Last Year, I Quit My Teaching Job. I Thought I Would Miss It. I Don't.

Here's why.

Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash

Last year, I quit my teaching job.

I quit after my dean gave me a chocolate bar for a raise (as a joke), then denied me a remote teaching arrangement—even though I was already teaching online, and I offered to teach more courses for a lower salary.

It wasn’t the only reason.

Since then, I wondered if I would miss it. I wondered if I would ever find myself longing to return to the classroom.

I don’t.

First, I don’t miss giving up night after night and weekend after weekend planning lessons, grading papers, and answering emails.

I don’t miss endless department meetings where every single item gets kicked down the road to the next endless department meeting.

I don’t miss working my ass off June, July, and August doing professional development, independent studies, assessment, and curricular planning, only to hear my own family talk about how nice it must be to have summers off. I don’t miss giving up a Saturday morning for commencement.

I don’t miss paying out of poc…