschool route. There are so many resources out there that nearly anyone can homeschool their kids at least through 7th-8th grade.
BlahBlahBlah
June 22nd, 2012
10:30 am
@Sigh…
Teacher’s unions may not exist in Georgia. But the insane tenure rules exist, and it’s a huge problem.
Cliff Higgins
June 22nd, 2012
10:32 am
to adam… poor misguided fellow. Your last statement pretty much sums up your lack of knowledge on what really goes on in schools. “Do what your principal tells you to do and teach !!!” Often, principals are hindrances to teaching and not helpful. I’ve been teaching 15 years. Schools are not educational institutions. They are political institutions. At the administrative level decisions are made based on outside pressures (community, parents, state/federal government regulations, etc.). My wife works in the corporate world and all of the same things exist. The difference is that in a company, there is a bottom line, profit. In education the bottom line of student learning is so obscured that it cannot be objectively and reliably measured anymore. I am with Jordan. I resigned my teaching job this year because of a truly poor administrator. I am not willing to play the political games that my (ex) principal is. Maybe I will teach again, maybe not.
This gets so old
June 22nd, 2012
10:34 am
@MountainMan: When tuition vouchers or something very like it come to Georgia … we will see the supply of private school seats (and teaching posts) expand the way only a free market can.
And parents will be happier with their (own) choices, as will teachers. Just not so much the union bosses and their champions on this blog.
Georgia Coach
June 22nd, 2012
10:35 am
@lovelyliz sometimes the football coach is a dern good teacher. Many us have the ability to relate to kids in a way that non-coaches can’t.
Nikole
June 22nd, 2012
10:36 am
OAN: I like how people have totally ignored Mortimer, adam or whatever other name this person is posting under. LOL The civil conversation just keeps moving as if he/she hasn’t said a word!
williebkind
June 22nd, 2012
10:39 am
Would it not be great if education was voluntary? Most teachers gripe and complain but it is the government involvement in schools that makes it a terrible work place. Public schools are a progressive liberals kingdom and it will never get better.
JB
June 22nd, 2012
10:39 am
I walked away from public education after being laid off every year for the first three years I taught. Never had I found a profession so against developing their employees! I taught in Chicago Public Schools and was always cut at the end of the year due to “projected low enrollment”. Some summers those turned out to be – instead of going to professional workshops and preparing for the next year, I was standing with thousands of other new teachers at job fairs, competing against them for just an interview. I was lucky the first year I got cut and was hired back by the school two days before school started. The following year…not so lucky. There were ten of us cut – I didn’t get a job until October. If I was a parent, that’s what I would be angry about – the turnover in schools, at least up in Chicago, is ridiculous. It wasn’t unusual for a teacher not to teach the same grade level year after year. I don’t know how you’re supposed to get good at your craft if you can’t go back and do it more than once! I miss teaching, and might go back, but I’m looking hard at private schools and moving to another state to do so. Large class sizes and teacher burn-out are some of the biggest challenges facing education today – it’s time teachers threw away the unions and began their own professional organization. As long as the states issue licenses and certifications, they hold the power. Teachers are professionals – it’s time they fulfilled that expectation! And Jordan – the best thing about not teaching is going to the bathroom WHENEVER YOU WANT! Enjoy it!