How to Cope While Working in Public Schools: Reddit

I found myself entangled in Reddit for several weeks--odd because everyone has always said that Reddit was racist, so I stayed away. But there were at least two threads that I became a fan of in order to get through the last weeks of school:

• r/Teachers and
• r/TeachersinTransition.

Any online group is going to have major selection biases. But what piqued my attention was post after post about people's horrible experiences in public school education as teachers. It isn't that I thought my experiences as a non-classroom teacher were unique. It is that what I have seen and experienced seems truly bizarre; and because everyone around me [in education] appears to be lulled to sleep so, sometimes, I question my reality. After reading on Reddit on one hand, I am not so sure of my uniqueness. On the other hand, the racial aspects that I am detailing on this website are those that the Redditors–being inherently racist--reject. And so the commiseration with strangers was a relief until the group think and racism reared its ugly head.

In a short time, I became a top commenter across a few boards. Reddit was reinforcing my behavior by giving me badges and awards and shit. I was excited to get into the minds of public school educators who were expressive and articulate. I wanted to know where they were located. Was education bad just in the Tampa Bay Area? In Florida? In the South? In urban areas? In majority minority areas? I wanted to know what happened, what actions the aggrieved teachers took, how they coped, and what their next steps were for LEAVING EDUCATION.

I was in love with stories about people who had left and were living life. There was no one path or some double six-figure post-teacher haven awaiting them. But their freedom from toxicity was priceless. I quickly grew tired of the same questions appearing every few days about some terrible situation and what should the person do about it. My answer is simple: LEAVE. It doesn't matter where you go, but you have to get to he hell out of whatever that situation is. IT NEVER GETS BETTER, especially after you "fight" and even if you"win." You must keep moving if you wish to preserve yourself and your dignity.

And in keeping in line with what I just wrote, I deleted my Reddit account, refocused, and eventually sat down to continue writing here.

If you are curious, the answers to my questions and statements above are as follows:

• Where were they located?
  • Everywhere in the U.S. and even some European countries.
• Was education bad just in the Tampa Bay Area?
  • No.
• In Florida?
  • No not just bad in Florida. But the consensus was that it was very bad in Florida.
• In the South?
  • Yes. Most of those who spoke positively of public school education were in the northern areas of the U.S.
• In urban areas?
  • It depends on if you are in the South, LOL!
• In majority minority areas?
  • Yes it is likely even outside of the South.
• What happened to them?
  • Various stories about toxic and hostile work environments; bullying from colleagues, administrators, and parents; administrators that don't do shit/side with parents, etc.
• What actions did the aggrieved take?
  • Mostly teachers do not fight. I need to write an entire post about this. For years I have talked about doing a dissertation on teachers as victims of domestic violence. In a less sympathetic manner, I refer to teachers as cowards.
• How do they cope?
  • Drinking, drugs, "working the clock", not volunteering for anything extra, doing non-work things during work, doing just the basics at work, teaching only the students that wanted to learn, putting on a dog and pony show, therapy...