"I resigned from my teaching position. Here's why I'm walking away for good."

Two weeks ago I resigned my teaching position.

Six years of study. Three and a half years in the classroom. Too much money spent on class supplies, books and countless other things. And I’m walking running away.

On the first day of my undergraduate degree I vividly remember the unit chair’s first address. He started with the statistics. The statistics that said more than half of us would drop out before the end of the degree and that of those who made it, almost half would walk away from the profession in the first five years.

I remember being shocked and also telling anyone who would listen that I would not be a statistic.

Oh, to be young.

So as my days left in the classroom dwindle and the last day of my teaching career approaches, here are the 17 reasons why I am leaving teaching:

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1. I am desperate to leave school. I am 26 years old and I have spent too long only eating when school bells tell me to.

2. Too many parents see me as a glorified babysitter. I worked bloody hard for my degrees.

3. The fear of nits consumes me. Don’t even get me started on gastro.

4. Kids, no matter how beautiful, will talk over you when they are in a big group and I can only sit ‘waiting’ so many times a day.

5. I became a teacher to do just that, teach, but it is so much more and the emphasis is placed on all the wrong things.

6. There are only so many times that I can explain the difference between ‘there, their and they’re’. Part of me is dead.

7. Too many parents demand feedback and are then unable to listen when I need to tell them something that they don’t want to hear *cough* your child is a bully, *cough* your child is poorly behaved.

8. I am so torn between letting kids be kids and preparing them for a world where they may never know enough.

9. Too many students think that homework is optional. When do you think I planned this lesson, made this worksheet, laminated the cards you are using?

10. If I receive another email about a ‘friendship’ issue I may lose all my faith in humanity. You will not like everyone in life and not everyone will be your friend, this is not bullying.

11. I can only spend hours creating a display, only to have it ripped or defaced, so many times. I have reached my quota.

12. Yard duty actually sucks. Walking around in a fluro vest, no matter what the weather. Never fun.

13. My frustration with the education system has made me bitter. Bitterness leads to premature ageing. No one has time for that.

14. Teaching consumes me. I want to do the best for my class, but in the process I have lost myself. Do people do things on Sundays? I wouldn’t know anymore.

15. I do not have superpowers, not all children will learn everything. It doesn’t mean I won’t try, but don’t doubt my effort.

16. Believe it or not I don’t only work from 9 – 3. Joking about this is NOT funny. Ever.

17. Personal space is a necessary human requirement. Kids just don’t get that. Let me breath people.