As a parent, teachers are total MVPs in my life. You see, I believe that my child’s education is actually MY responsibility, and since I don’t want to homeschool, I am thrilled to be able to partner with a school and some wonderful teachers to educate my kids. I also understand that that means that I will still have some educational responsibilities at home: namely, helping them, advocating for them, backing them up when necessary, and, perhaps most importantly, disciplining and parenting them in such a way that they will be conscientious, respectful, attentive students.
I also believe it is my duty to back up and respect my kids’ teachers while advocating for my child if necessary, and I am here to say that it is possible, parents.
But the more I read about the many issues schools and teachers face today, the more I realize I am in the minority when it comes to my view of education.
This was made extremely clear to me this weekend as I read the frustrated Facebook rant of Utah teacher Julie Marburger. She posted her views after leaving her classroom early on March 28th after being “emotionally unable to continue” and it’s hitting a nerve, having been shared over 414,000 times. (Like, if something I wrote got shared that much, I’d be running my company!)
Photos: Facebook/Julie Marburger
Marburger explains that while it was her dream job to become an educator, she is now left devastated by her teaching experience and plans to leave teaching after this school year. Teachers like her, she says, are in a “thankless” job and have been beaten down my parents who think their kids can do no wrong, and school administrators who only want to keep parents happy. Marburger’s rant also includes several photos of her nearly destroyed classroom supplies, which she says, she pays for out of her own pocket because she is not given a classroom budget. She says:
I left work early today after an incident with a parent left me unable emotionally to continue for the day. I have already made the decision to leave teaching at the end of this year, and today, I don’t know if I will make it even that long. Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse. Administration always seems to err on the side of keeping the parent happy, which leaves me with no way to do the job I was hired to do…teach kids.
I am including photos that I took in my classroom over the past two days. This is how my classroom regularly looks after my students spend all day there. Keep in mind that many of the items damaged or destroyed by my students are my personal possessions or I purchased myself, because I have NO classroom budget. I have finally had enough of the disregard for personal and school property and am drawing a line in the sand on a myriad of behaviors that I am through tolerating. Unfortunately, one parent today thought it was wrong of me to hold her son accountable for his behavior and decided to very rudely tell me so, in front of her son.
Report cards come out later this week, and I have nearly half of my students failing due to multiple (8-10) missing assignments. Most of these students and their parents haven’t seemed to care about this over the past three months, though weekly reports go out, emails have been sent and phone calls have been attempted. But now I’m probably going to spend my entire week next week fielding calls and emails from irate parents, wanting to know why I failed their kid. My administrator will demand an explanation of why I let so many fail without giving them support, even though I’ve done practically everything short of doing the work for them. And behavior in my class will deteriorate even more. I am expecting this, because it is what has happened at the end of every other term thus far.
I have never heard of a profession where people put so much of their heart and soul into their job, taking time and resources from their home and family, and getting paid such an insultingly measly amount. Teachers are some of the most kind and giving people I have ever met, yet they get treated so disrespectfully from all sides. Most parents can’t stand to spend more than a couple hours a day with their kid, but we spend 8 with yours and 140 others just like him. Is it too much to ask for a little common courtesy and civil conversation?
It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to have a classroom of my own, and now my heart is broken to have become so disillusioned in these short two years. This is almost all I hear from other teachers as well, and they are leaving the profession in droves. There is going to be a teacher crisis in this country before too many more years has passed unless the abuse of teachers stops.
People absolutely HAVE to stop coddling and enabling their children. It’s a problem that’s going to spread through our society like wildfire. It’s not fair to society, and more importantly, is not fair to the children to teach them this is okay. It will not serve them towards a successful and happy life.
Many will say I shouldn’t be posting such things on social media…that I should promote education and be positive. But I don’t care anymore. Any passion for this work I once had has been wrung completely out of me. Maybe I can be the voice of reason. THIS HAS TO STOP.