My name is Roger, and I’m a teachaholic.
I was, at least.
For 31 years, it has been my privilege to teach in Utah’s schools. By my best guess, I have taught over 6,000 students. I have welcomed more than 30,000 classes and taught 12 different subjects in eight different schools across four school districts. I have had my life blessed through interactions with hundreds of colleagues.
In 2014, I was nominated by students and parents and honored to win the Huntsman Award For Excellence in Education. There are truly some remarkable kids in this world, and my life has been greatly enriched by them.
But now, due to politics and lack of autonomy, I’m being forced to leave a profession I love.
As I reflect back, I remember times when I went home at night feeling like I had made a huge difference. There have been times when I went home at night wondering if I was worthy of my profession. There are kids I worry about and kids I Google to see the amazing things they are doing after they have moved on. There are doctors, teachers, engineers, business owners, welders, auto mechanics and, thankfully, only a few lawyers.
I have tried to be as involved as I could. I even ran for State Legislature to try to influence things from the political angle. I have learned that politics in our country are controlled by followers on the far ends of the political spectrum. The extreme left controls the left and the extreme right controls the right while the 80% of us in the middle are left wondering where we fit in.
[Are you a Utah teacher who has considered leaving the profession? Tell us why or why not.]
Education has not been excused from this process. As teachers, we are accused by the left of teaching right wing politics such as religion or other divisive issues, while the right accuses us of catering to the left’s agenda on issues such as critical race theory and reproductive rights.
Most of us are completely removed from all of that. We just want to teach. Yet every year legislation is introduced that squeezes a little more autonomy from us, replacing it with an ever increasing lack of trust and additional scrutiny, tightening the reins. Not being trusted in a profession that you have worked so hard to develop a level of expertise in is discouraging.
In response to this political scrutiny and oversight, administrators have followed with their own increased level of expectations and demands, including difficult-to-implement “professional learning communities.”
Teachers are blamed for student indifference and failure. The focus is primarily on underperforming students, while honors programs are removed in order to provide more help for struggling kids. “No Child Left Behind,” has truly become “No Child Pushed Forward.”
Teachers are no longer considered experts on their subjects. Soon, I worry we will no longer be allowed to teach according to our strengths and passions. Curriculum is being designed that will require teachers to simply regurgitate information that the district has designed.
Education is no longer about teaching and learning, it’s about getting students ready for the big test at the end of the year. By state law, those big test scores cannot be used for student grades, and they cannot be used for teacher evaluations. The only thing that they accomplish is the destruction of a kids’ confidence when they work hard all year, study and do everything they are supposed to do and get a level 1 out of 4. Not proficient.
I cannot honestly say that education is even about kids anymore. Stakeholders at every level of education, from parents, to legislators, to administrators are increasing the demands on teachers and this increasingly unbearable burden has led to a great exodus from the classroom.
In the coming months, I will join that exodus. Not because I want to, but because I have to. Financially, I can’t afford to leave but, emotionally, I can’t afford to stay. Teaching used to be fun and enjoyable. In these last few years it has become hard labor with whip masters ready to crack down on anyone and anything that deviates from defined directions.
I will miss the kids. I will miss these little 13 year-old personalities with their joys and quirks. I will miss watching as, year after year, a new set of students enters on the first day and a more mature set leaves on the last. I will even miss the little goofball who aggravates me on a daily basis because he fails to see his potential, but then later surprises everyone as he changes the world.
If you ask me who my heroes are, I can readily identify a handful of kids who changed me and my life because they defied the odds and the life they were dealt.
This has been a great profession for me, but it just isn’t fun anymore. It is time to go.
Roger Donohoe
Roger Donohoe is a seventh grade science teacher at North Cache Middle School.
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