New Elementary School Teacher Admits She Wants To Quit After Her First Day — ‘It's So Much Worse Than I Imagined’

After just one day as an elementary educator, a woman on Reddit admitted that she was ready to throw in the towel. Although she was aware of the many struggles teachers face in the classroom, the day proved to be much more challenging than she anticipated. 

"I thought I could handle it," she wrote, "but it was so much worse than I could have ever imagined."

The elementary school teacher admitted she was ready to quit after her first day.

Admittedly unsure if she was posting on Reddit to vent or seek advice, the woman outlined her day, which started with fights between her students and ended with a health emergency.

“I [don’t know] if I can handle this, to be honest,” she added. “I don’t think I can just quit either [because] it breaks an ethical contract or something. I am dreading going in tomorrow.”

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“On day one, I had multiple fights I had to break up, kids shoving each other into tables, kids flipping chairs and smashing chairs into the floor,” she shared. “A kid tried to run out of the room and escape. Kids rolling around on the floor screaming.”

Student behavior has become a major issue for teachers, with some getting severely injured on the job. Many schools and districts don't provide the necessary support, and with a lack of funding and staff shortages, problematic behavior often gets overlooked.

Teachers are forced to adopt the roles of parent, counselor, and therapist, simultaneously trying to educate, discipline, and support their students. For many inexperienced teachers — and even those who have spent decades in the field — this is overwhelming and unsustainable. 

“One kid broke down into a full-blown panic attack and was completely unresponsive,” she continued, expressing the desperation she felt trying to help them. “I could not get him to move, which caused another kid to break down, crying hysterically.”

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On top of all of that, she added, “Some kid pooped on the floor, and I had to clean it up” because there were no janitorial staff or administrators to help her.

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This teacher's experience on day one of the job highlights why so many teachers are leaving the profession.

Without adequate funding, a supportive school environment, staff to assist teachers, and clear expectations for managing misbehavior, these tendencies only worsen, setting kids and teachers up for failure.

Given all she dealt with in one day, it's no wonder that so many teachers are quitting their jobs — some because their health cannot handle the stress of the occupation, others due to the emotional burden, and more still because of the lack of support. 

And with the ever-growing teacher shortages across the country, schools are forced to turn to teachers with no experience, like this Reddit poster who admitted she had "no background" in teaching. These “temporary” solutions both sacrifice students’ well-being and education and are incredibly toxic for teachers who are not prepared, hardly trained, and incredibly ill-equipped to handle the intense emotional, physical, and mental situations present in many classrooms. 

However, as many school districts quickly learn, they don’t have any other choice. As one commenter admitted, “If they could attract people with the qualifications to do the job, they would.”

"I really have been wondering, ‘Why did they hire me?’ and I think I understand now,” the teacher wrote in response to the comment. “I was told that this school has a reputation for difficult behavior, but I did not think the first day would be this extreme.”

While some teachers in the comments urged her to “stick it out” for the year in hopes that things will get better, others were adamant that she “get out of there” before she’s talked into staying for too long. 

“This is not normal behavior,” one wrote under the post. “This is not what teaching is. Feel free to resign…That’s way too much stress.”

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Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories