Sunday 3 February 2008

why I am glad I quit teaching

There are more qualified teachers outside the classroom than in and I include myself in that sorry statistic. Throughout my PGCE I was looking out for other things to do. I knew that the chances of getting into a good school in the London area were slim, and the likelihood was that I would end up in a rough school with lousy kids - correction - kids with lousy parents. Even my PGCE tutor told me I should take something else if something else came up. There is a dearth of decent managers across all sectors, and teacher training is actually quite good preparation for a career in management in the service sector. Time and time again I run into teachers who are exhausted, undervalued, trapped into taking holidays at peak times, demoralised and underpaid considering how stressful the job really is. And so here I am working in London in transport management. Of course I dream of being a freelance translator, and am working on that quite seriously. I would love to translate books for a living. But teaching - urgh. I chuckle at the Armstrong & Miller jokes about teaching being a last resort of College graduates who screwed around till their late 20s and then decided they had better actually do something vaguely meaningful. When a thing is funny search for the hidden truth.

2 comments:

bottleneck said...

Hi, I just wanted to find out a little bit more about your new job. I am considering leaving teaching as am finding it incredibly frustrating and stressful and feel enormously undervalued alot of the time. Could you give me some more information as to why leaving teaching and your new job is better and also what the salary is like in comparison to teaching?

I would really appreciate any more points on this as I would love to hear more of your experience on leaving and life after teaching!

Lucy Fishwife said...

Hello Kitty! Sorry I was so glazed with your beloved today, I blame the drugs myself. That Imodium can kill braincells like nothing else. Are we due another unwise flirtation with hard liquor soon? xxxxxxxxxxxxxx