SC for Ed

SC for Ed

Sunday, June 10, 2018

"Why I Am Leaving Teaching" by Elizabeth Bagnall

Five years. Five years of inspiring, listening, advising, hoping, helping. Five years of teaching. 
Today, I closed the door to my last classroom. Why? I couldn't take the realities of teaching anymore. I've worked at Title 1 schools. I've worked at affluent schools. I've worked in the city. I've worked in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that no matter where you go, public school is the same. Politics over pedagogy. Money over motivation. No, it's not the kids. I love the profession of teaching. I love working with kids. Genuinely. I know in my heart that being a teacher has been a blessing words cannot express. 
That being said, the politics of teaching is beyond what I can handle, silently. Some people can trudge through the battlefields of teaching. They keep their heads down and work within the system. For some reason, I just can't. I don't know why. I feel guilty for being, somehow, incapable of letting go of all the things I see wrong in today's education system. But today, as I closed my classroom door for the last time, I couldn't help but wonder: what's wrong with questioning the system of education? I don't hate educating. I hate today's version of "education". I hate the culture surrounding education. Teachers are not held in high esteem. Students are given low expectations. Administrators are more worried about graduation rates than preparing kids for the real world. 
When I started teaching, I saw education as the "key". The way to change the world is through teaching. In my heart, I knew that to be true. But after five years, the bureaucracy made me realize that the way to truly change things isn't in the classroom, at least not for me. I've spent five years putting my heart and soul into my classroom, just to watch myself become burned out, disenfranchised, bitter, and angry. And, it's not just me. Every teacher I know deals with "The Unnecessary Politics of Education". It is the reason why countless teachers leave the profession. I truly applaud the teachers who can look beyond the bureaucracy. They can keep their mouths shut and smile through the pain. And, it is painful. It hurts to know that you have put all these hopes and dreams into kids who are being totally screwed by the system. If all these really great teachers could stand up, band together, and come up with a real way to fix the system, education would be everything it's meant to be. Instead, those teachers who can survive the politics can't stand up for fear of retribution. They discuss it privately in closed-door classrooms. They go home and curl up with their significant others and complain about their woes. They roll their eyes when they are told to go against their ethics, but at the end of the day, they do as they are told. They stay silent in the name of their careers, their livelihoods, and their students. 
I wish I could. But, I just... can't stay silent. I'm too much like my grandmother. Once I've washed my hands of something, I'm done. I'm done watching an entire profession be minimalized and undervalued. I love teaching and I love good teachers, but I won't live in a world where people who work so hard have to bear such a heavy burden. It's going to take someone who can't keep their head down in order to make this system better for those who can. I wanted to change the world. Now, I know that, for me, changing the world isn't helping kids (though I'm thankful for that chance); my way to change the world is making the world better for teachers. Teachers deserve to be heard. They deserve to be respected. They deserve to have a voice that puts the needs of educating children before test scores and graduation rates. They deserve to have students who respect them, parents who appreciate them, and administrators who will look out for them and not the financial "bottom line". That is my new mission. 
To every great teacher I know, there's a battle brewing in the world of education. And, I'm going to be a champion.

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