Teaching is a hard job. Anyone who says otherwise a) isn’t a teacher or b) isn’t related to one.
There are the day-to-day roles and responsibilities like classroom management, teaching content, report writing and yard duty, but there are also all of the tasks that you don’t see: the teacher’s mental load.
This is exactly why I quit teaching seven years ago and have never looked back. The mental load was by far the hardest component of the job for me; it was the most difficult and complex to navigate, and ultimately what drove me to a professional break-down after five years.
And I know I am not the only one.
Of course, every job has its challenges and pressures. But teaching is a unique microcosm that consists of a very specific set of tasks and expectations that no other profession has. It is these things that make teaching not just challenging but almost impossible to do.
The after-hours phone calls and emails to parents for student updates or to address behavioural issues.
Researching ideas in the middle of the night about how to motivate and engage particular types of students, because you can’t stop thinking about how bored they said they were in your class.
Remembering to order supplies and equipment to run your lessons effectively (on an often very-limited budget).
Remembering to follow up with Jackson for his overdue homework that he assured you he had left on his kitchen bench.
Top Comments
You forgot to add that among teachers' tasks, is constantly reminding us how hard-working teachers are and complaining because everyone else doesn't appreciate how hard-working teachers are. Maybe it would be helpful to put a reminder in your over-scheduled calendar not to bother reminding us how hard-working teachers are because people who aren't teachers don't have the time to appreciate how hard-working teachers are because they too are hard-working. i.e. You're not special.
How did we get to the stage of the whole Nurse vs Teacher debate and whose got it worse?
I have a crappy job, you (the reader) most likely have a crappy job - let's argue over our crappiness levels
PS For technical reasons, workers in sanitation are excluded from this competition.