How do you survive teaching when students don't care at all?
Students feel no sense of responsibility, refuse to do activities, and treat teachers with complete disrespect because they know they won't be allowed to fail. This apathy destroys teachers' personal lives with overwhelming guilt and leaves classrooms vandalized, driving experienced educators to the breaking point.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using communication apps like Remind for push notifications
- 2Venting to colleagues or seeking sustainable stress relief like a drink
- 3Cutting out all extra activities, games, music, and choices, and strictly doing worksheets
- 4Taking personal days to reset
- 5Doing something different or leaving the profession altogether
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Every activity no matter if it’s a game, writing about their weekend, or turn and talks students complains and are so disrespectful.”source ↗
“The other day in one of my classes a group of 8-9 students told me they don’t care about their grades neither do their parents.”source ↗
“I don’t enjoy my hobbies anymore because I feel this overwhelming guilt about school.”source ↗
“Too many students feel no sense of responsibility for their own learning. They've learned that most parents/teachers won't LET them fail. So they just don't give a shit.”source ↗
“I could tattoo test dates on my face and still have a student tell me it wasn’t posted.”source ↗
“I have been at this for about 15 years now, and I can tell you categorically it is getting worse. I can't do this another 15 years, friends.”source ↗
“Took a personal day other day, came back to classroom a mess. Two of my lights for my shelves broken, two posters on ground, and pencil shavings everywhere.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 21Why does teaching involve so much paperwork and useless bureaucracy?
- 4How to handle students falling asleep in class
- 11How to motivate a child who doesn't care about punishments
- 144Why are students behaving so badly and parents refusing accountability?
- 12Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?
- 4Why does school admin never show up during a student crisis?