Real reasons behind the resignation of one public school teacher

Being a teacher means accepting all the responsibilities of having the noblest profession. They say that a teacher plays a major part in shaping all other professions in society. Children even look up to them as their heroes and treat them as their second parents.

Yes, it is truly the 'noblest profession' in the world, but sadly some of them cannot take the real burden that comes along with it. Being a public school teacher entails more than what you see. In previous years, there have been cases of suicide among teachers which led to investigating the common reasons among these acts.

Almost 2 years ago, Ma'am Catalina Sotto, a former High School teacher, has posted her open letter to raise awareness on the real reasons why she resigned from the Department of Education. It gained too many reactions and opinions that it even went viral on social media.


Here is the full text of her open letter:

This is going to be the first and last time that I will talk about the real reason behind my resignation as a public school teacher

It is easier for me to let go of the job I am having for ten years, the job that I thought would lift my social status at least, the job I thought would help me improve my well being and develop my personality, the job that I thought would help children to change the world, the job I thought would make me survive in this complex world but it all goes the other way around.

There are two different reactions of people I encountered when they learned that I already left my teaching career. One is so happy, that I am already out of the stress zone and the other one is looking at me like I'm crazy already for letting go of something stable.

Why did I resign?

1. The job is killing me already, I have accumulated diseases over the years like laryngitis and cyst on my bladder due to continuous usage of my voice and an unhealthy lifestyle due to stress.

2. The job that is supposedly an already paperless work because of modernization becomes a more complicated work due to school records that needs to be transferred to soft copies.

3. I have been away from my sons for three years already and that is not making me a good mother.

4. Have been building my status as a coach for years, won contests and spent money from my own pocket for the sake of the contest but I woke up one day that I am already replaced, but needed my help to train the one who replaced me, won the contest and I ended up unrecognized.

5. It's so painful being a teacher but treated like I'm uneducated.

6. Can't stand the competition arising.

7. The system itself.

8. I'll never get rich, no leveraging, the compensation does not equal your workload. Too much work but underpaid.

9. You have a lot of bosses. Even your co- worker acts like one.

10. Spent money from my own pocket for teaching materials.

11. Loads of credits and loans.

12. I'm not happy anymore.

13. Stressful.

They say teaching is a noble profession, but I am not born to become the noblest person. I am a mother, a wife and a daughter. Let's all be practical. We all applied from work to earn a living, not to kill us. It's all about prestige, power and respect. I just want to live and be happy. These reasons are just some, I have not included yet the best reasons why I left. But to make things clear, I do love my co-teachers from the dept. and esp. my students.

I hope people would now understand why I gave up my profession and switch. IT'S MY CHOICE! IT'S MY LIFE!!

If somebody would hate me for this, it's up to you, which only means you have read it to the end...

Lam mo na...

READ: MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES (MELC) for KG to Grade 12 SY 2020-2021

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