Should I quit my teaching job?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Once again, dear Dopers, I turn to you for advice.

I changed jobs this year. I went from teaching in a poor inner-city charter high school to a poor suburban/rural public high school. There were a few reasons for the change.

First, the commute is much, much shorter – like an hour shorter each way.

Second, I needed a school where I could complete a fake “student teaching” by using my own classroom. This will allow me to make my teaching certificate transfer from this state to just about any other. I’d like to move somewhere closer to the Midwest, and I need a transferable certification to teach anywhere else.

But most importantly, I wanted to find out if I really want to keep teaching. I thought that four years of teaching in an urban alternative school may have skewed my perspective on the profession, and I wanted to see if the venue made a difference.

Unfortunately, I just don’t like teaching very much. I like the performance aspect of it, and I like the relationship-building aspect of it, but I don’t like the negative parts of it. I hate grading essays, which makes me a poor excuse for an English teacher. I also hate that I have 170 students, which means I can’t really give detailed feedback in any decent time frame anyways. I hate that my district is on a pay freeze, and has been for five years. I have no chance of getting a raise in the near future, which really saps my motivation to do well. I hate that this district is so poor that I have to buy my own copy paper – that stuff is expensive, and this means that I assign less practice than I used to because I can’t afford to make copies.

Mostly, though, I just don’t like teenagers that much. They’re annoying, and there’s nothing I can really do about that. I send kids to the office for cussing or throwing things or hitting each other, and they get sent back after being assigned lunch detention. Lunch detention sounds bad, but they’re allowed to go to the cafeteria and get their lunch first, so they really only have to sit in the detention area for five minutes for it to count. That’s not exactly an effective way of disciplining the kids, as it’s not really a meaningful consequence.

So I’m stressed out about this job. I took a big pay cut to come here, and it sucks. But, hey, the year is over at the end of May (it’s Arizona; we start and end early compared to the rest of the US) and at least I have a job, right? Well, in the words of Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friends!”

My wife is 13 weeks pregnant. Our insurance sucks – both of us have high-deductible HSA plans. We’re broke because of the pay cut, and keep having to charge things each month, which is totally screwing up our “get out of debt” plan.

I’ve had two people tell me to get them my resume, as they have positions open in their companies right now. Neither works in teaching, but either job (if I got it) would lead to a 30-100% pay raise. The friend with the potentially higher paying opportunity (a sales job) also has amazing insurance benefits, although the job is commission-only otherwise.

This seems like an easy decision, right? Do what’s right for my family and at least apply for those other jobs. However, there are a few problems:

  1. If I break my contract, there is a $1,500 buy-out clause in it. I can’t really afford that, but my mother-in-law would loan me the money.

  2. If I break my contract, my teaching license will likely be revoked without the possibility of reinstatement – Arizona is harsh on teachers who break contracts.

  3. If I quit now, I don’t get to complete that fake “student teaching”, which means I won’t be able to get a teaching job elsewhere, either.

  4. If I finish the school year, I qualify to have $5,000 forgiven from my $18,000 student loan debt.

  5. If I do the student teaching, I’m adding $1,200 to my student loan debt, so the net forgiveness is only $3,800.

  6. Finally, quitting a teaching job mid-year would just make me feel like a huge dick.

I know that “Give me your resume” isn’t “I’ll hire you”, but in both cases I’d have about a 75% chance of getting hired – I’d have to blow the interview to not get it. If I got the sales job, I’d go from my current (and future) $35,000 to an average of $65,000 per year. I could be debt free in three years, even if I only made an average of $50,000 per year.

My biggest hang-up is that this move would signal the end of my teaching career permanently. I wouldn’t have it available as a safety net any longer. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that. My wife did point out, however, that I’m a nationally certified cable television technician, and I swear that I’ll never, ever do that job again because I hated it so much.

So, now that I’ve gone on for this long (it was cathartic!), I ask you: should I take a risk and bet on myself to be successful in a new career? Or should I tough it out until June, hate my work life every day, but keep my safety net?

2

Stick with it. You can make it to June, one week, one day at a time.

3

Teacher without a job here. Keep teaching till June, it’s worth it, on so many levels.

4

Why not get your resumes out there but make clear that you couldn’t be available until June? Working through your present commitments shows character, and it keeps your options open for the future, as well as not burning bridges.

5

Seconded. No point in throwing away a professional license. Suck it up, tough it out, while still looking at other options.

6

I agree, get to June and get the transferable certificate. In Illinois the secondary certificate is good for Grades 6 - 12, so maybe you’d rather go younger. Just six more months - make a count- down calendar.

7

I could understand quitting if you had some once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of you, that was your dream job since college. But it doesn’t really sound like that’s the case, since you didn’t say much about either job. Especially with that commission-only sales job, if that job isn’t around in June then I’m sure they’ll be another one just like it.

I think you should take a step back and figure out what you want to do besides teaching, and if that is a higher or lower priority than moving back to the Midwest. And then come up with a long-term game plan, or a couple different long-term plans that you think you’d be happy with. You have a job now, that has some aspects that you like, so see the next few months as time to get your ducks in row while still collecting a paycheck.

8

Another vote for sticking with the job you have now until you can complete your contract.

A sales job that’s commission only could be tough - you could end up making less than you do now, and sales requires a certain personality type and skill that most people don’t have. I’d stay away from that unless you’ve worked successfully in sales before and know you like it. You didn’t say what the other job was, but if it is something you think you might like to do and be good at, it doesn’t hurt to get a resume out there - if they like you they might consider you for future openings.

9

This, this, this.

10

Another vote in favor of staying until June. Explain to your contact your reasons for having to stay until then. They may be flexible. In fact they may have thought you needed to get out asap and would prefer to wait a few months.

11

It really sounds like you’re better off finishing out the year regardless. Also don’t buy into any numbers when it comes to a sales job. There are indeed sales jobs where first year salespeople make $80k a year, so $50-65k isn’t unrealistic. However sometimes in the same exact company the disparity between two salesmen can be vast (such as one making $100k and the other making $20k.)

Sales, at least where your income is 100% commission, isn’t like any other job you’ve done before and some people can excel at it as easy as breathing. Some excel at it through hard work, and some people legitimately cannot succeed at it and will not make money at it.

12

You always need a fall-back in life. A teaching certificate without burned bridges is a good fall-back. And your fall-back doesn’t have to be something you love. Just something you can do to put the food on the table.

You will have a dependent on your hands pretty soon. I’m not thinking you’d want to be so risky at this time. Sales jobs are always pretty risky. And stressful.

13

Joining the growing crowd. 75% chance at a commissions-based job isn’t a good enough reason to basically sabotage a fall-back career path. Add in the debt forgiveness and the “not feeling like a dick” factor and I’d say you’d be foolish not to stick it out.

14

Thanks for all of the responses. I think being debt-free (excepting our mortgage) is a bigger concern than moving back to the Midwest.

I’m worried about my wife’s pregnancy. This will be our second child, but we had our first when we had amazing health insurance. Her due date is roughly the same day as the end of the school year, so I’m worried that if I stay and have bad insurance we’ll end up in a very deep financial hole.

It will be nice to have teaching as a fall-back, but the license is only good for three or five years before it needs to be renewed. It can only be renewed by completing graduate-level courses or by going to professional development as a teacher. So, it’s really only a fall-back if I fail at sales immediately.

I’ve done some sales work before, but never as my primary job function. I’m pretty good at it, and this would be a job with a product that’s always in demand.

I’m leaning toward submitting my resume with the “start at the end of May” caveat.

15

I’m in a pure commission sales job (commercial real estate) and many people are barely hanging on with their finger nails, and many have quit. You seem to be looking at this potential sales job as if you are guaranteed 65K a year. Most pure commission sales jobs that provide you with a middle class to upper middle class income are usually going to be pretty competitive and in this economy many experienced commissioned sales people (in general) are barely hanging on

I understand your dilemma. I would not be a high school teacher for all the tea in China, but thinking that you are going to walk into a commissioned sales job and be enough of a superstar in that field to make a reliable 65K annual income is not really much a plan. Also, be aware that when sales people talk positively about how much you can make their field they are usually quoting ranges for experienced top tier performers, not newbies. We are professional optimists after all.

Beyond this most pure commissioned sales people are employed as independent contractors and have to get their own health insurance at a much higher cost than state employees pay for similar benefits. In pure commissioned sales there also aren’t really any paid vacations or off time. You define your schedule.

A public school teacher with a few years under their belt is actually one of the better paid and more secure jobs out there in the current economy. Some sales people I know are going into teaching as a preferred vocation.

Think hard before you make the leap.

16

If you hate your job, it will show in the classroom. I’m not a fan of people using teaching as a fall-back, but you have a baby on the way. I’d focus on making the job more enjoyable if you can.

17

Suck it up and finish.
One tip would be to become the best and hardest teacher in school.
Start passing out “F’s” like Halloween candy. Kids that age might seem like brats on steroids, but when they think they might actually have to repeat a class again, you will be surprised how fast they ship up.
Work with the best of your 170 students and let the slackers flunk out. Give daily points for participation; you act up or disrupt class, you get zero points that day.
Then, if nothing else, you have the satisfaction of helping those who want it and need it, and at the same time, you are giving a life lesson to the jackoffs who think they can coast through life.
You might be surprised to get the respect from students - word spreads you are the “hard teacher” - but at the same time, the good students all feel like they are finally learning something from someone who cares.

This will not, of course, help in any way financially. It will, however, making teaching a more rewarding experience. Plus, if you don’t intend to be there next year anyway, what have you got to lose? Sometimes the best teachers are the hardest and “meanest” of the lot.

18

How deep can it be? I don’t have insurance, so I went to a website run by my state’s health department to help me decide which urgent care/e.r. would be the best deal financially when I needed to be seen for Lyme disease this summer. While I was there, I check out some of the other prices for things, having a baby in local hospitals being one of them. Absolutely worst case scenario, with no insurance whatsoever I could have a baby with a $10,000-12,000 out-of-pocket bill going home with me and the hypothetical baby. Health care costs are supposed to be worse here than many places, which is why the very least expensive insurance plans for single people start at over $150 a month (if I wanted one with a pregnancy rider, it’d be $900/mo…how does that save me any money considering they’ll only add it if you’re not already pregnant? How much do the prenatal visits cost? Unless they cost 3x a regular office visit, I can’t see saving more than $2000 that way). Even if your insurance sucks, you should pay less for the birth than someone without any, right?

But anyway, if you were still taking “votes,” I’d be on the side of riding it out until the end of the school year too. There are so many more downsides to taking the risk than potential positives there.

19

Aside from all the rest, you DO like teaching. I always used to say: “I’d teach for free, they have to pay me to grade.”

20

+1 to “Finish out the year”.

And, I’ll add, have you considered teaching middle or grade school instead of high school? The love of my life teaches early middle school because they can’t stand kids once the hormones really kick in, but love them before that.

But I can’t imagine having 170 students! Makes me even more want to punch in the face everyone complaining that the real problem in our educational system is teacher’s unions…