To answer the first, nope I'm not. I am a teacher, I believe in the education system, I have two sons who are very social and will thrive in a classroom setting. Plus Blake and I would kill each other. I am not anti-home schooling. There are some children who it is the best thing for them. I've had kids in my class who I've felt would actually do better in a home school setting. I'm not sure I could exactly describe why I felt that way, I just did. But home schooling is a whole other post.
When am I going back in the classroom? Good question. At this point my answer is not right now. I don't intend to go back to teaching at this time. Now, would I if I really needed to, yes. I don't hate teaching. I don't think I'm a bad teacher who should not teach. That's not it at all. I was totally burnt out at the end and it had nothing to do with teaching my students. Yes a lot of people burn out of teaching kindergarten and that's typical since it is a very tough grade to teach. That's not my issue. I'm burnt out on the politics, the paperwork and the dealing with parents. I don't like to tip toe though my job. I hate having to bite my tongue in fear of offending a parent when I'm just being honest and trying to help them help their child.
So what spurred this post today? It wasn't because I was asked this question recently, although I was. It was because of an article that I read this morning. "What teachers really want to tell parents" By Ron Clark. I strongly suggest that you read this article. If you are a parent, I hope you reflect on it too.
I could make this post longer, but I think I'll leave you with one last thought. No one is perfect, and if you are always telling your child they can do nothing wrong, and defending even when they are at fault, you are setting your child up to crash and burn. The real world is cruel and if they expect to always be right and have someone defend them when they make mistakes they will hit a brick wall when they are adults. My sons are not perfect and neither am I. We are human and humans learn by making mistakes and owning up to our shortcomings.
Yes, as a teacher, I agree; the politics make teaching much harder than it should be. Particularly now, when there seems to be a lot of animosity directed at teachers. We can't address all of the social woes of the country. Yet, rather than address these problems, we blame the teachers for all of the shortcomings of our educational system.
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