Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

I want to link to an article to reinforce some points I made in a previous article.

Teachers leaving profession in droves

Teachers stifled by bureaucracy and blocked from making decisions in their own classrooms are leaving teaching in droves, according to a new study by Cal State University’s Teacher Quality Institute.
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In the Bay Area, the sky-high cost of living and comparatively low salaries also make it hard for new teachers to stick it out, particularly in rough conditions.

Sabrina Walasek loved teaching middle school science and math in Daly City and Felton, near Santa Cruz. But after six years, the Oakland resident found herself worn out from keeping kids in check .

“The amount of energy spent on discipline and behavior management just got to me after a while,” Walasek said.

The stress wasn’t worth the pay, she said.

“It was almost impossible to exist in the Bay Area on that salary,” Walasek said.

I don’t intend this post to make any judgments about the teachers, their situation, or their motives. But I did notice that the reasons many teachers seem to be leaving their jobs are the same reasons I left my job in education. Just an observation, but obviously I have a lot of lingering thoughts and feelings about that past situation.

Here was the real kicker in the article, at least for me:

The 1,900 teachers surveyed by the institute said they left mainly because of the endless amounts of paperwork, constant interruptions and fruitless meetings that take time away from actual instruction, said Ken Futernick, principal author of the study and director of K-12 Studies at the institute.

Welcome to just about every other job in America. In this respect, you’re not unusual.