I spoke with numerous teachers about their reasons for leaving. Their heartfelt responses are truly eye-opening…

Lilit

When I was a kid, I’d line up my dolls and stuffed animals on my bedroom floor, grab my mini-chalkboard, and “teach” them reading, writing, and mathematics in my best teacher voice. Pretending to be a teacher was my favorite kind of creative play. In college, I studied secondary education and English and eventually became a teacher. I enjoyed teaching, but when I started having children of my own, I stopped to remain at home with them. When kids reached school age, I opted to homeschool and never returned to a formal classroom.

I kept my foot in the figurative school door, though. Over the years, I’ve closely watched the education industry, listened to teacher friends about their diverse experiences, and written many pieces calling for more compensation and support for teachers. I’ve been seeing a teacher burnout issue develop for some time. Then the pandemic struck, like a storm on a house of cards. Teachers are not okay, people. Many people were already unwell before the epidemic, but many are far more so today.

According to a recent poll conducted by the National Education Association, 90% of its members believe that feeling burned out is a serious problem, 86% have seen more teachers quit or retire early since the pandemic began, and 80% believe that job openings that remain unfilled have increased the workload of those who continue to teach. More than half of teachers say they intend to leave the profession earlier than planned. According to some polls, being a teacher is more likely to cause burnout and worry than being a healthcare professional, which is noteworthy.

I contacted several dozen instructors who had recently resigned or were about to quit, and the reaction was overwhelming. I repeatedly heard the same sentiment: I went into teaching because I like working with children and want to make a difference. I enjoy teaching. I adore my pupils. These are professors that put their entire heart into their work.

So, why are they quitting? The causes are numerous—and painful.

Low compensation is a problem that many of us consider when it comes to teachers, yet it is not the primary motivator for instructors to resign. One instructor informed me that garbage collectors in his school district earn $10,000 more per year and have better benefits than teachers with doctoral degrees and a decade of experience, but that wasn’t his main motivation for wanting to quit. There’s no question that teachers ought to be paid more—a lot more—but they don’t choose to be teachers for the money, and most don’t leave because of it. The difficulties are what make the salaries unsatisfactory.

(Many school districts are implementing 4-day school weeks in an effort to lure more teachers to join and stay. It helps with salary concerns, but it does not fix many of the other problems.

One of these concerns is a lack of acknowledgment for teachers as highly trained professionals. “Paying teachers like professionals would go a long way,” says Bonny D., an Idaho educator, “but it’s really about trusting us to perform our jobs. Many instructors have master’s degrees or have been teaching for many years, yet they are still not listened to or regarded as experts when it comes to assisting pupils in succeeding.

Jessica C. taught middle and high school English in three separate states before resigning in December. She claims she enjoyed working with children and crafting curriculum, but she eventually resigned after witnessing more and more teacher authority being taken away as standardized testing became the major focus.

“Despite my years of experience across multiple states and my two graduate degrees in education, I felt like nobody with any real power believed I was actually competent at my job,” she recalls. “I saw indications that my pupils were improving as readers and writers, but at the end of the day, the only thing that counted was passing a set number of state tests. It was extremely depressing to feel as if nothing else mattered but that test and that, despite the fact that the test itself bears no resemblance to real-world reading or writing abilities, it was intended to be the focal point of my whole teaching.

“But let’s not forget,” she stated. “I also wasn’t allowed to look at it at all or even really know what was on it or how it would be scored.”

Ann B., a California elementary school teacher, had a similar sentiment: “Teaching over the last decade has lost its fun and glitter. There were too many mandates, broken systems, and top-down management from people who hadn’t spent much time in the classroom, making things difficult.”

Sarah K. teaches high school history and Advanced Placement psychology in Tennessee. Unlike most of the teachers I spoke with, she is having one of the finest academic years of her career, but she is concerned about the status of public education in general. “I think a lot of teachers feel attacked and are afraid and are feeling like the job can’t be done anymore,” she reported to me. “As a society, we have lost our ability to trust each other, and it is manifesting itself in not trusting teachers to teach, do their jobs, and follow their hearts to love and inspire kids.”

In addition to micromanagement from administrators, classroom control from lawmakers, and demonization from parents, I had two instructors tell me that they had experienced a school shooting. ESL instructors from several states explained how their school districts refused to invest in initiatives that would help their pupils thrive, essentially telling them that those children didn’t matter. Other professors believe that their personal lives do not matter.

“A teacher passed away from COVID in January in a different building,” recalls Jenn M., a 14-year seasoned teacher from Pennsylvania. “The youngsters had a day off. The teachers came in with no instructions on what to do. We were tested for COVID, and that was all. I really believe that if I died, no one in the district would care about me. I want to feel valued and effective at work.”

Then there’s the mental strain, which has always been for teachers but has been significantly increased by the epidemic. Teaching does not take place from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during the summer and on holidays. That is simply not how it works, not for any instructor I have ever met. And the labor is difficult on many levels. You work with dozens, if not hundreds, of children every day. You care about them and their well-being; you’re attempting to educate them on whatever your topic is while also fostering their development into fully competent human beings. You have continuously shifting expectations from all sides.

“Teaching is all-encompassing,” says an elementary school teacher in New Mexico who prefers to remain nameless. “It’s quite demanding emotionally and physically. It’s not just a job that you can switch off at the end of the day when you go home.

“Everything falls on the teachers,” she adds. “We’re caught in a no-win position in the midst of a societal catastrophe. Schools are emphasizing higher academics at younger ages, and the need to teach fundamental social skills, customs, and politeness is greater than ever. Our duties and the demands on us are only growing.”

Bonny D. agrees. “There is a mental load that goes with teaching,” she admits. “It’s quite tough to recognize. It’s the workload, the constant changing of what’s required of us as legislation changes, the restrictions on what we can teach, the expectation that we will work outside of the paid contract hours, the fact that it’s easier to go to work sick than make sub plans, micromanaging teenagers, doing extra things in the school with no extra pay, the low morale created by parents who want to dictate what we do in the classroom without ever discussing it with us, and

The epidemic, of course, has made matters worse. Teachers have suffered the brunt of education’s upheaval, not only because they must radically change the way they teach and incorporate new technology overnight, but also because they must cope with the emotional and developmental issues their pupils face throughout this process. The epidemic has also worsened and exposed pre-existing educational inequities.

Catlin G. is an intervention expert with 18 years of teaching experience, especially in underserved neighborhoods. She notes that many districts are currently grappling with attendance and staffing concerns, significant variability in children’s academic performance, and a lack of resources, all of which are all too familiar to her and the pupils she has worked with.

“The pandemic drew a lot of attention to the role of education, but much of it was focused on issues like CRT or masking, which diverted attention away from larger, long-term problems in schools, such as low literacy rates and crumbling infrastructure. I hope that once their children no longer need to wear masks to school, people will reconsider how we can improve education for all students.

Some teachers blame student behavior concerns for their burnout, but the majority of teachers I spoke with said they stayed in the classroom as long as they could for the benefit of their pupils. After all, most instructors enter the profession because they like working with children.

“I never wanted to leave,” an elementary school teacher from Washington who resigned this year said. “During my final week of teaching, I sobbed with my kids. Their expressions of compassion and understanding warmed my heart. I had never been more uncomfortable over a decision because I adored the kids and my profession.”

Between the pandemic disrupting classroom instruction, parents and lawmakers dictating how and what instructors teach, and more evaluations and top-down administration causing micromanagement concerns, teachers believe they are unable to do the jobs they love and agreed to. They’re not quitting because they dislike teaching; they’re resigning because they can’t teach under these circumstances. It is genuinely awful, and it is up to all of us to rally behind educators to avert the calamity that a mass flight of teachers will cause.

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