Gov't schools' doom loop: Good teachers quit while the nuts remain

It’s not easy being a public school teacher these days. Not only must they contend with often-conflicting demands from school boards and parents, but they are frequently unable (or not permitted) to discipline unruly students, must contend with a huge variety of culture and language distinctions, and must often intervene in instances of physical or psychological abuse. Teachers are also facing a massive influx of migrant children, making classrooms even more complicated.

“Teaching has turned into behavior management day care,” said one teacher. “It sucks the joy out of you all day, and then the parents are calling to suck out some more joy. A select handful of kids are incredible and fantastic. So many kids won’t turn anything in as in earning a literal 0 for the semester. While all of this is going on you’ll have admin and the network telling you the kids are failing because you didn’t set them up for success, you didn’t invent a new wheel, you didn’t take enough data, you didn’t love them into behaving better.”

Another person observed, “I feel like most teachers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The school administrators fail to protect their teachers from those overbearing parents demanding good grades for their child, regardless of whether or not they earned it. They can’t teach anything anymore for fear of some parent getting mad or taking offense. It’s a mess.”