What r/Teachers keeps coming back to
Complaints raised here by more than one person. One-off posts are not included.
458 recurring problems · 2926 threads read · read since September 2026 · Reddit
Raised more than once here
Most people first.
- 230Why does pet grief last for years?“I need to phone it in tomorrow after losing my elderly dog today.”
- 159Why are students behaving so badly and parents refusing accountability?“that’s exactly what happened to me at a previous job. Parent didn’t want to admit their child had behavioral problems so she blamed all his actions and hurting others on me (saying i hurt the kids and blaming it on the student to cover my ass), it got the point i was put on leave and the police/child protective services got involved (i was eventually cleared of all wrong doing but it left such a negative taste in my mouth i never returned to being a full time teacher again ).”
- 128How do I identify if these bugs are bed bugs?“unzips his binder and Chromebook bag and all of a sudden DOZENS and I mean DOZENS of cockroaches come scurrying out all over the place in every which direction.”
- 98How to stop letting accounting stress ruin my life?“I think pivoting might be necessary because I come home so overstimulated and decision-fatigued, some days I feel like my family is just second shift.”
- 73What do you call students who copy or police classroom instructions?“What do you call this? Is there an official name? What do you call it colloquially? And, more importantly, how do you deal with it, both in the situation, and to stop it happening in the first place?”
- 59Why are students coming to class missing basic foundational skills?“Hardly any of the students have written a complete sentence without egregious spelling or grammatical errors.”
- 58How to handle violent behavioral outbursts and fighting in class alone“During that time I was alone with the rest of my behavioral students and the rest of my class.”
- 54How to handle disrespectful student micro-aggressions and boundary-crossing“It’s the micro aggressions that fry teachers and drain a teachers soul. Death by 1000 cuts. Give me a kid telling me to f$&k off any day.”
- 50Are professional certifications actually worth the money for a promotion?“I have 2 master's degrees and I have no interest in becoming a Principal. Will it make me a better teacher?”
- 49Why am I so tired and burnt out teaching?“Like why else would any of us willingly sign up to be in a workspace where personal and professional boundaries are constantly crossed? Where you’re routinely overstimulated, physically and mentally exhausted, and dodging school politics, teacher drama, administrative pressures, low pay, and daily classroom management battles?”
- 48Why do professional certification exams use subjective best answers?“im taking the ftce art k-12 test now for like the 6th time, ive gone through the tutoring and stuff but im just done and i wanna pass”
- 46How to deal with uncooperative coworkers who don't do their work“Day 1 and my coteacher has already yelled at me.”
- 44How to deal with all the low effort AI content online“I have been using the checked4ai chrome extension for google docs but the results seem a bit unreliable for the ai checking side.”
- 43How to handle the financial and identity drop after leaving a career“I got the email about an hour ago, and I regret opening it while I was in line for coffee. I wanted to cry and let out a huge scream. I didn't get the job.”
- 43Why does my toddler act out only with me?“The last few weeks though every drop off has lead to huge melt downs. Screaming, crying, pushing or throwing things and just refusing to let go of mom.”
- 43Why do I feel so overwhelmed after starting a new job?“I am so overwhelmed.”
- 42Why do IT jobs require impossible skill sets?“I’m a first-year teacher in upper elementary (I am teaching a split this year).”
- 41Why is teaching so joyless now?“I’ve come to the conclusion that this job negatively impacts me too much to keep doing it much longer, it’s been 5 years now.”
- 40Doing the job of a higher role without the promotion or pay“Every policy that gets created is done to hurt teachers rather than help them.”
- 40Why are teachers expected to be available 24/7?“We are supposed to be available for them every second of the day. And the moment we take 20 minutes to respond it becomes an issue or we are told we aren’t communicating enough .”
What this forum worries about more than the rest
How much more often a topic shows up here than across every forum we read.
teaching13.2×school administration13.2×teacher burnout13.2×student behavior13.2×