Okay…minor rant time.

Please stop asking the question: “Is going back to teaching an option?”

No, it isn’t – and it’s frankly both a rude and insensitive question because I've been very transparent about why I left teaching.

I know people mean well and are trying to offer a solution to unemployment, but it would be mentally traumatic to do so despite the consequences.

What really angered me though was when someone asked: “So you would rather watch your partner suffer than go back to teaching?”

I’m in a much better place now, but the trauma and mental health issues from my time in the classroom will last a lifetime, and my partner of all people knows that. She encouraged me to get out originally too.

Do I need a paycheck right now?

Of course.

Do I need one so bad that I would be willing to become the very thing I have sworn to never be again?

No, and I would be doing myself and my partner a disservice by going back to such an environment.

I was a broken and selfloathing person by the end of my teaching career who desperately wanted to leave education and find a job where I would be better respected and not taken for granted.

Do many go back to teaching until they find something else?

Sure, and I’ve known a number who have been able to do that.

But the constant question of “is going back an option” really highlights the issue that the general public doesn’t seem to understand just how bad things inherently are for teachers now.

I don’t feel the calling to teach anymore and many others don't either.

#jobsearch #careerchange #unemplyment #transitioningteachers #mentalhealth #rducation #instructionaldesigner #linkedincommunity