It's no secret that teaching is an incredibly difficult (and sometimes thankless) job. Teachers are often expected to pay out-of-pocket for supplies, deal with demands from parents, school boards, and even the government, handle crises, manage all kinds of students, and navigate truly any situation thrown at them. It's enough to break anyone down.
With all that pressure, surely most teachers experience at least one situation that makes them consider leaving the field altogether.
Perhaps you dealt with many difficult parents in your day, but one year you almost quit altogether over the actions of one particular mom. She'd show up to the school at random and demand to spy on her 10-year-old son. She'd call and email you any time her son scored less than 95% on an assignment and demand to know why you were "flunking" him. She'd even leave threatening notes on your car if you did not answer her calls or reply to her emails quickly enough. You had to have multiple members of your administration team present for your parent-teacher conferences. Her behavior almost drove you to quit, but the family moved before the year was up.
Maybe you were super close to quitting after receiving no help or support from admin over a violent student who punched you during class one day. You actually left for the day after the attack and let your principal handle the aftermath. The principal removed the student from your roster, and you were able to finish out the year without any more issues.
Or, perhaps an endless stream of budget cuts has you considering leaving education altogether. You're tired of paying for all your own classroom supplies and really can't afford to do this much longer. You're able to make it another year thanks to the generosity of a few families, who happened to donate a lot of supplies, but you're not sure you'll return after this upcoming school year.
