"Why did you quit teaching?"

There was an article in yesterday's paper about three teachers who had "quit teaching" and of course I was asked why I had given it away as well.

There were a number of reasons why I gave it away. I rather fell into teaching. My parents were teachers. It was what I knew. I had done rather a lot of it even before I went to teacher's college. That sort of thing tended to happen in rural schools where there were no classroom assistants to hear the little ones struggle through a page of reading and no relief teachers available if someone was ill. Senior students who were willing and able tended to be used instead. My brother, one sister and I all went into teaching - and then left it.

The Senior Cat had taught me about things like "the disciplinary question" in order to obtain and maintain control of a class. My mother taught me about listening to young readers and how to get them to work out things for themselves if they could.

I quite enjoyed it all but I wanted more. Teaching students with special needs was more challenging but I knew there was more to it than most of the people I worked with were suggesting.  Then of course they moved all the children in special education into the regular class room. It was a money saving move dressed up as social inclusion. It meant that many teachers in special education no longer had work unless they went into the regular classroom.

I did more research and the other role I was working in exploded. I went off to do a degree in law because I needed the knowledge - or some of it - in order to do the job. I tutored in psychology, statistics and specialist English to feed and house myself. I have gone on tutoring and occasionally lecturing. It is teaching of course but not all day every day school based teaching.

I doubt I would like school based teaching at all now. The teachers I know are generally exhausted. Discipline seems to be much more difficult. They seem to be constantly on-call. Parents seem to be much more demanding. They are expected to teach not just a curriculum but woke ideas. The list of what you cannot do and cannot say seems to grow ever longer. There are issues with computers and whether students should have access to phones. 

We all dealt with behaviour issues but the bullying is now on social media. We all dealt with children from problem homes but now that both parents are at work there are other problems as well. Teachers are expected to monitor the contents of lunch boxes when we just tried to ensure that everyone had something to eat. Even late primary students are involved in drugs.

When I was teaching the male staff wore a collar and tie. The women wore skirts or dresses. They were addressed as Miss or Mrs not Ms. There were no tattoos in sight. Chairs in classrooms faced the front except on rare occasions. Students were expected to be quiet when the teacher was talking. All that has changed. It might be part of the problem.

I would be looking for different employment too if I was teaching now.