Teaching history WAS for me. I didn’t mind the work, it was a second career. I didn’t even mind financing my classes. Gave it my all. It’s the crap that went with it. The horrid admin, the hostile teachers horrible to students, the horrible students hostile to teachers, parents who didn’t care and were liars. I was first to school at 6:30am…..I gave it 100%. They gave me nothing. Not kindness, not appreciation, not one good thing. I quit. The end.

Great video! Agreed, once in the classroom educational theory is almost worthless. Teaching is baptism by fire! I am in my sixth and final year of teaching. Afterwards, I will look for work within education that more aligns with my introversion. Good luck with your journey.

Same. I kept trying and trying, not wanting to fail, but then finally realized that teaching wasn’t for me. But it took me nine years to realize it. I will never go back. I am a full time Christian missionary to Honduras now. Been here almost eight years. I love it and it’s my calling. Thanks for your video and sharing your reasons for leaving teaching.

I just retired in June. The system is crumbling: no zeroes, no consequences, no respect, crazy colleagues ... so woke. 😮

As a recently retired teacher of 30 years, I found your sample schedule very appropriate: start with the plague, end with the plague.

I have wondered how teachers do it...dealing with students, parents and administration breathing down their neck then going home to do paperwork....ugh.....I would tell people run from that profession.

You are so correct; the work load is enormous and continuously changing and going higher. It’s extremely stressful.

I wish people truly understood how intense the profession is. The fact that so many quit within a few years is telling.

What you’ve said resonated with me so well. The character traits are so spot on, and I’m just now coming to terms with it. It can come across as failure, but as long as you tried, you haven’t failed. Thank you so much!

The Blooms taxonomy reference 😂😂😂

Your point about `what the profession looks like from the outside and what it really is on the inside` is most valid! James Deagle

I've been teaching for 9 years and am a total introvert, have been my whole life and because of that it is so incredibly exhausting. I love the middle schoolers I teach, but they literally suck the energy right out of me because when I'm around them I can't be half assed and thus I give them all of me because i want each one to know I care for them and I see them. I literally do nothing else in my life other than veg out on TV and watch the political news and pet my cat and also talk to my husband about our school where he is also a teacher. He is a total extrovert, so it is much more natural for him to be in front of people and have tons of social energy around him, but he is still completely exhausted as well because the kids are getting worse and are so much more needy...needy for discipline, attention, repeating everything I said already a bunch of times, etc. Basically I make my classes a lot of fun by making the history interesting and bringing a lot of humor into along with a variety of videos and readings, but I'm also strict and make them work hard w/assignments and homework. I think they appreciate (deep down) that I push them and that I try to make class fun and make them laugh. It is like I am preforming every dam day in front of an audience because the persona I put on to keep their attention is not how I'd be if I didn't have to be. I hate talking to a small group of people, let alone 28 wild children along with the many observers our school has since we are a curriculum lab school partnered with a university. I think the kids think I'm an outgoing confidant person, which I am not at all. I don't even like going to a dinner with two other couples. It is sad because before teaching I coached softball at a high level and worked out and got super fit and now I'm lucky if I can find the energy to walk. In the summers, I workout again like crazy because the energy is there. I know the working out in summer isn't just because I'm not working because I had years of being fit and having energy to workout with multiple other jobs I had in the past. It also helps having my husband at the same k-12 school because I can get everything off my chest (and so can he) about the craziness we see and deal with on a daily basis and we know who the other is speaking about... I don't see myself quitting, but I've thought about it, but I really do adore a lot of the kids and I hope I make them feel a little better about themselves because often they put a smile on my face. I hope you find a career that is fulfilling and not too draining!

Be glad you found out only six weeks in! Lots of people in the US don’t figure it out until they’ve invested four to six years and have the equivalent of a 30 year mortgage in debt.

I’m a teacher at an American high school and my training didn’t include Bloom’s taxonomy but later I had a Vice Principal (who later became my principal) and she loved Bloom’s taxonomy.

Love this video! My university years was worthless

Brilliant video Will, thank you so much for this. We were devastated when you left the PGDE course, I still remember our first day together... I have so much admiration for you- the strength and courage it takes to leave something you worked so hard for is really incredible. I can relate to your experience so much. I first went to study pharmacy, and left the course after only 3 months. I felt like such a failure and disappointment to my family because it was such a difficult course to get onto. I feel sorry for how much of a hard time I gave younger self! I am rooting for you, and whatever path this life journey takes you on !! You should be so proud of yourself

After 23 years teaching, I can confirm that it is not a profession for introverts. Best wishes to you for the future.

The Saving Private Ryan comparison is spot on. I will leave teaching at the end of this year. It’s been a wonderful 35 years but it’s enough. I would continue teaching but the politics and general public perception of education have gotten to the point that it’s becoming more and more unbearable each year.

So funny your analogy about Private Ryan!!

I was an American high-school teacher for 20 years. We had to be at school at 7:15 am, classes started at 7:35 am, and we were “done” at 3 pm. Many days I’d stay until 5 pm grading or prepping for the next day. Grading always came home with me for evening and weekend work. Holiday breaks always included work. Summers always included prepping and planning. I did okay. I met wonderful kids and colleagues. I found normal teen-age behavior challenging enough, but after Covid, the behavior was beyond my comprehension. In the first semester back to in class “learning,” there was 60k dollars of vandalism done to our school alone. Students, when asked to conform to basic school decorum, went ballistic…hitting, kicking, biting, swearing. You name it; I saw it. They had gone feral, and the monkeys were running the zoo. I was 62 years old and was planning to work until age 65; however, I had come to believe I was no longer the right kind of person for the students. I was the nice teacher, and they needed a drill sergeant, and that is not who I am, so I retired early. When I think back to my drama teaching days, I have fond memories. When I think of my last year, I have PTSD!

Thanks for the Video! Very reaffirming. I am hopeful for a better career. :)

That feeling of perfectionism is just in the first year, then it becomes routine. I find that a job in finance is the most disconnected from what was taught in school and what that job actually involves.

Good informative video, and I concur with many things you say.

I’m a teacher at an American high school - luckily in New York State. Teaching is challenging. When I student teaching (which is interning with an actual teacher), the 1st lesson that I taught, before I spent 3 days researching for it and then took a 3 hour nap after & I was like that’s not sustainable! The lesson was on something that I didn’t know too much about. In New York for teaching history (which we call “Social Studies“) you get licensed to teach 7th-12th grades which is Middle School/ Junior High through High School. But usually you do not teach students who are at both extremes. Usually you would teach at a High School or at a Middle School/ Junior High School but usually not both. Usually you would have only 3 preps (or different subject matters or grade levels per year - although it could be more but not usually). Also in New York, mostly in public schools you would only teach 5 periods/class of students a day and then also have a duty like lunch duty or having a study hall. I also worked in two non-public schools where there are less protections for teachers and more work (usually for less money!). So I have taught 6 classes straight in a row and then had lunch or recess duty with no break till. I was young then and can’t imagine doing that now. Then I was teaching Middle Schoolers which is also high energy. You might have done better with the oldest level of high school as they are more mature and serious.

You dodged a bullet, as they say and probably saved a fair bit of student debt by not struggling on.

I went to college to get my B.A. in Elementary Education, minors in English and Social Studies. I taught all subjects in elementary school and I could teach English or Social Studies plus electives in middle school. I realized during my education and in my student teaching that there were many problems that had to be dealt with, some I expected, many I did not. I got the degree and I work a corporate job. I did teach after work at a tutoring center for a few years as a second job. It's interesting to hear you say about your personality traits. I am also an introvert, a perfectionist and I have a terrible fear of public speaking. They didn't help me in teaching at all. I told myself I could do it because it was easier to talk in front of young children. And I certainly could but it didn't feel great. I was only nervous sometimes because of inexperience and everything going on. I wasn't afraid to talk in front of them but I really didn't like talking and talking all day. I prefered to go around and guide them in things rather than talk at them. I had found through work experience while attending college that I did feel more comfortable in an office, doing my work on my own, some interruptions from the phone or other co-workers and not having to talk all day. It wasn't exhausting like teaching. So when I graduated and there was a surplus of teachers, I wasn't torn up because I knew I could just do office work and actually be more comfortable in so many ways, get paid more and be able to leave my job at work at the end of the day. Well done video. It was interesting to hear how it was for you in Scotland. It's mostly the same in the U.S. but we certainly have other issues. Such as the good possibility you may be shot at work or have to try and protect up to 30 kids without any weapon or training. That was never a thought when I was a kid. I've been to England but I have always wanted to visit Scotland and Ireland. If I make it over to Scotland anytime soon, would you like to get coffee? Ot if you find yourself in Michigan or nearby. If you are available of course. You are probably not haha. Excellent video.

If ever I will change my career, I will definitely have the same reasons. I have the same traits as you do, and I agree to everything you said regarding introversion and teaching except for one thing. That is why I did the opposite, realizing that I can improve on the third trait. I purposefully became a teacher to train my self to talk in front of a large group of people. I don't have that fear now.

An now retired introvert here, too. I taught university 8 years, then Grade 4 (9yr olds) for 2 years, no contract, trained for a new career in IT, did that 17 years, then got a package, and went into Adult night school P/T, then adult day school. Had to nap at lunchtime to recharge. So, four careers, and the last was the best. Adult immigrants and teachers WANT to learn. Their attendance is also tracked bc of social benefits. I KNOW youll find a career (or several) that are suited to your personality, Will. Very few young ppl nowadays will have only one career in their lifetime.

9am to 3pm? How fortunate are you! The contact/lesson times at my school is 8:30am to 4:30pm. Now try to imagine how much more of our social lives are dominated by teaching😅

Great analogy, attending university classes about teaching kids to teaching actual kids::watching Saving Private Ryan to engaging in combat at Omaha Beach!

I could tell it was a bunch of nonsense immediately but persisted in the training because I wanted to complete my degree. Now in retrospect I have no idea, to borrow a phrase from Rodney Dangerfield. I think it was because tuition was dirt cheap back in the mid 1970s at state universities in Ohio because it was more heavily subsidized by the state back then. Plus my parents were picking up the tab and they were leaning on me quite heavily to finish especially since I was attending my dad’s alma mater or Miami of Ohio. In retrospect I think that Miami sold everyone a bill of goods and that that school in particular is not actually an elite institution. People want degrees because they’re egotistical to a great extent. I ended up being a merchant seaman and then a barber, two occupations which have minimal educational requirements. I now believe that most people should leave school after the 8th grade. All schooling does is prolong people’s adolescence to a grotesque extent.

Hello , did you study History A level at BHASVIC? If so I think I was in your class

I’m having trouble finding a job that will match my $50k a year salary. After 18 years that’s what I make. I couldn’t afford (and didn’t want) a masters. What jobs did you get after you left teaching?

What are you doing now? I quit training after 5 months. I felt really drained and was out of specialism

Seems like same problems all over the world. Do you think it would be any better with older students, like 13+