You Know it’s Time to Quit Teaching When…

If you are a teacher and any of the following applies to you then it is time to get out:

1) Your nightmares about going back to work after a holiday start before the holiday.

2) You fondly imagine what it would be like to be off work with a broken leg.

3) You physically recoil if somebody outside of work calls you “Sir” (or “Miss”) or you hear your surname.

4) When the news reports on the tragic death of a child your immediate thought is to hope that it is one of your year 10s.

5) One of your colleagues, who is in the Territorial Army, is called up to go to a war zone for six months and your first thought is “lucky bastard”.

6) You decide where to go shopping/on holiday/for a drink entirely on the basis of minimising the chance of running into one of your students.

7) You start everything you say with “Okay, it’s time to move on.”

8) You have your union rep’s number on speed dial.

9) You spend time working out your chances of being off work with a bereavement (to the point of working out which relative you’d miss least).

10) The laughter of children causes you physical pain.