I'm A Teacher; My Job Disappoints Me

Maybe it's the time of the year, but this profession that I supposedly love is not at all what I thought it was. The students are uniformly and universally irritating, shallow, and disinclined to work or thought.

My colleagues, although mostly harmless, are small-minded and petty. The few that publish are insular and invisible on campus. The ones who bluster and shout don't work at all, but tell everyone that they do. They crowd into each other's offices and convince themselves that they're the anointed ones, the one who really care. And when you turn your back, you can be sure they're judging you.

The life of the mind? My day consists of babysitting and busywork. I race from meeting to meeting with committees that literally do nothing but discuss how much better they are than other committees. My main campus-wide committee has met 9 times this year and we've done nothing but killed time and trees.

Maybe I'm foolish for have expecting more. How did this profession attract so many small people?

And I'd talk about the students more if I hadn't already given up on them. In a class of 30, you can be sure that there will be only 1-2 who actually want to work, actually will respect the process enough to listen. The rest are so reluctant to work or read or listen or pay attention, that I might as well be talking to a pack of yowling pups.

So, what on earth am I doing, and why do I care?

Perhaps you should spend more time trying to understand your students and make them interested in what you're teaching?  And perhaps you'll feel rewarded when you see them expressing more interest in learning as a result of your encouragement?