Between Passion and Reality
I’m an elementary teacher – I love my kids. Most of them are fantastic, I enjoy every minute with them and it really is my happy place just hanging out with them.
Unfortunately, I’m also really tired of dealing with the kids who need so much extra. I understand that they have a lot of trauma and need a lot of love and boundaries and patience and everything else. I used to love working with those kids and I got really good at it. Good enough that I have a reputation as a teacher that can help all those kids.
But I’m losing my love for teaching because of them. It was different when it was just 1 or 2 kids a year. Now it’s 10 or 15 kids with severe challenges. I know how to help them, but I just don’t have the energy to anymore. I can’t fix all of them and it’s overwhelming.
I’m thinking of leaving the profession. But I just started a program to get a 2nd degree to further my career. I would feel like such a failure if I left now.
I’m just tired of spending 90% of my energy on 10% of my kids and making such little progress. If I spent that 90% of my energy on the kids I wanted to, we could accomplish awesome things.