30 Teachers Shared What The Last Straw That Led To Them Leaving Their Job Was

In a meeting with other English teachers, an admin said:

"6th grade will no longer be reading novels. It's not statistically proven to improve test scores."

If reading doesn't improve testing, your testing is wrong.

I had a student, maybe 11 or 12, sitting with me and having pizza. I asked how her life was going and she says "Well, my dad's a [substance] dealer so he's always got people coming over to sell or buy [substances] or play cards so I can't sleep. My mom's dying because she has a hole in her heart and they can't fix it. And I have a boyfriend but I'm afraid to tell my mom because she'll tell my dad and he'll beat me." Just normal, like this was everyday stuff.

So, as a mandatory reporter I go to my Dean of Students and tell him all this, and he just gets irritated and goes "Yeah, but that doesn't excuse her behavior."

That's when I knew I was done.

Two 16 year old kids were facing each other (I had the classroom seats in a U shape) and were silently challenging each other to fight while I was in the middle of a lesson. They suddenly jumped up from their chairs and came at each other with eight inch knives with me in between them.

I was pretty built, having been a stonemason's apprentice in college to help pay my way through, but these kids were both bigger than me. Without thinking I grabbed each by their collars and shouted SIT. DOWN.

I didn't start shaking until that evening. I was done a week later.

Edit: Thank you for all the upvotes and a special thank you for the gold, kind stranger.

When the corporate job offered me three times the salary AND a 12% annual bonus.

Now, my kids can afford to go to the college where dad used to teach.

I stopped when my annual review with the new program dean focused on the 10% of student reviews that were negative rather than the 90% that were positive. There are too many aggravations working against teachers. At the least, the administration has to have your back.

First I'll tell you the moments when I nearly quit.
When a kid with serious mental health issues stabbed another kid with a pencil and I was told to just keep a better eye on him.
When a parent complained about me but I wasn't told the nature of the complaint; just reprimanded, generally.
When 16-year-old boys hit on me and I actually considered going out drinking with them because I had no social life.

But the MOMENT, looking back, was when I was hospitalised with exhaustion, and my amazing boyfriend, who had been coming over, marking tests and proofing papers every evening for months, lay down on the cold hard hospital floor and slept beside me in case I was upset overnight.
I realised that I wanted a life with him, not a dull existence where I poured all of myself into my job and had nothing left for us.
I loved teaching but it wanted all of me. Dawn til midnight, seven days a week prepping, marking, planning.
I quit. I got a better job. I married that amazing guy and we have an amazing daughter. On weekends we go to the park and play.

I worked in a high needs behavior class. I got hit, punched, scratched and spat on daily, but every day I went back and did my best for those kids. I was so battered and bruised that my husband wouldn't shop with me anymore because people would stare and sometimes even comment to him about his mistreating me. It was sickening, but I loved my job and every one of those kids.

One day was called to the office to talk. It was Christmas time and things weren't great at home and as anyone with kids knows the holidays makes children especially high strung so things were also wild in the classroom. My boss said "you seem awfully stressed" and I thought how nice of her to notice so I agreed that yes I was struggling. She said "you have 6 weeks to sort it out or I'll have to let you go".

I was crushed. It literally broke me. 6 weeks to get less stressed...how does that even work? I found myself just showing up to show up and I realized that wasn't fair for me or for the kids.

6 weeks later I get a call back to the office. I am congratulated on the amazing turn around and sent back to class. I was baffled. I was more upset and stressed than ever and they congratulate me??

More and more I showed up to work just for the paycheck. One day I just decided screw it, I wasn't a teacher anymore I was a robot fearful of showing any negativity . I quit that week. Never went back to teaching.

When it would have taken 43 years to pay off my degree at a teachers salary.

(taught at a juvenile delinquent school) when the accusations of children required no proof or consistency, and to be exonerated took divine intervention. When a kid with a violent history a mile wrong swings a stapler at you, gashing your forehead (because he was dared to) then as you restrain him, until help arrives, you "hurt his wrist", then your school believes his story that I dropped the N-bomb to him, which caused the outburst. EVEN THOUGH TWO OTHER STAFF MEMBERS SAW THE ENTIRE THING. And the school called the police and tried to have me charged for assault.

Late to the party but I was a teacher that taught a class that would be tested on the state level and the result of the test (as well as some others) would dictate our funding.

The principal gave me the exam in advance and asked that I quiz the students directly on the questions in the packet.

I was no longer teaching for knowledge but for memorization and it really deflated me. I walked away that winter.

I taught high school English for ten years before finally quitting for the corporate sector. Honestly, it was a lot of small things that built and built until I realised it wasn't where I wanted to be. The largest of those "small things" is stifling focus on standardised testing. I lost weeks and weeks to test prep at every grade level. I couldn't teach novels I loved teaching because I ran out of time. And those standardised tests are useless, they prove nothing but offer schools a pat on the back for the high performance results. Which, mind you, do not transfer at all to college success. And too many public schools force the idea of college. Why? Is it becuase it's for the betterment of the kids? Hell no, it looks good on their graduation statistics. But, there is nothing wrong with not going to college. And I'd tell that to my AP students as much as my kids with the 12 average for the year. You have a 3.8 GPA and want to be a plumber? You go. You be a plumber. F**k, you'll make more than the rest of us.

I was once told I shouldn't do so many lessons where discussion between students was required. No more Socratic seminars, there had to be more "material that could be graded." How f****d up is that? I can't encourage discussion in an English literature class because I can't grade the kids on it. And don't even get me started on quantitative vs. qualitative. Teachers are being held accountable for students who "don't improve" regardless of anything else. Jimmy doesn't come to school for three months because he's f*****g off and then shows back up and fails the midterm? That's on YOU buddy, should have taught him better for the two weeks you had him at the start of the year.

I eventually got tired of the constant hurdles and stupid state requirements. People said "Yeah, but you get a pension! Unions! Summers off!" So the f**k what? I'm in corporate now and I make 31K more than I did teaching with a yearly bonus and a matching 401k with profit sharing. And b***h, please, I never had a summer off. I worked two jobs to make ends meet from June to September. Most teachers do.

What kills me is that I loved teaching. I loved my students and I was good at what I did. I was good at encouraging kids to take risks with their learning and I didn't penalise them for making mistakes. That's how you learn. You don't learn s**t from multiple choice and you never will. I miss my kids, I miss watching them go from hating a piece to being eager to discuss it. Even my lowest level students could show me something, even if it wasn't on paper.

It wasn't my students that killed my love for teaching. And I DID have kids throw chairs or get into fights or tell me to f**k off, all of that? That was doable. And I did it. The stupid, useless requirements and the idiotic state testing, the abysmal pay for the hours and hours I put in. That killed my love for teaching. And it's killing plenty of other young, passionate educators. I miss my students. I miss everything about teaching, when I was allowed to teach. Now? It's not teaching. If you want to teach, get into higher education or a private school. Do yourself a favour and stay out of public education in the United States. It doesn't exist anymore.

I had a 6-year old pull a knife on me while screaming "I will [end] you". This was the culmination of a lot of various incidents with the same kid. What was most infuriating was the parents claiming they had the sweetest little boy and that we (the school) must be liars for saying otherwise. Eventually he was transferred to a special school after we filed a report on the various incidents. I felt really bad for the kid because when he wasn't freaking out over something he would be the sweetest guy asking a ton of questions and participating in the activities, but he was highly prone to snapping into hysteria. The incident with the knife happened in this afterschool setting where the kids go to play and have fun. Apparently another kid had done something he disliked so he was kicking and spitting on him when I pulled him away. He ran straight to the drawer and found a little kitchen knife. Due to his size it was pretty easy to wrestle out of his hands though so no harm done. I guess dealing with s****y parents was what made me change my career.

The wasn't one defining moment that made me decide to quit. But after the decision was made, there was a moment that solidified it.

There was this kid. To say he wasn't bright is an understatement. He probably should have been diagnosed at some point as special education, but never was. He was also an a*****e. I taught 8th grade math, and he literally couldn't even multiply. So I would give him the same tests I gave my special education students. He'd usually fail anyway, but not as bad. Anyhow, he never figured out he was given a different test. When I made the different versions, they were essentially the same questions, just with much easier numbers to work with. Well one day, I was grading his test, and he missed every single question. Weird thing was, he had all the correct answers to the normal test. However he showed no work. So there was literally no way with the numbers he had, he could get the answers he got.

So I called his mom in (I had to stay like an hour later than normal to meet with her). I presented her the evidence, which most people would find pretty convincing. She just turned to him and said "Did you cheat?" He of course denies it. Then she looks at me and says "You say he cheated, he says he didn't, I don't know who to believe".

I got up and left right then.

Parents are the reason most teachers leave the profession. They tend to make the teacher the enemy quite often. Plus, they don't want to acknowledge that their child can be a little s**t.

When I realized getting drunk and cooking epic meals was way more enjoyable.

Nepotism is a major problem in smaller school districts. Yes men, family members, and friends will get hired as the school system is one of the better paying jobs in the county. All of this is done in return for loyalty and not questioning if decisions are best for the kids.

One of the bigger nails in the coffin was when I was pepper sprayed by the school resource officer AFTER myself and another teacher had broken up a fight and were sending students back to class. He sprayed to "disperse the crowd" spraying myself and our female assistant principle in the face and causing three students to have asthma attacks. For as little as I was being paid, I could find a safer place to work where people were less incompetent.

When I realized that I was being more micromanaged every year. I expected a lot of oversight when I was a new teacher. I actually had more people watching my every move & every word after a Master's Degree & fifteen years experience. I never had a single complaint. Parents & students loved me (even requested me). Administrators needing to justify their jobs were constantly in my classroom or calling pointless meetings to discuss pointless things. I spent less & less time teaching and more & more time filing out meaningless forms, responding to emails, and sitting through meetings.

Not a teacher, but my buddy was a teacher in the South. He was teaching at a Catholic school in a small, but not tiny, town. His students were primarily poor with parents not terribly involved in their lives. There were a lot of behavioral issues - constant fights, yelling, disruptions, etc. The academics were predictably weak because the students largely didn't care about school at all. Kids were found with weapons of some kind (knives, shanks) with some frequency, but it wasn't a daily occurrence.

The final straw came when a particularly problematic student was causing a huge disruption in his classroom by screaming and flipping over desks, which alone wasn't **that** big of an incident. He escorted this student down to the principal's office, as he had many times before. Except this time the student insulted my buddy the whole time. He explained the situation to the administrators and returned to his class. A few minutes later an announcement came over the PA system inside the school and the principal mocked and insulted my buddy for what he did. The principal made a snarky comment about not being able to control your class. The troublemaker then returned to class, without facing any kind of discipline, and tried to provoke a fight with my buddy. My buddy noped right out of his classroom, walked out the door, and joined the military.

I taught high school for 10 years. I was an amazing teacher. I received perfect evaluations and was teacher of the district twice in that time. I was a class sponsor, sponsored clubs, took kids to Europe, and on overnight field trips. I loved teaching and I was good at it and passionate about it.

I left teaching when I learned that my colleague, also a great teacher, who was 20 years into her career, 2 Masters degree and topped out the systems pay scale at $58K a year. Starting at 22 years old at $39K is awesome, retiring at $58K is b******t.

I realized that despite my degrees and my hard work, I'd never make enough to keep my head above water. It wasn't enough to pay my student loans or put my kids through college. At one point I was working 3 jobs at the same time to make my bills work.

I have 2 Master degrees and a slew of impressive endorsements. I was never going to be promoted, or get a raise. Even if I was s****y teacher who did sub-par work, I'd make the same amount I did as a stellar above and beyond teacher.

TL;DR: Teacher pay is b******t.

So many things

Figured I got payed 9/hr to handle special needs AND the future of our country and other teachers didn't have it that much better.

Watched an entire class plagiarize an easy essay because they couldn't fathom how to write something original.

Turned in a girl for skipping class only to have to write a police report on why I didn't call her a stupid b***h and hit her. (She never got punished for that)

Observed a kid who I KNEW had to be a psychopath convince a freshman to steal a phone. Freshman got caught and 10 days in Juvie. Psychopath walked free.

You're gonna have to pay teachers a lot more to deal with that c**p.

First year and a half after I got licensed I was a substitute. Worked about 95% of the days available, but it was pretty depressing to see that I made about $14,000 a year. Put out my resume and finally got an interview and offer in a small, rural school district.

Started off well enough, but a small clique of parents decided I wasn't sufficiently deferential to them or their kids and decided to make my life hell. Complaints to the principal and school board pretty much every day - too much homework, not enough homework, quizzes too often, tests too hard, too many projects, too many notes, too many handouts, not enough lecturing, not enough book work, I was mean to so-and-so, etc.

The principal was in his first year, after just one year as the assistant principal. Dude was in no way ready to handle the job, and kept giving me contradictory instructions. What finally did it for me was being told that I couldn't lecture, had to write all the student's notes up for them, had to give the students the answers to the test before testing them, and to stop being so hard by making them discuss the quotes I put up on the board every day. The cherry on top was when he told me that no one could go scuba diving with sharks like I told students I had when asked what I'd done on a vacation.

As a giant f**k you after I handed in my resignation I played the video of me on my second shark dive when I was getting my shark diver specialty certification and discussed some of the dives I'd done over the years.

The next year I went back to subbing, until I was offered a full-time position working for the Boy Scouts of America as a District Executive. Never looked back. Now I'm a Sr Linux Systems Admin under contract to the DoD and making 2.5 times what I made as a teacher, and 5 times what I made as a sub. Couldn't be happier.