Count me as another ex-public school teacher. I substituted for two years (which taught me how to manage a classroom–sink or swim) then I taught full time for two years on an emergency credential. I hated my credential classes. Too much money for nothing practically useful. As junior member of the English department at my middle school, I consistently took the worst behaved students and did well with most of them. I took the language learners and the troublemakers. (Not coincidentally my classes were usually two-thirds to three-quarters male.) As a 24-year-old woman, this was challenging but not unsatisfactory. I loved my students, but became disillusioned with the district and the system. When I was laid off in budget cuts when older, but far more useless, teachers in the school had tenure, I decided that the public schools were not for me and I would never send my children to them.
At thirty, I am a homemaker who is looking forward to homeschooling my own son and any other children I have. I know I will do a great job and my son will never have to suffer the educational consequences of union politics and government beaurocracy.
