Leaving teaching feels like abandoning kids -- but it's not!
GUILTY...I felt guilty as hell when I decided to leave teaching. Even though I knew I was losing myself and had to get out. In this episode of How to Leave Teaching, I reflect on Dolly Parton’s belief that love and nurturing can take many forms and what that might teach us about leaving the classroom.You can be an important person in your students’ lives without belonging to them forever. You can grieve your students, miss the teacher you once were, and still know that leaving was the right decision.The love was real. The work mattered. And you are still allowed to leave!
Get free resume templates for jobs you match with: https://quiz.goldendelicious.ai/
Follow me on IG https://www.instagram.com/howtoleaveteachingpodcast/
Subscribe for honest conversations about teacher burnout, career change, identity loss, and building a meaningful life after teaching. https://open.spotify.com/show/2p1Z7tzfqiaHvw4q64fSDf
Explore career matches and translate your teaching experience at https://goldendelicious.ai
#HowToLeaveTeaching #TeacherCareerChange #TeacherBurnout
14 Aug 2026
If you're afraid to leave teaching, maybe you need to get angry
If you desperately want to leave teaching—but feel guilty, selfish, or ashamed for even considering it—you may need to get angry.
Teachers are given responsibility for problems they didn’t create, denied the resources needed to solve them, and then blamed when personal sacrifice isn’t enough. When they finally reach their breaking point, their desire to leave is treated as proof that they never cared enough.
That isn’t a personal failure. It’s a trap.
In this episode of the Teacher Recovery Series, I explain how political underfunding, teacher scapegoating, culture-war outrage, and the expectation that teachers should “do it for the kids” keep educators exhausted, compliant, and afraid to walk away.
I draw on my experience as a K–12 teacher, college professor, Department of Education researcher, U.S. Senate legislative aide, and staffer at the White House Office of Management and Budget to examine why:
• School scarcity is the predictable result of political choices
• Exhausted teachers have less power to organize or demand change
• Structural failures are repackaged as failures of resilience or classroom management
• Teachers are expected to compensate for poverty and institutional neglect through personal sacrifice
• A heavily feminized profession is told that love should replace boundaries, authority, and fair compensation
• Teachers are condemned as selfish the moment they stop sacrificing
Your burnout does not mean you failed your students. Wanting to leave does not mean you never cared. Your anger may be the thing that finally helps you see the situation clearly—and gives you permission to save yourself.
Confused about what's next? Take the quiz! https://quiz.goldendelicious.ai/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUUw1XzlzbW9xMFJRN29wVDRVaFZEVnxBR3JiS2FsazEtazEzdUdaREVFWVZlTnJ1YnJvbS01YVFoR3ZXWVJ0S3kzelliNkJWQW5JcW1fdTNSWWE0OFlqbmFmLU1PUXo0QVEyTFhDOHM2VEFyZDZsVzBmSmR6OF9LbXlW&q=https%3A%2F%2Fquiz.goldendelicious.ai%2F&v=qvQf0GLYhgc) Explore careers beyond the classroom and learn more at https://goldendelicious.ai (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUy1UMkpYTUt6ejR4U0stZkttNW05SnxBR3JiS2FuVHpqRHh2MkJmYTVvTFFMR1NWRTF4QXdCckxSS3RZUzE0c2FqU2hsek1wamJ5R1pHMzJWM3lyNFR5WnRTUGpVM2VNd1ZfSlRMSUVwbUdnNkdWRDFJMzlUQm1GZm1v&q=https%3A%2F%2Fgoldendelicious.ai%2F&v=qvQf0GLYhgc)Subscribe for honest conversations about leaving teaching, recovering from toxic school culture, and building a career and life that actually work for you.
#LeavingTeaching #TeacherBurnout #TeacherGuilt #TeacherRecovery #TeacherMentalHealth
10 Jul 2026
They Took Control of Your Identity to Use it Against You
Teachers aren't just burned out — they're trained to give until there's nothing left, and called "good" for it. In this episode, I break down identity capture: the mechanism that turns your best traits — self-sacrifice, niceness, compliance, perfectionism — into free labor.I taught for 9 years — 4 in a Title I high school, 5 at a public university — and I left both feeling used, betrayed, and honestly, a little abused. This episode is about why that happens, not just that it happens.We get into:→ Why "good teacher" traits are the same traits patriarchy demands of women generally — and why that's not a coincidence→ The "remember your why" script, and how it functions as a leash, not a pep talk→ What it actually costs to build your whole identity on a job that can end without warning→ The reflection question I want you to sit with this weekIf you've ever asked yourself "am I a punching bag, or a person" — this one's for you.🍎 More at goldendelicious.ai — building the app for teachers navigating what's next.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Host of How to Leave Teaching?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
