Re: Ugh....the requirements are insane

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Re: Ugh....the requirements are insane

Posted by Burnt out teacher on 5/02/08

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Rodeo-
I hear ya. Teaching sounds fun and rewarding but it really is a
sucky, underpaid job with massive politics. It is not worth the
money. It sounds great...Summers off, etc but when you do work,
you work like a dog and are spent. Trying to get any type of
support from anyone is next to impossible. I am leaving the
profession and my math skills and going into another field.
I am done!

On 4/21/08, Rodeo wrote:
> How many different programs did you call? I am in San Diego.
> I called several different credential programs. I found
> several that were 2 year programs. I found one that had an
> accelerated one year evening program. I did that one.
>
> Call around more. Maybe you will find one that is shorter.
> But really. If I were you I would't want to do it. Subbing
> is a lot different than teaching. If you think you can
> reach every math student then you are being unrealistic.
> Those few that still struggle with math or just won't do the
> work it takes to learn it will still be there no matter how
> good you are. It is a really frustrating job. I mean it is a
> job where you will be blamed for any student who doesn't
> have the ability or work ethic to learn.
>
> If you teach in any school that isn't high performing then
> your classes will be loaded with students who don't have the
> math skills for the classes they have been socially promoted
> into. Subbing a couple days and having some of them get it
> and feeling proud about that is different than having
> responsibility for teaching the state standards for a year
> and having the students understand it enough to apply it
> independently on a test or as part of more complex problems
> later.
>
> If you become a math teacher, you are now entering a broken
> world of dysfunctional policies, districts, schools, and
> administrations. You can never be good enough of a math
> teacher to protect yourself from the dysfunctions of this
> sick system or to overcome the sickness to make it really
> right for the students either. If you want to go into math,
> just do it with your eyes open.
>
> It is like going into social work. You can't save the world.
> You are going to see and experience a lot of nasty,
> frustrating things so make sure you can handle that. A good
> math teacher can't reach them all anymore than a good social
> worker can stop all the babies on their list from being
> popped into a microwave to shaken to death or whatever, if
> you get what I am trying to say.
>
> The system works against you and sometimes you will take the
> rap for things that aren't your fault--like bad parenting
> or bad genetics or bad placement by the counselors or bad
> teaching by former teachers or students being passed who
> never should have been...Can you work under those conditions?