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A version of this essay originally appeared on Robert Pondiscio’s .

Earlier this month, I was flattered to be invited to a at Marquette University Law School, sparked by an article I鈥檇 written making the case that education reform has misfired by prioritizing testing, measurement, accountability, and other structural reforms instead of trying to improve classroom practice.

A highlight of the convening was the final panel of the day, featuring four teachers and administrators who acknowledged that many of the challenges I cited鈥攑oor preparation, chronic problems with student behavior and classroom management, and the overwhelming demands placed on teachers鈥攚ere real and concerning. But they pushed back politely on my assertion that we have made teaching 鈥�.鈥� I was particularly struck by remarks from Taylor Thompson, an earnest and winningly dedicated first-year fourth-grade teacher from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

鈥淸Teaching is] not an impossible task. It’s demanding. It’s hard. Each day is not rainbows and singing and dancing,鈥� she said, but it’s not impossible 鈥渋f you are a collaborative person, work with your peers, and you have a community of coworkers and principals who don’t allow you to silo into your own rooms and do your own thing. It can be a very, very empowering job.鈥�

Thompson brought with her materials from the; having worked on CKLA鈥檚 launch during my time at the Core Knowledge Foundation, I was heartened that it contributed to her success. That said, I couldn鈥檛 help but wonder if her first-year experience would be different鈥攊f she鈥檇 even have had the time and energy to come to Marquette at all鈥攈ad she not been given CKLA but an empty plan book, and expected to spend 10, 20, or more hours a week scouring Google, Share My Lesson, or Teachers Pay Teachers for lesson plans and materials?

When it was my turn to respond, I told the audience that what they鈥檇 just heard didn鈥檛 contradict my argument; it amplified it. I suggested to my hosts that what we really needed was one more panel: earnest, well-intended people who wanted to teach but grew overwhelmed and walked away from their classrooms. Their absence from the conversation鈥攏ot a flaw of Marquette鈥檚 thoughtful event but a field-wide oversight鈥攍imits our ability to address the issues driving nearly half of teachers to quit within five years. Those stories are legion.

After leaving the classroom, I worked briefly at an outfit called Prep for Prep under Ed Boland, who later left the organization to teach in a New York City public high school armed with little more than idealism. His 2016 memoir, The Battle for Room 314, described the relentless student misbehavior, homophobic slurs, and physical fights he endured. He wasn鈥檛 a minimally prepared Teach For America corps member or, like me, the product of an 鈥渁lt cert鈥� teacher prep program. He had two years of graduate school and six months of student teaching that he described as 鈥渁 mix of folk wisdom, psycho-jargon, wishful thinking, and out-and-out bullshit.鈥� 

After one freakishly difficult year, Boland returned to his old job. 鈥淚 had taken courses in lesson planning, evaluation, psychology, and research. Next to nothing was said about what a first-year teacher most needs to know: how to control a classroom,鈥� he wrote.

NPR鈥檚 All Things Considered not long ago ran a about Liz Stepansky, the daughter of two school teachers who wanted to follow in their footsteps, thinking teaching would be a path to a stable, meaningful life. But when she took a job teaching at a South Carolina middle school, she found that she “had no idea” what she was in for. Her middle school students 鈥渄ialed 911, threw balloons filled with bleach and ink in hallways and constantly pulled the fire alarm.鈥�

“I’d go home and sometimes I’d spend an hour grading papers. And then I’d go back the next day and do it all over again,鈥� she told NPR. 鈥淚 remember my paycheck being $800 and something every two weeks.” She transferred to another school, faced similar frustrations and threw in the towel. She鈥檚 now a speech pathologist.

It’s not hard to find stories of earnest, well-intended people who want to teach but find the job untenable. But I can鈥檛 recall hearing from a single one at any of the education and policy conferences I鈥檝e attended over the last twenty years.

Inattention to abandoned careers and disappointed hopes allow false and misleading narratives to gain traction. Last summer, I was invited to give before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Senator Bernie Sanders was proposing a $60,000 minimum teacher salary to address teacher shortages. 鈥淏y all means, pay teachers more,鈥� I testified. 鈥淏ut don鈥檛 harbor any illusions that doing so will solve the problem.鈥澛�

Higher pay doesn鈥檛 fix shoddy preparation, unruly classrooms, or the ever-escalating burdens we pile on teachers鈥� plates as we treat schools as not just academic spaces but something akin to the social service agencies of last resort. 鈥淲e are asking teachers to do too many things to do any of them well at any salary,鈥� I said.

Teaching鈥檚 aspirational nature attracts optimists, but crushing demands betray them. A I cited in my Senate testimony found 99% of elementary teachers create their own materials, stealing time from honing their craft and working more closely with children and their parents. A 2024 showed only 36% of teachers feel adequately resourced; a 2022 revealed nearly half plan to quit due to poor school climate. These are systemic failures, not personal ones.

Teaching is among our most optimistic and aspirational professions, drawing idealists who believe education can transform lives. But celebrating only the successes鈥攖eachers who beat the odds, schools that defy demographics鈥攄istorts our vision. As I quipped at Marquette, it鈥檚 like watching Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs and concluding, 鈥淪ee? It can be done!鈥�

And it can鈥攊f you鈥檙e Aaron Judge.  

Other fields learn from failure鈥攎edicine from misdiagnoses, aviation from crashes. I urged Marquette鈥檚 audience to imagine a panel of teachers who quit鈥攏ot to shame them, but to learn. What broke their optimism? What tools were missing? Thompson鈥檚 success shows what鈥檚 possible with support. But for every Thompson, countless idealists leave because they were overmatched, felt unprepared or betrayed by poor training or simply couldn鈥檛 manage chaos.

A few days later, Alan Borsuk, who organized and moderated the event at Marquette, told me about a conversation he鈥檇 had with a school administrator who was in attendance who disagreed with the notion that teachers who leave are failures. 鈥淪he said one of the best teachers they have whose students have done well for year after year is leaving after this year,鈥� Alan said. That teacher, she insisted, was not a failure.

Exactly! That teacher didn鈥檛 fail. We failed that teacher.

Education reform must weigh frustration alongside triumph. We need convenings where former teachers speak without judgment: their failures and frustration studied, not stigmatized.  

There鈥檚 no magic wand that will make the job easy or friction-free, but when you connect with students and go home feeling successful, there鈥檚 no job that compares to being a classroom teacher. You feel on top of the world. It鈥檚 immensely satisfying work.

The question ed reformers and policymakers need to ask now is what can we do to make more teachers feel successful and their jobs more doable.

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