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"That said, I wish you the best. If you are blessed with students who have been properly raised your experience can be wonderful. I hope it is so.

Actually, I'm trying to expiate my karmic burden ahead of time. Back in the day, I was one of THOSE students. My 5th grade teacher quit because of me, and I drove several others to drink, drugs, or despair. These days, I'm in a 100% free/reduced-price lunch school, and a lot of the kids are ESL as well.

On the positive side, I'm not one of the idealistic young teachers; I'll be 52 in a couple of months, and I've been around the block a bit even in the school system. I did nearly 5 years as an In-School-Restriction teacher (actually, teacher's assistant, but I didn't have a specific teacher to assist). I've also been talking to teachers here and in person for several years, as well. Glad to add you to the list, though. Thanks!

I intend to retire from teaching the day after they pry the chalk from my cold dead fingers...and to afflict the odd kid or so along the way, and help the ones who can profit from a little help. I will consider this payforward for the teachers who did NOT quit or descend into despair because me. Late, and far short of what they deserve, of course, but best I can do.

I'd suggest that you think about some of the ones you've had in the past, that made you feel good about being a teacher. If you got to even one, you haven't wasted your time, and if you've been doing it long enough, I bet there a lot more than one!

Yes, I think I did reach a few kids over the years, but, as I said, students have changed so much. So many of them are narcissistic and lacking in intellectual curiosity. Again, products of faulty upbringing by lazy, self-absorbed parents.

I was just astounded in my later years by the number of students that I encountered who thought that that they should get credit just for being in the seat and that they should never fail a test or a quiz as long as they "tried", especially since their definition of trying was showing up and putting pen to paper. The truly frightening aspect in all of this was that so many parents enabled this sort of behavior.

The most frustrating part of it all was having weak administrators who would not back me up. I am a person who truly despises being involved in conflicts, and I am very big on positive reinforcement and profuse praise when it it earned, but I was willing to stare down a student and hold him accountable when he cheated or did not do an assignment because I felt that it was part of my job to help build the kid's character. On more than one occasion, I was made to look like I just enjoyed "picking on" students. Basically, administrators wanted me to look the other way so that they would not have to deal with the whining of the kid or the parents. I truly felt morally compromised.