Member-only story
Why Teachers Quit Their Jobs
The story of someone who turned their back on their dream
I became a high school English teacher for two reasons: I liked a college major where homework involved reading a book in bed and I had seen Dead Poet’s Society 184 too many times. This seems to be the story of most high school English teachers.
My first year teaching was a bit out of the ordinary. I took a part time assignment teaching two classes of Freshman English. For the record, no amount of schooling could prepare 22-year-old me for being in charge of 32 15-year-olds.
I ended up with a full load mid-year when a fellow teacher left her job to go work in Rwanda with the Peace Corp. Apparently, a country fresh out of a civil war seemed a better workplace than a classroom.
I suppose I should have taken that as a hint. I didn’t. I lasted four years before I made the decision to leave my career behind. Abandon what I spent the previous four years studying to do. I did it because there were more things pushing me out the down than pulling me back in.
