I asked dozens of teachers why they're quitting. Their answers are heartbreaking.

  • by:
  • Source: Upworthy
  • 01/03/2025
When I was a child, I used to line up my dolls and stuffed animals on my bedroom floor, pull out my mini-chalkboard and in my best teacher's voice, “teach” them reading, writing and arithmetic. Pretending to be a teacher was my favorite kind of imaginative play. In college, I majored in Secondary Education and English and became an actual teacher. I loved teaching, but when I started having kids of my own, I quit to stay home with them. When they got to school age, I decided to homeschool and never went back to a traditional classroom.

I kept my foot in the proverbial school door, however. Over the years, I’ve followed the education world closely, listened to teacher friends talk about their varied experiences and written countless articles advocating for better pay and support for teachers. I've seen a teacher burnout crisis brewing for a while. Then the pandemic hit, and it was like a hurricane hitting a house of cards. Teachers are not OK, folks. Many weren’t OK before the pandemic, but they’re really not OK now. 

A recent poll from the National Education Association found that 90% of its members say that feeling burned out is a serious problem, 86% have seen more teachers quitting or retiring early since the pandemic began and 80% say that job openings that remain unfilled have added to the workload of those who are still teaching. And more than half of teachers say they will leave the profession earlier than they had planned.

Please help put parents in charge of their child’s education by forwarding this article to other parents, family, friends and voters.
Stress by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 is licensed under Unsplash unsplash.com

Other Articles

33 California schools awarded 2023 National Blue Ribbon honor
Four schools in Hacienda La Puente Unified, with 16,000 students in Los Angeles, received a National Blue Ribbon Award, the most this year from any California school district. The U.S. Department of Education announced the 353 public and private school winners nationwide, including 33 in California, on Tuesday (see pages 2 to 5 for California recipients).
Read More
Newsom Signs Legislation Investing $2 Billion in Publicly Funded Child Care
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a series of early education bills that will boost California’s publicly funded child care and preschool programs right as federal pandemic relief for child care providers runs out at the end of September.
Read More
California High School Prepares Students for the Future of Auto Mechanics
A Bay Area high school in San Francisco is taking steps to ensure that there will be enough certified auto technicians and mechanics to keep up with the rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs).
Read More
Senate Bill 2 could increase teacher pay by several thousand dollars. Unions remain wary.
The bill would provide educators with a pay increase if it passes. Unions, however, worry it will inevitably be tied to the Senate's school voucher proposal.
Read More
California is seeing a decline in student enrollment. Here are the most affected districts in the Sacramento region
Some of the largest districts in the region saw as much as an 8% decrease in enrollment since 2019.
Read More
Harvard-Westlake Named Best Private School In CA, No. 5 Nationally
LA County is home to three of the top 50 private high schools in the nation, according to a new ranking.
Read More
New California law guarantees 30-minute recess break for school-aged children
School-aged kids across California will have a mandatory 30-minute recess break starting with the 2024-25 school year under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law.
Read More

Get latest news delivered daily!

We will send you breaking news right to your inbox

© 2025 educationopportunity.org, Privacy Policy | FPPC #1460602