Job Satisifaction as Retirement Nears???

[Big Skyz]

I've been teaching for nearly 25 years now. I have about 4.5 years to go until I'm eligible to retire in this state. For the most part I've really enjoyed my job, and I would say that for at least 15 of those years it was great. However as retirement actually starts to come into focus I find myself really struggling to have a good attitude. A lot has changed in education in the last quarter of a century and frankly I think there is more negative than positive. I've never been a fan of everyone wins/nobody loses mentality, but that is the shift society has put on education. We also give more standardized tests than ever. We have to accept everyone and treat them like that all have the ability succeed in public education. This is includes severely mentally handicapped people, completely physically handicapped individuals, fetal alcohol syndrome kids, kids that were affected by their mothers drug addictions while they were pregnant, pedophiles, mentally disturbed children, and students with zero English communication skills. A student with an IEP (Individual Education Program) can take any class they want whether they are qualified or not. There are far too many students that qualify for IEP's anymore, and you basically can't flunk them out of school without parents and lawyers screaming bloody murder. In the last few years I have been forced to accept several IEP students in my Advanced Art class because they liked the teacher, not because they had any artistic skill. In fact some of them had no artistic skill whatsoever. So they take the class, see how their work stacks up against the rest of the students, and then I have to listen to them whine about how bad they suck at art the whole year. WELL DUH! Not to mention it usually ends up with a meeting with upset parents because little Mr. No-Coordination isn't getting an A in an advanced class, and they want to know why. Then they want your head if you tell them the truth. Btw, you could substitute this same scenario for any subject: advanced math, advanced biology, chemistry, or any other class that requires upper levels of skill or thinking. The truth is it's pressure from parents and lawyers that have really dumbed down the classroom. It's aggravating because the media blames teachers when teachers actually have no say in it. We get told YOU WILL accept this student regardless of the fact they have low cognitive skills, minimal motor skills, and they are mentally disturbed and a threat to society. Oh and if you don't like it, the answer you will get is: (and I actually had this exact conversation and answer) "find somewhere else to work." Instead of enjoying my job, I get up each day just hoping I can hang in there until I can retire. The amount of time wasted on dealing with behavior is draining and time consuming for every teacher. The actual time spent teaching gets less and less each year, and more and more is spent on dealing with behaviors. I'm telling you it's no mystery why this nation has a hard time recruiting good teachers. I sure don't encourage anyone to go into the profession anymore. I think I'm turning into a curmudgeon. Somehow this has to be Bucky fault. ;)

[jb]

Sky, I've been retired from that rat race for 13 years now, and 13 years ago I was beginning to feel the same way you do now.
4.5 years may seem like eternity, but it isn't. Don't loose your belief that it's all gone, there are still good teachers, good kids, and a few good administrators.
You're just about half way through this school year hang in there.

[Thumper]

I remember my school days and I swear, I can't even grasp what you're saying. I never had a kid in the school system, so I'm caught in the 50'-60's as far as my personal knowledge of the system. Heck, it was almost like a big family back in the day and my mom was even PTA President for many years. I feel for you. It's similar to what the car business was for me. Back in the day, it was a fun career and there was good money to be made. I remember when it was a big event when the new cars were introduced. People would actually dress up and spend the evening going from dealership to dealership to admire the new offerings. It was usually a party atmosphere with food and drinks, etc. AND ... there were actually cars on the showroom floor instead of sales desks! But, that's ancient history and the business is far from enjoyable anymore. Even though it was the only thing I'd ever done since high school (other than the military), I finally walked away from it in 1989 and never looked back.

The problem is, you have too much time invested to bail and pretty much have to stick it out until retirement. I feel for you as there's nothing worse than having a miserable job you're pretty much stuck with. As I said, I can't even fathom what the school system is like these days ... especially on the "inside". That really sucks dude. :(

[BarryBobPosthole]

I just got back from visiting my family and I heard pretty much the same complaints from my two brothers, brother in law, and sister, all of whom were school teachers for the bulk of their careers. Two are still teaching and after next near only one will still be. Its a major decision to change careers midstream like they did but public schools have gotten so bad here for teachers they just didn't feel like they were allowed to do their jobs like they knew they could. So they quit teaching and went into other professions. sad.

Keep your chin up.

BKB

[Nandy]

My son being IEP all his life, however, the teachers he had seem to enjoy working with those kids and we even had offers from many teachers to take care of him outside school hours. The only way I can summarize that is what his last teacher told me the day we met... "Mr Quinones, I feel this is my life calling to help these kids". Kids with IEP's have all kind of different problems and none are the same, I have a firm believe that those kids needs special teachers and not everyone is capable of dealing with them.
4.5 years to retire, man that is sweet, I still have like 20 to go.....:banghead

[Big Skyz]

Nandy don't get me wrong some students do need an IEP. I said way too many are qualifying for IEP's, and a fair percentage use it as a cop out. I do not know your child's situation so I cannot comment on that. Some of those Resource/Special Ed teachers should qualify for Sainthood for what they do. The problem is that nearly everyone of those special needs kids no matter how severe are included in all classrooms now. Not only are not all teachers qualified to deal with that, it's not fair to the student either. In my opinion one of the worst things we ever did is take "severely" mentally/physically handicapped children, and include them in mainstream school. It has subjected them to more physical and mental abuse than ever, as well as injury. Not to mention they absolutely do not get the level of education they used to get in a contained classroom setting. The reason being a regular classroom teacher physically cannot meet the time/attention needs of a severely handicapped student. So it's compromised for both the severely handicapped student and the rest of the students in the classroom. There is a reason for the saying "you can't please everyone or you wind up pleasing no one." You could substitute the word "please" for "teach" and it would be just as true.

[Nandy]

My son Esteban has autism and metal retardation and a love for fishing!!!!

I agree, not all students with IEP should be in it. We do have the integration but it is not complete, at least not for my son. He is very good at math so he was slowly immersed in the regular kids classroom. If they were to sent him to regular room for something like lets say history I would have been the first one to ask the special needs "coordinator" what was she thinking... So I agree with you. I will put it on the school system and parents to be realistic. My son can stock a shelf, built simple things like anyone but dont ask him to get on the phone and be technical support for anything... He just cant do that.

[Captain]

Big Sky, them four years will fly by! Just hang in there. A lot of the crap you are dealing with I dealt with over my career. You would not BELIEVE what cops have to put up with now a days.
I thank God I got to police when I did. My son has started his career and I can only imagine how things will change in his time.
Good luck buddy you will make it and then You can come out here and hunt a month or two with me. :D

[Buckrub]

I've been teaching for nearly 25 years now. I have about 4.5 years to go until I'm eligible to retire in this state. For the most part I've really enjoyed my job, and I would said that for at least 15 of those years it was great. However as retirement actually starts to come into focus I find myself really struggling to have a good attitude. A lot has changed in education in the last quarter of a century and frankly I think there is more negative than positive. I've never been a fan of everyone wins/nobody loses mentality, but that is the shift society has put on education. We also give more standardized tests than ever. We have to accept everyone and treat them like that all have the ability succeed in public education. This is includes severely mentally handicapped people, completely physically handicapped individuals, fetal alcohol syndrome kids, kids that were affected by their mothers drug addictions while they were pregnant, pedophiles, mentally disturbed children, and students with zero English communication skills. A student with an IEP (Individual Education Program) can take any class they want whether they are qualified or not. There are far too many students that qualify for IEP's anymore, and you basically can't flunk them out of school without parents and lawyers screaming bloody murder. In the last few years I have been forced to accept several IEP students in my Advanced Art class because they liked the teacher, not because they had any artistic skill. In fact some of them had no artistic skill whatsoever. So they take the class, see how their work stacks up against the rest of the students, and then I have to listen to them whine about how bad they suck at art the whole year. WELL DUH! Not to mention it usually ends up with a meeting with upset parents because little Mr. No-Coordination isn't getting an A in an advanced class, and they want to know why. Then they want your head if you tell them the truth. Btw, you could substitute this same scenario for any subject: advanced math, advanced biology, chemistry, or any other class that requires upper levels of skill or thinking. The truth is it's pressure from parents and lawyers that have really dumbed down the classroom. It's aggravating because the media blames teachers when teachers actually have no say in it. We get told YOU WILL accept this student regardless of the fact they have low cognitive skills, minimal motor skills, and they are mentally disturbed and a threat to society. Oh and if you don't like it, the answer you will get is: (and I actually had this exact conversation and answer) "find somewhere else to work." Instead of enjoying my job, I get up each day just hoping I can hang in there until I can retire. The amount of time wasted on dealing with behavior is draining and time consuming for every teacher. The actual time spent teaching gets less and less each year, and more and more is spent on dealing with behaviors. I'm telling you it's no mystery why this nation has a hard time recruiting good teachers. I sure don't encourage anyone to go into the profession anymore. I think I'm turning into a curmudgeon. Somehow this has to be Bucky fault. ;)

Of course.

2 years is all I could deal with it. Most of my family are teachers.

I really don't see a good answer. Sorry.

FWIW, I "hung on" the last 8 years too. Remember, your work is not what you do......it's how you fund what you do.

Thanks for doing it well though.

[DeputyDog]

Sky, I completely understand. My wife is in her 17th year of teaching and she is a literacy coach in her building. She really enjoys it, but 90% of her time is now spent with ELL students some of whom have absolutely no English language at all and are newly in the country. She feels that they take away from the truly low students that she used to have.

When I read your post, I could also very easily put myself in your position and could see myself writing the same thing if you change just a few words specifically about the job.

Cappy, I am right there with you also. I cannot imagine just starting out in this profession. I can't believe how it's changed in the past 25 years and I am really glad that I getting towards the end of my career instead of at the beginning of it.

[Thumper]

As a kid, I always wanted to be a cop. I tried it when I was in my early-to-mid 20's and it took no time at all to realize it was not for me. I have all the respect in the world for you folks in law enforcement. An a-hole Chief didn't help matters any, but I started having a different outlook on life in general. I dealt with nothing but the "bad" in society and before long, I felt like EVERYONE was a scumbag-lowlife. I basically started getting to the point I didn't trust anyone. Then I started losing my patience with dirtbags. We had our little "tricks" ... clamp the cuffs down a bit tighter than normal, throw them in the back seat on their backs (makes the cuffs dig in) and possibly make sure they whack their head on the top of the door opening as they were thrown in the back! I could feel myself starting to hate people in general other than my close friends ... who were mostly other cops due to the fact we worked such odd hours and our schedules didn't match the general population. (to make matters worse, we worked rotating shifts which sucked big weenies) I knew before long, I'd end up busting some heads Rodney Kings style (before anyone ever knew who Rodney King was). That's when I decided law enforcement wasn't for me and went back to the car business.

After being there and doing that .... I have all the respect in the world for law enforcement and show that respect whenever I have to deal with them. Sure, there are bad cops ... but I sometimes wonder if the job made them that way and maybe they should have chosen a different career path early on ... or were they just natural born a-holes to begin with?

[DeputyDog]

Thump, part of that reminded me of some of the best advice I've ever gotten. My dad was a cop too, and when I started in this career, he told me to make sure that I keep my friends that had no connection to law enforcement because if I didn't the only friends I'd have were cops and then you would never "get away" from the job because no matter what situation you were in with them, dinner, hunting, fishing, etc.. the conversation would probably end up back on the job. I'm so glad I listened to him because it's really nice to go out or go on vacation with friends and after the first few "cop" questions, LE isn't mentioned the rest of the time.

[Thumper]

Deppity, that makes a lot of sense. My problem was, although I had "civilian" friends, I never had the time to spend with them. We were short-handed at the time and worked 12-hour rotating shifts (since there were not enough "volunteers" for night duty). My hours were 6 am - 6 pm for three days, then 1 1/2 days off, then 6 pm - 6 am for three days, then repeat. Most of the 1 1/2 days off was spent sleeping, then the sleep pattern was reversed. I had black-out curtains in the bedroom and if I woke up and the clock read 3:00 ... I'd have no clue if it was 3 PM or 3 AM. The hours sucked, the Chief sucked, the job sucked and add the fact the perps sucked, it was a recipe for disaster. As for the Chief, even though the days were 100+ degrees in the summer with 100% humidity and we wore full uniforms, etc. ... we were not allowed to roll the windows up on our cruisers. (our cruisers did have a/c) His reasoning was, if a citizen yelled for help, we wouldn't be able to hear them! WTF???

Needless to say, my introduction to law enforcement was a negative experience.

[HideHunter]

Feel for you Sky.. And it's really a shame. After having two good friends who were teachers and having read your posts and seen the results of your teachings; one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't have teachers who were of your caliber. The teachers I had - almost to a man (woman) were old, burnt out people who had been there waaaaaay too long - and I'm sure really didn't want to be there then. Many students in my class were taught by teachers who taught their parents... and don't think the curriculum had changed much.

I played the angles and stayed on the Honor Roll for most of my high school career with pretty much zero interest, or effort, and without learning virtually anything.. I shudder to think what may have happened if I'd had a teacher or two who actually challenged me - or, gawdforbid, created a little interest. Thanks for all you do - and all you've done.