America is in decline, and I’m not sure I want to stay in this profession.

I have never felt so depressed about the future of our country and the future of our profession than I do today. The polls are saying that the Republican party is expected to win the presidency in 2024, and I think that’s the straw that breaks this camel’s back. <br><br>I’ve been teaching for almost ten years now, and I am very close to leaving the profession. I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t feel valued anymore, I feel like I’m being attacked at every turn by politicians and parents, and I’m not making enough to support the life that I feel I deserve. <br><br>When I first started teaching I felt invigorated every day. I felt important. I felt like I was changing lives. I felt like I was doing something that mattered. Now, I feel like a scapegoat. I feel like a punching bag. I feel like I’m being asked to perform an impossiblemagic trick on a daily basis, and I fear I am not up to the task. <br><br>Parents are the biggest culprits in all of this in my opinion. They have abdicated their responsibilities as parents onto us, and that’s something we cannot do. Parents are supposed to be active in their children’s lives, and they’re supposed to help mold them into functional humans. But they’re not. Many parents today want to shift that responsibility to us. They want us to solve all of their children’s problems. They want us to make sure they get good grades, they want us to make them behave, they want us to give them a free pass for every mistake that they make. <br><br>But that’s not our job. We can’t do that. And quite frankly, I don’t want to do that. I have my own children to take care of, a family to provide for, a life that I want to live. I want to enjoy the time that I have outside of work with the people that I love and not have to worry about the emotional lives of my students or the dumpster fire that parents have created in their children’s lives. <br><br>But that criticism isn’t based on my own feelings and biases, the data is clear. Parents are the number one indicator of a child’s success, not teachers. We are secondary to their success, not the primary factor. But politicians want you to believe otherwise. They want you to believe that we are the problem, that we are the reason why your child is failing. But that’s not true. Your parenting is the reason why your child is failing. Your lack of involvement in their life is the reason why they are failing. <br><br>And I am so tired of all this crap. I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. I don’t want to be a scapegoat. I don’t want to be a punching bag. I don’t want to be accused every day of indoctrinating children, brainwashing children, sexualizing children. I don’t want to be accused of trying to tear your family apart at the seems anymore. I don’t want to be attacked anymore for doing my job. I’m tired of being underpaid, tired of being overworked, tired of being blamed for everything that goes wrong in your life or the life of your child. <br><br>I’m tired of the lack of respect that we as educators get, I’m tired of the lack of common sense that politicians seem to have, and I’m tired of being asked to do the impossible with meager resources on a daily basis. I’m tired of being kicked and I’m tired of being hit. I don’t want to do this anymore. There’s no joy in it for me. I’m ready to go. And I have a feeling I’m not the only one.<br><br>Edit: wow, thank you kind stranger for the gold!