I started teaching five years ago. The distance between the older teachers and the younger ones was terribly obvious and a major obstacle. The older teachers were often unwilling to collaborate on lesson plans or assessments, and any comments they offered were usually cynical criticisms of the administration, the changes that were being made, or of the students themselves. I learned early on that the teacher's lounge was a terrible place to hang out. It's where old, bitter teachers go to die, I think.

That doesn't describe all veteran teachers, of course. There were a few that were invaluable to my early experience, people I counted on to help me adjust from the private sector to a teaching career.

That's the other thing I've noticed about veteran teachers: you can tell which ones have never worked in a private sector job, because they feel entitled to raise a stink about every single decision or change that's handed down. After eight years in the corporate world, I was eager to collaborate and to take administrative decisions in stride; I didn't always agree with them, but I knew from experience that sometimes you just have to deal with things and focus on your job. And a lot of those changes were positive anyway.

A colleague of mine once opined that the heavy turnover of teachers might not be such a bad thing. Maybe it's not so bad to see folks enter the profession and then move on after five or six years. Maybe it's healthy. I didn't agree with that at first, but now I'm starting to think that maybe it's not a bad idea. It seems to me that cynicism and bitterness are all too often the fate of teachers who've been doing it for decades.

This has been my experience almost exactly.

i agree with your description of the faculty room, but perhaps we should wonder"why so bitter?" i taught full time for 10 years, and there was a lot of bs that didn't really have anything to do with me, that was not at all germane to my job, but nevertheless, i had to endure...i realizr there is this factor to some degree with all jobs, teaching is not the only job i have ever had..however, after i had children, i went part-time, and i am ever so much happier...no one really knows what exactly my responsibilities are, so i am allowed to teach my three classes, and otherwise be pretty much left alone...it is awesome!!! i am loving my autonomy...and all that time and energy i wasted on bs i can now spend teaching and planning...

so what is my point? i think a lot of teachers get worn down by the politics and bullshit of any given school, and constantly having to have all of the responsiblity, and none of the authority...it can really be a recipe for disaster, or at least burn out. also, there are classes which are too large, and way too many of them...since i have about half the number of kids, i am much more effective, attuned to the students and just a better teacher.

suzie makes some good points. In my language arts hall, we all envy the one part-timer who isn't required to attend staff meetings or the daily morning meetings with our own departments and /or grade levels. No one expects her to do lunch duty, etc., but she does coach an Olympics of the Mind. Parttime teaching might be the answer for schools--less burnout, just for starters.

I'm a little concerned about lumping all 'older' teachers together. At our elem, the older teachers are not the ones running to their cars at the end of the day to pick up little ones or to hit the gym. The older teachers spend time and money making their classes more entertaining and fun for our young students. The young teachers have other priorities...and are seem reluctant to put out the money to earn their masters degrees (a requirement in my state), something the older teachers did willingly.

Like I said in my post, not all older teachers fit this image of bitterness and rancor. Some of them are great.

But there are those that need to get out of the profession because they just can't deal with it anymore. I can never understand those that object to doing things like turning in lesson plans or having administrators look over our exams. A little bit of oversight is not a bad thing.

The only time I've found myself at odds with anyone is when I want to teach a particular piece of literature that is off-limits, either because it is already claimed by another grade level, or because my department chair simply forbade it (I am required to do Romeo and Juliet with the 9th graders, for example, though I'm bored to tears with it and would like to teach a different play). But these are minor quibbles.

i get pissed off when i am asked to do extra paperwork like hand in lesson plans in some arbitrary format that meets the needs of the administrator but don't help me plan better, they only create more paperwork...particulary when there is no real oversight, no one reads them...i have checked, i have written juvenile things like Objective: human sacrifice... you get the drift..no one says jack becasue they don't care if i plan or not, they are playing cover your ass, if they cared what i was doing my vp would walk her sorry ass down to my class and observe, regularly...you know, an assessment, like teachers do all the time with their students.