Teacher’s viral Facebook rant is a reminder of how hard that job can be

Most people can agree that teachers have a really hard job. Sure, they may get summers off, but their challenges are well-documented. Between molding the minds of the future, low salaries, putting in hours outside school grading and lesson planning, communicating with parents, threats of violence and the lack of funding for America’s public schools—it’s tough to say that they have it easy.

One teacher recently took to Facebook to share her thoughts on what makes her job so difficult. Her words struck a chord, and the post has now been shared more than 400,000 times in less than two weeks.

Teacher Describes Reasons For Leaving Career

Julie Marburger, an educator in Texas’s Bastrop Independent School District, said she plans to leave the profession after this school year. In her post, she details the reasons why:

“Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse,” Marburger wrote on March 28. “Administration always seems to err on the side of keeping the parent happy, which leaves me with no way to do the job I was hired to do…teach kids.”

Along with the 634-word post, Marburger shared photos of her classroom, which she said are representative of how it looks after a typical day of teaching. The photos show that her classroom is left a mess, with items damaged, many of which, she wrote, she has purchased herself, “because I have NO classroom budget.”

‘I’ve Done Practically Everything Short Of Doing The Work For Them”

According to her school’s website, Marburger teaches sixth grade English language arts. Her biography there states that she formerly taught child development and parenting in Dallas and that she has four children and four step-children of her own.

The frustrated teacher went on to say in her Facebook post that many of her students are failing due to a number of missing assignments, despite weekly reminders, as well as phone calls and emails to parents.

“But now I’m probably going to spend my entire week next week fielding calls and emails from irate parents, wanting to know why I failed their kid,” Marburger wrote. “My administrator will demand an explanation of why I let so many fail without giving them support, even though I’ve done practically everything short of doing the work for them. And behavior in my class will deteriorate even more. I am expecting this, because it is what has happened at the end of every other term thus far.”

She went on to explain that she’s chosen to end her career as a teacher because although she feels she’s given it her all, she feels deeply disrespected by parents and students alike.

‘My Heart Is Broken’

Margburger said she’s just the latest in a long line of teachers to feel forced to leave the profession that they’re passionate about.

“It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to have a classroom of my own, and now my heart is broken to have become so disillusioned in these short two years,” she wrote. “This is almost all I hear from other teachers as well, and they are leaving the profession in droves. There is going to be a teacher crisis in this country before too many more years has passed unless the abuse of teachers stops.”

Teachers Fighting Back For Respect, Funding

Her post came right as angry teachers were protesting a lack of funding and holding organized walk-outs in states including Arizona, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

After Marburger’s post went viral—and people chimed in to express their support—she wrote an update, saying that she was overwhelmed by the response and never expected her words to reach so many. Although she said she may have considered her wording more carefully had she known the post would have such a large audience, she said she’s glad her words contributed to a larger discussion. She also said she plans to start writing a blog about her feelings on teaching.

“[I] hope many of you will join me in the discussion. If we all work together, we can make the changes we need for our collective success,” she wrote.

She also didn’t back away from her decision to quit her job at the end of the school year.

Do you think teachers have it rough in this country?

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