“Not sure what to blog about today? How about one on the teachers you know dreading having to go back to work!!”

Brilliant.

This first thing this morning from a friend … who is a teacher.

It’s that time of year.

A full half of my fewer than 50 Facebook friends are either Teachers, Professors, Adjunct Professors, or Retired Educators.

For that matter, I was trained to be a Secondary Math Teacher.

Yeah. Me.

And why did I not do that full-time?

I respect no study and deem no study good, which results in money- making.
— Seneca (c. 5 BCE-65 CE) Epistolae ad Lucilium.

Seems that money and teaching have been at odds for a long, long time. And I wanted to be able to pay bills.

And I was a horrid lion-tamer.

As it turns out I ended up teaching for much of my life … adult teaching … post secondary … continuing education … whatever.

I’ll probably get enough in my Teaching Retirement check to cover one lunch each month.

But preparing for a whole years worth of full-time teaching? Every year? For my entire working life?

Heavens No.

Several of my teaching friends have recently decided to call it a day. Enough is enough after all.

Some just reached “the age”. Some were too burnt out. Some were afraid their hard-earned pensions would be cut.

And some sucked it up and are going back.

One teacher on one of the cartoons here commented…

“Sometimes this is me….not bcoz of my students, but bcoz of departmental red tape & educational paperwork!”

Not an English Teacher.

Wait.

Shouldn’t we be encouraging good teachers to stay instead of making it difficult for them to do their job?

Just sayin’.

But the bottom line is, kids are not the only ones reluctant to see summer vacation come to an end.

It is when the gods hate a man with uncommon abhorrence that they drive him into the profession of a school-master

Seneca (c. 5 BCE-65 CE) via Quotes.