My favorite high school teacher taught biology in The South. This was in a state that had one of those teach the controversy requirements with respect to evolution and the age of the earth and such. Whenever she would get to one of the places where she was required to speak bullshit she'd say "and now the state says I have to tell you a fairy tale, so if you want to go wander the halls for the rest of class you have my permission." When kids raised their hands to tell her science was just, like, her opinion man she'd hum Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to herself until they were done and then carry on like nothing had happened. A lot of my classmates became biologists or doctors. Her first semester was the semester I had her, and she quit to go teach at a little liberal arts college the year after I graduated, because the job was grinding her down.
This is how you get joyless high school teachers who put you off science....rolls eyes when no one's looking and thinks about the joyless high school teachers who put me off science...
You do get that vibe from most public school teachers. Like "You used to care, didn't you?" but that's only evident later to reflective adults. My tenth grade class was really good at making my chemistry teacher cry.because the job was grinding her down.
Well, it's a largely thankless profession, you teach the same things year after year, and probably see kids struggle and fail more often than you'd like...every now and then a prodigy will wander through your class, but even then there's they'll give themselves credit for learning so well instead of respecting you for how well you teach. I wanted to be a teacher for a long time until I actually talked to my debate coach. I became very close with him, and I knew he was being brutally honest when he told me that, although he enjoys teaching, it becomes tedious after so long. We all know how awesome it is to have the the young and enthusiastic teacher, but as stricter and stricter rules are laid down from politicians who want to make education a political rallying point, parents and students continue to be batshit insane, and you still don't get the salary you deserve? The young, enthusiastic teacher turns into the crabby curmudgeon who couldn't be arsed to care about another generation of students that they're starting to understand less and less.
When I hear someone advocating cutting education spending in the US citing the fact that spending on educators is the top cost, I just feel like the whole point is being missed. The highest cost at most companies is their employees - and it should be, if you want to attract high quality employees. Some people have chosen to conflate their grudge against a few of their primary school teachers with making our education system better, and it's been extraordinarily popular, with little gain in anything measurable. We do need accountability in education. But we also need to spend on it like it's a national defense priority. My wife is a teacher, and I didn't realize until she started watching how much of the classroom comes out of the teacher's pocket. And the tax credit that teachers get (and almost lost) is such a laughably low amount.