drove him out of teaching. Wish I had the happy story you were looking for. I hope your husband finds a way to make it work!

I just don't think people who aren't close friends with a public school teacher know how bad it is, or would stand up for teachers if they tried to stand up for themselves.

in South Florida, and from what she tells me it is definitely stressful. I could not handle it. I give a lot of credit to all teachers. They should all make much more money.

that I felt ready to go back to work, I had already seen what my husband had gone through so decided it was not for me after all. I'm just not good with that level of stress.

Kudos to your daughter for being able to stick it out!

Quit before you burn out.

both during and quitting.

Then the principal and I agreed I shouldn't be teaching.

Then I had my nervous breakdown.

A borderline Aspie will slowly lose his mind attempting to socialize a classroom.

You actually have to experience "the system" firsthand to appreciate just how toxic it can be.

Teaching is NOT like other jobs or careers.

Start networking, update your resume, hire a professional head hunter and listen to them and not what you want to hear.

If you think the school system has changed, the corporate world is going to standup tablet counters, instead of desk or qubes. You probably will end up working for a jobber not for a company you are performing services for..

Also if your are near or over 50+ your not going to get anything but min wage. I wish I could be more helpful but I think you need a wakeup call.

"If you think the school system has changed, the corporate world is going to standup tablet counters, instead of desk or qubes."

Someone's responsible for sucking the joy out of teaching and I think it's high executives pushing for privatization and trying to justify their pay and position.

Common Core is Gates Foundation through and through.

And burned out. I chose an inner city school to work in, poured my heart and countless hours into it, and left before NCLB. I am no re-entering education after several years practicing law.

A couple of options (although I can't believe I'm suggesting this), there are many more options for teaching situations these days in quasi-public schools - some of which are trying to be innovative about different ways of teaching and evaluating.

The other option is that academic success programs at the college level are big right now. Some are reasonably well funded (my position is), and others not. Some schools are pouring money into retention of students who matriculate - I asked about the likelihood that my position would still be around in 5 years (the length of time I figured I needed to make the move worth it), and was told they are not even considering changing course until 2020. Experience teaching was one of the prerequisites for the position I started 2 weeks ago - and I was hired at 50+.

"products that can help every kid learn" It isn't materials, or packaged curricula or magic scripts............... it is the interaction between a well-prepared, motivated teacher and an equally ready motivated student. People send kids to school without proper sleep or nutrition, not able to speak the common language, undisciplined and barely civilized and wonder why schools can't make scholars of them. You call a parent and say "You child has bitten another student" and the parent says "oh yes he does that" WTF ~ I taught in Watts, in the 70's, in the projects where people told me it would be awful. Well, those women brought their kids to us ready to pat attention and learn. If there was a problem they were right on it and as a team we figured out what we needed to do. Now .... it is way different.
Teacher training should be difficult and weed out the slackers - then teachers should be paid like lawyers.... even if it means higher taxes. There are too many "administrators" and class size is way too large most places. It is not a business for profit..... it is a public trust.

He's going to finish this year and see how he feels at the end. I hope he can stand it.

High school... mostly seniors who were college-bound.

AP classes. Kids went to the Academies and Bigtime colleges.

The parents were helpful and supportive.. mostly.

Admin wasn't too fucked up. (Any teacher will tell you that's a glowing recommendation.) I got rave performance reviews.

I loved the kids, and I loved to perform. I have dozens of former students on FB... and I like most of them.

I'm not bragging here... stay with me.

I got damned lucky. I did 30 years and retired in 1998. Retired before I got over the hill.

If I had to teach today I would get the hell out. Teachers have always had dozens of daunting tasks every day, but now....? Too fucking much. Every asshole with money..(cough)Gates(cough) thinks he's a fucking expert. The RW is against "government" schools and is out to cut money.. and teachers. The religious assholes are pushing their theocratic agenda. Admin is nutless and gutless. The standardized tests are robbing us of our music, art, literature.... our culture. Whatever you do.. it's not good enough.

My advice to anybody being screwed over...? Get out. Get out while you still have your sanity and sense of self-worth. What that means for our society, I can't guess. If good teachers leave the profession, what will happen? I don't know, but who among us can ask superhuman efforts from mere humans?

Oh... one last thing. In my career, I vowed that I would never put up with physical danger to myself .... I didn't make it thru Vietnam to get clipped in a fucking classroom by some dumbshit, disturbed kid. If you teach in a school where such is possible... call in tomorrow and tell them you won't be back. That teacher killed in the Nevada middle school shooting was a brother Marine. He's a hero... but he's dead. Teaching today: All the bullshit you can imagine, and the opportunity to be a dead hero.

Thanks. These are the kind of things we're talking about. Wondering what happens if people like him leave and there's no historical memory -- you know, older teachers who remember what things were like 15 years ago.

The school district admin was glad to see guys like me go.

We knew - literally - who was sleeping with who.

We - several of us - saw the same lame ideas coming from admin... for the 4th or 5th time. All the acronyms you can imagine..
And we pointed their failures out to the admin.

We were just too senior to fuck with... we kept documents and diaries... we called in favors from school board members we had in class... or had their kids in our class.

It got so political that the classroom was a refuge.

After I retired, I imagined I'd sub or do guest shots. Nope... never been in a classroom since.

pay depends on years experience, level of education and certification.

He has a class of 100% low income and has most of them at or above their grade level. He NEEDS to be making more than his peers who, on average, can't touch those results.

There are four classrooms in his grade: one with all the gifted kids, one with all the bilingual kids, one with all the special ed kids, and one with everyone else. Those groups are not going to have even results so it wouldn't be fair to the teachers. He doesn't have the gifted students. And I exaggerated, about one third of the students came in the fall below grade level and are only catching up slowly. I know my husband though and I bet those students are at grade level at year's end or he'll hold them back.

and one or two whose foster families are abusive should be paid less because he or she doesn't get the same academic results?

Low income can mean many things. Low income in some neighborhoods does not preclude a good social network and a supportive home. Low income in other neighborhoods does. The OP's husband still deserves great credit for his achievements, but another teacher who does not match his achievements should not be punished solely for that fact.

Edited a second time to add: And to say that a teacher should be paid solely on how the kids do on the tests ignores all these other factors that teachers deal with every day.

I found that 1 kid in 10 was a violent sociopath. Given class sizes of 23, you'd likely have two in a class which would be somewhat manageable if you kept them separat34ed. As class sizes approached 30, you'd b3e4 approaching the chance of having 3, which was nearly impossible to manage. I taught classes of 60. Do the math.

I focused on my students, devised better ways to get work done, helped struggling colleagues, worked on committees, practiced smiling all the way to school every morning. I had 33 wonderful years and 4 difficult years. At the end of my 38th year I met with the new, very young former student who was now my principal. As I listened to him talk I suddenly realized that I wouldn't make it with him another year. His pompous demands and petulance would mean I would be on his shit list in 3 months. I went home and retired via the superintendent that night. When the boy principal heard he actually cried! The same guy who spent the previous day telling me how he would be the boss and my input was not appreciated. I'm so glad I left.

Please give your husband a hearty THANK YOU from me for being the great teacher he is. I think it's important that teachers acknowledge teachers because Lord knows administrators don't do it enough. I taught mostly middle school in the Los Angeles area for 20 years and retired in 2007. My motto was "2007 - a little bit of heaven."

In the last 7 or 8 of those years, I had to dig very deep to motivate myself as all the "instructional fads du jour" came and went. One day I sat down and figured out what I earned in one day after taxes. It wasn't a bad salary, and to keep going, I wrote that figure on a post-it attached to my IN box.

Then another day, another teacher and I composed a List of Life's Priorities:

Number 1 - Your health
Number 2 - Direct Deposit (a job!)
Number 3 - Friends and family (in that order)
Number 4 - Lunch (take time to refresh and recharge)

That list was also prominently posted. I actually showed it to my principal at the time, and she agreed with it and copied it.

So, all these years later, I have to say I don't regret my decision to retire even though I may have had a few more good years in me. I was lucky since I was a special ed teacher. I am still on a public school payroll as a home/hospital teacher. I go to kids' houses who are out of school for health reasons. No administrators, appreciative parents, no discipline problems, my own schedule, and much, much happier. Maybe there is such a program where you are - otherwise subbing may be a solution. Teachers call in sick A LOT, and who can blame them?

Best of luck to you both.

We have a repuke governor (Corbett) who has decimated the schools and imposed a new evaluation system on teachers. I am finally eligible to retire this year and I am counting the days!

I feel sorry for the younger teachers who have years of stress and aggravation ahead of them. It is a different world from when I started my career many years ago.

I really want to know how teachers with a lot of experience have seen the changes. I know what we have, but not what we've lost.

Three things that I think hurt the curriculum: High-stakes standardized testing, over-emphasis on standards, and punitive evaluation of teachers.

Teachers have lost all autonomy to use their best judgment, creativity, and just making learning fun again.

I don't teach an academic subject, so I don't have the pressures of testing, but I know how badly testing has hurt the off-core subjects.

And ... the new administrators are basically clueless automatons.

I taught in a great public HS for 36 years. The early years were the best, admin left you alone, you had some say over what you taught. Last 10 years...pure Hell from the administration. I had to lock my door and tune them out in order to get through the day. Although I had incredible test scores and results, they knew better.
When our Fashion Design major principal reorganized the curriculum and threw out the classics, I was done.
You have to know when it gets too toxic to stay.
Good for your hubby for all the good he does every day. Teachers get very little credit and the good ones devote their life to the craft. I now have a daughter who is in her 6th year of teaching who is already burning out because the admin expects that no child will ever fail. One of the best things that could happen in education is for administrators to have to teach at least a class a semester. Then they would know what the rest of us go through on a daily basis.

is broken. Until our politicians are willing to drop Race to the Top, Common Core Curriculum, and start properly funding our schools we are all screwed.