How I left Teaching and Why I Came Back and Stay

Tomorrow, I get to meet my 11th group of students. I have been doing this profession for ten years now and I am still excited for every new group like it’s my first time all over again. People often make comments about how hard my job is and how they can never do it. They ask why I continue doing it.

To answer this question, it might help to give some back story. I taught second grade for 8 years in Tucson, Arizona during one of the worst economic recessions in American history. Over the course of those eight years, I observed my salary shrink and shrink. Sure, I was getting minimal raises every year. However, the increase in the cost of insurance and other benefits made the raise a wash. In my eighth year of teaching, I was taking home less money than I was during my first year teaching. Even though I had a part time job, I was burying myself in debt to maintain a job that I loved. Because of that, I made an important decision. After eight years, I quit teaching.

Once I quit, I was quickly hired to work as a bartender at a swanky resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Let me tell you, there is some money to be made there. One random Tuesday evening, I had a table of 6 people come in for happy hour and their tab was nearly $1,800 before tip. Thanks in large part to groups like this, I was able to work about 30-35 hours a week and make nearly double what I was making as a teacher in Tucson. (As a teacher, I was working 60-90 hours a week.) Another big plus was when I was able to clock out of my job around 11 at night and I was able to leave all of my work at work. Nothing came home with me. It felt great to sleep in a bit every day, leisurely read by the pool, go to the gym, and go to the bathroom when I wanted.

As months of this lifestyle wore on, I noticed a change in me. I was not enjoying the days as much any longer. I was beginning to get a bit bored at work. Once you learn how to make most cocktails and you can make them quickly, there is really no room to grow or challenge yourself. I also began to doubt if the point of my life was to make drinks for snobby, rich people. I became aware that my current life was lacking direction and purpose. I knew that I needed to do something more. After 13 months of living the high life, I made another fateful decision. I returned to teaching.

I am now beginning my third year after what I refer back to as my sabbatical. That sabbatical was the best thing for me. For one, it helped me get out of a huge amount of debt. Plus, it proved to me some questions that had always nagged at the back of my mind. Was teaching the career I wanted? Would I like to do anything else? That year, I learned that teaching is what I wanted to do and I was not happy doing anything else. With my sabbatical, I may have always had those doubts.

Now that I have been back for several years, I know what keeps me in the field. Teaching is challenging and rewarding. No day is like any other and every situation requires a different way to look at it. Thus, teaching never gets boring or mundane.

If I did my calculations correct, I have made nearly $350,000 in my ten years of teaching. However, I have also made at least 250 differences. Can you imagine anything more rewarding than that? It was fun slinging cocktails and glasses of wine but I wasn’t changing any lives at the bar!

Another reason I stay is because my students and my staff need me. Somehow, Arizona has found its pockets empty again and now it is very hard to hire qualified teachers. Many classrooms in my district are going to be empty this year because there aren’t any teachers applying for the positions. These students are going to be divided up into other classes. I have even heard stories about teachers getting rid of their desks to make room for more students. Our students deserve better. Our teachers deserve better. I stay to give my students the quality instruction they need. I stay to join with my colleagues to help carry burdens which may be too heavy as staffs dwindle. I stay to encourage other teachers to stay and to give our students a better future.

I stay because I am afraid that no one else will. I stay because I do not want our students to feel alone. I stay because I know I can make an impact. I stay because I know that I may make mistakes but I will not fail our students. I stay because I can. And like my good friend, Alaina Adams said, “those who can, should teach.” Why do you stay?