Thread by @TFP_JohnK

I’m a statistic. I’m one of the 50% of early career teachers that leave the profession within the first 5 years. The workload was too much for me. I got burnt out. It was all consuming. I wasn’t coping. My confidence was low. My capacity was shrinking. My competence was tested./1

I loved my school. I loved the staff. I loved the students. I loved the families and the community. I loved my time in the classroom. I loved being a teacher but the “teaching” part was less than 10% of the time I worked. I was overwhelmed and anxious /2

One evening I came home. I walked through the front door with my work bag slung over my shoulder and carrying a classroom tote tray full of my students books that needed marking. I was tired. In fact I was beyond tired. I was truly and utterly exhausted. /3

My son, in Yr 5 at the time, popped his head around the corner and saw my load — both physical and mental — and said, “Oh Dad, I can see you’re tired and going to be busy tonight with all that work but if you get a chance could you please give me some help with my homework?” /4

I nodded, went upstairs, had a shower, then burst into tears and sat on the bathroom floor for 15 minutes crying. A 35 year old man, father of four, husband and teacher — sitting on a bathroom floor sobbing. My job was getting the best of me and my family was getting the worst/5

I became immediately aware that I’d been giving off a vibe or mood in my home that my 30 students were more important to me than my 4 children. It was at this point I realised that my chosen career was incompatible with who I wanted to be as a husband and father. I was so sad /6

Later that term a retiring teacher with 35 years teaching experience (she’d been teaching as long as I’d been alive) had her farewell. I spoke to her at the soirée and asked, “Heather, if teaching was, as it is now, when you started 35 years ago, would you have been a teacher…/7

…this long?” She laughed, and said, “Oh, no way! It’s become so much harder to be a good teacher and it just keeps getting more impossible as the years go on!” That was enough for me. I decided then I’d look for different way to make a difference in the world. /8

I said “No thanks” to teaching.

Teacher everywhere across Australia deserve #MoreThanThanks and I hope they get everything they deserve. Increased pay. Reduced workload. Professional respect. Plus more! Our future depends on them and so do our students educational outcomes. /9

To my teacher friends that remain in the classroom, you have my utmost respect. If I were still teaching in a classroom I would have walked out and marched with you today. /END

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