Teacher Blasts "Enabler Parents" For Raising Disrespectful Kids Who "Destroy" Classrooms, Says She's Quitting
People on the internet agree with this teacher whose post shaming enabling parents has gone viral.
Jul. 2 2023, Updated 9:54 a.m. ET
One of the earliest things my mom taught me and my siblings growing up whenever we went anywhere was that we should treat that place like our own home. If we were playing with someone else's toys, we should treat it like it was our own property.
That, coupled with the fact that we didn't grow up as the family who always had all of the newest toys and gadgets, meant that we had a respect for our own belongings, and coincidentally a respect for other people's because our mom stayed on top of us. Now it might seem like such a simple concept for someone to grasp, but we've all met those kids who are basically a walking tornado.
They leave mayhem in their wake, wherever they roam. Now you can scold the child and ask them just who the heck they think they are, or if they're a toddler, just chalk it up to the fact that they're going through the Satan Spawn phase of their life.
But if they're old enough to know better and still see no problem with their behavior, then that responsibility falls squarely on the parent's shoulders. I mean, yes, kids can be influenced by their friends and what they see on TV, but ultimately parents should be in control of that. So I get where this teacher is coming from with her epic rant on parents who "enable" kids' bad behavior.
Julie Marburger, an educator for the Bastrop School District in Texas, says she plans on leaving the profession. There are a number of reasons for her doing so that boil down to a single reason: it's a thankless job.
Most teachers pay for their classroom supplies out of pocket (the school usually doesn't provide funding for that), yet Marburger (like many teachers) has experienced students destroying supplies that she spent her own money on. The lack of involvement from parents in their own kids' education is another huge reason she's calling it quits. If you've ever worked in a school or have a kid enrolled in one right now, you know that there are several notices, texts, and/or phone calls that parents get if a child is struggling in school.
Yet Marburger, again, like most teachers, gets bombared by messages from parents who are upset at the teacher, not their child, that their kid failed their class. Here's her rant, in full below. It's powerful stuff and you can really see that her frustration is rooted in real-world experience, and photos of the ruined classroom drive that point home.
Marburger ends her post by saying that she's pretty much fed up and that her passion for education has been "wrung" out of her. She acknowledges that there are going to be people to tell her to maintain an air of positivity, but she's just had enough at this point.
Turns out there are plenty of other people on social media who sympathize with Marburger's point of view. Her post was shared over 280,000 times and tons of people commented on her story with public school horror stories of their own.
Other teachers echoed her sentiments, saying that they retired at a young age and that "parenting" should be made a mandatory class in school.
There were some commenters who mentioned that compared to other industrialized nations, America doesn't value or support its teachers that much.
Numbers don't lie either, American teachers are compensated less than teachers in other parts of the world with similar certifications. Regardless of what you may think about Marburger's choice to stop teaching all together, it's hard to deny that there are many people who feel the same way she does about working as an educator in America.
