If it’s any consolation, you are going through the two-month period (October and November) that 99% of teachers will agree was the low point of their first years – I spent my first Halloween afternoon parked in a Burger King parking lot because I was crying so hard I couldn’t drive.

Seven years later I am still teaching, and have recently published a book to help teachers (especially new teachers) bounce back from the type of low point you are experiencing. It’s called “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers,” and it combines hundreds of stories and tips from teachers around the country. (PRACTICAL tips, and HONEST stories – not the type of so-called-advice that amounts to, “Well, that would never happen in MY class because I’m better than you.”)

Feel free to check it out at my website, http://www.seemeafterclass.net. There’s also a poem for new teachers that I just posted in the resource section a couple of days ago because, as I said, this month is very, very hard on new teachers. It may not make you feel all the way better, but at least you know you are not alone. There is a good chance that if you ride this period out you will make it to the point where you will realize there is a lot to love about teaching.

There is. I promise.

Or perhaps what she needs, before being told to “just go home” is some sound encouragement, advice, and mentoring. In my 20+ years in the military, (where I was worked as a leader, trainer, supervisor, adviser, liaison officer, analyst) that’s what we tried to do with soldiers who were failing. Mentoring and rehabilitation were used before getting rid of a soldier (and trust me, getting rid of a soldier isn’t as hard as some may think). Often times the problem is not with the individual but with the leadership – or lack of leadership.

It’s a darn good thing that many accomplished people (Einstein, Jordan, Edison) didn’t listen to those who said they wouldn’t amount to much or couldn’t do what they wanted to do.

While I do agree with you that some people are just *not cut out to do certain jobs* the first advice one should give is not “quit and go home” in my opinion.

The first year I taught high school, it was hell. My wife noted that my picture in the yearbook had an expression that seemed to say, “What am I doing here?” The second year was completely different. It wasn’t hell at all, and I felt good about the progress I was making as a teacher, and the progress my students were making. The third year was fun fun fun. The fourth year I was looking forward to each day. This may or may not happen to you. I wasn’t in the same type of school you’re in, so the variables coincide very little. One of the big epiphanies for me was that if I take myself too seriously, I get stessed and demand too much from the kids, so every day on the way to school I make the conscious decision to have fun. And I do. And the kids do. I never joined the many colleagues that counted the days to Friday because I thought they were wasting their lives when they could be enjoying doing what they’re being paid to do. I’d much rather be with my students than the serious hand-wringing administrators that try to micromanage everyone’s day to raise state test scores. I don’t know if this helps. I hope it does. Attitude makes all the difference. Still, if you are in danger of bodily harm every day, I don’t think anyone could convince me to stay on. I love teaching, but I wouldn’t waste my time where there are absolutely no blessings at all, only fear and frustration.

In both daily newspapering (where I spent nearly 20 years) and in public relations — and I suspect in many other fields, others could offer similar anecdotes — I have been a mentor, managed internship programs and the like, and have had a number of bright young people with top grades and degrees in the field who decided, upon experiencing the business first-hand (sorry, teaching is a “profession”, right?) that it was not for them.

To coin a phrase, if you can’t/don’t want to teach, “you are not a bad person”. You are but an honest one.

I should have been fired.

I wasn’t fired because the administration was too busy to observe my classroom. And they didn’t care how I was doing or how my students were doing. (And they still don’t.)

I remember drinking a lot every day after school and taking Valium to get through the day.

I worked very hard and corrected papers every night and all weekend.

It took all summer to come down off the stress.

After five years, I got better at it.

And in some ways, I got quite good.

After 35 years, I look back and I’m very happy I stayed with it.

I hope I can stay healthy so I can teach another 10 years or more.

I think the biggest difference in the public schools though is (a) no one to back you up (my department chair was always very supportive) and (b) a lot of the students know they can get away with disruptiveness. (If someone was seriously disruptive in my classes, I would be within rights to call security and have them removed).

What am I saying here? I don’t know, exactly, other than even people in a good situation often feel overwhelmed in their first year or two. Eventually you get the hang of it and things settle down, unless the administration/campus is so chaotic that it’s structurally unsound. (And in that case, there’s perhaps not much a person can do but hang on and remind themselves that they’re doing what good for the students they can.)