Teachers seem to retire young

So because you know two former teachers who retired sooner than you think they should, this compels you to create a generalized post about how "Teachers Seem to Retire Young."

I once read about a gay guy who worked for Amtrak and caused a deadly crash. Clearly, gay men shouldn't work for Amtrak. See how lazy generalizations work?

Oh calm down r1. It was just a random thought. Why so defensive?

That's the deal. That's the only way they'd put up with the shit work.

My favorite teacher retired at 60. I don't begrudge her a thing. I feel sorry for the kids who didn't get her as a teacher for another 10 or 15 years.

But today, kids are as bratty as they've ever been (add phones, social media and entitlement), plus their parents are all Karens who automatically defend their children against any kind of discipline or negative consequences, plus teachers have to worry about being shot full of holes in class on any random day.

I'd take the earliest retirement possible.

Just looked it up. The average age teachers retire is about 59 in America. (it's mentioned in the link below.

I'd say it's just having a stable job with a reasonable income and no professional need to look successful . The days of generous retirement plans are long gone. But a predictable income and expenses leaves room to save.

A lot of public school teachers have a retirement plan that lets them retire on a formula of "Age + Years of Service = 80."

They get to retire at an amount that's generally less than their final salary (unless you live in one of the fatcat union states like California or Massachusetts), which was never that great compared to the private sector.

They've probably made their points and maxed out their pensions, OP.

OP, is your observation concerning two teachers an argument to pay teachers less or entertainment of the idea to join the profession yourself?

Neither r7. I actually found it kind of sad that these teachers retired so young. They were such good teachers. It seems like a waste of their talent. (Maybe they'll return post-covid. Another teacher I had did that. He retired was bored and found another job.)

Canadian teachers have great pension plans. They can retire at 55 and are set for life.

School isn't like it used to be. If I was part of the shitshow it is is today, I'd retire early and teach on Outschool.

R9 Just what children need - An army of frosty old cunts staring at the clock and counting the days til they turn 55.

One "is" ^

Yup, R9, as long as they have their points, most retire around 55. I'm always surprised to hear about Americans with professional jobs working till they're in their 60s.

R13 Some of us actually like our jobs, and don't want to retire just to sit at home and rot.

But most of us are just too poor to ever retire. Americans are famously bad with money, especially regarding retirement savings. They all assume Social Security will save them, or that Medicare will be free, or they'll win a goddamn lottery or something.

What grade do you teach, R14?

R15 None of your goddamn business. Now get back to drawing, or I'll give you another round of phone-book punches!

OP is implying that retiring at 58 is a wildly indulgent thing only millionaires get to do. Someone who retired at 58 likely spent the last 30 years working. OP is resentful that anyone could have enough money to stop working.

No I'm not r17. I'm just surprised and saddened that two favorite teachers left the profession. (and a bit surprised they had the money to do so on "a teacher's salary")

Not everyone is as suspicious and paranoid as you.

Everyone should retire as early as they can. Live your life. We've all been brainwashed by our overlords into thinking work is a virtue.

R19 sounds like a poor soul who's never found a job he liked. That's gotta be a miserable way to live your life.

How does that boot leather taste, R20?

R21 You mean having a career where I get to help people, travel, see interesting things, and have the respect of smart people I like, all while getting paid a comfortable salary?

It tastes pretty damn good.

How's your life at Walmart and Taco Bueno treating you? Still fighting for 15, and hoping you get free healthcare before you get shot by a robber or crushed by a crate of chicken parts?

I worked in an after-school care program for elementary school kids (public school, U.S.). It was damn tiring.

When the parents came to pick up the kids, I got to see from whence each child came. The little asshole kids seemed to have, surprise, asshole parents.

I can understand why teachers retire early. I imagine there's burnout and ungrateful parents, etc.

I would like to be a teacher some day.

Teachers always react poorly when it's pointed out how good they actually have it because they like to play victim. They retire with a set number of years of service. So, if it's 30 years and they started when they were 23, they get to retire at 53. And, because of how the pensions are put together, they usually get to work on top of the pension without penalty.

[quote]The days of generous retirement plans are long gone.

Bullshit.

R25 = envious cube frau stuck in a dead end position and addled with anti-depressants.

Yeah R26, a lot of people have to work crappy jobs. Not everyone gets to have the career of their dreams in this world.

Which is why it's perverse that not only are we expected to work until we drop, we are expected to LOVE it.

[quote] No I'm not [R17]. I'm just surprised and saddened that two favorite teachers

They’re hanging their heads in shame if they taught you the proper use of commas.

Well let’s work till we’re dead, that sounds like a great idea!

Teachers in specific areas of IL have sweet deals and some shit deals. Their pension is based on their salaries and the ones working in affluent North Chicago suburbs (outside of the city or Cook County) will easily make close to six figures if not more by the time they get to age 60. When they retire they can expect to receive close to their final salary. The district doesn't care since they unload pension bills to the state, so they just keep increasing their salaries to attract the best teacher to these privileges public schools (no shade, do what you have to do). The teachers usually leave IL once they retire and enjoy a locked in 3% raise every year. It's draining the state dry since some stupid governor decided not to pay into the pension for a couple of years.

But downstate, teachers can make maybe half what those affluent ones in the burbs make for the same job. Thankfully, the state passed a minimal salary standard to ensure the downstate teachers aren't screwed because they decided to service kids in the rural part of the state.

You know what, I can't be bothered to be upset at teachers, the police, or fire fighters for their pensions. They do a great service to this state. It's the politicians that screwed me over when they decided to not fund the pensions they created.

My husband has two Master's degrees, works his fucking ass off, puts in crazy extra hours, has shit pay in the aggregate (110k a year doesn't get you far in NYC) and is a FANTASTIC teacher. He's broken up fights, guided the lost and has even saved a few lives. After 30 years of dealing with all of that, it blows my mind that there are so many butthurt losers who think he wont deserve his pension when the time comes. Because, you know, EVERYONE should be broke and miserable.

Fucking imbeciles.

They're just jealous, R31.

A close friend of mine is a teacher, she's in her 40, has eight years of university (there is no direct entry into the faculty of education in most places in Canada) and two degrees. She loves teaching, it's her passion, but, she can retire at 56 and is looking forward to it. She wants to travel, spend time with her family, volunteer and escape harsh Canadian winters. She's a great person and I say she deserves to do whatever she wants.

My mom taught elementary grades and retired at 59. It was not her plan to retire that early, she was going to retire at 62 but the union offered to buy out her contract to give her early retirement so that they wouldn't have to pay her pension at the max rate she would have achieved at 62 or older. She took less- but not by much, and has loved it ever since. Because she was a city school system employee, she is not eligible for Social Security because she has a publicly funded pension.

It's nice to see comments from people with positive opinions of teachers. Don't get me wrong: I loved my teachers, but most teachers I've encountered as an adult are obnoxious, catty, and snotty in their personal lives. I have no idea how they are in the classroom, but I wish the rest of us didn't have to see so much of them during the summer months.

Wow you know 2 teachers and only about 2 facts about each of them, their age and that they're retired. I'm sure that's all the information needed to make a snap judgment about an entire profession and decide that they're actually paid well for a cushy job that leads to early retirement despite the mountains of real life experiences any one of us can access by knowing an actual teacher.

Also, are you talking public school teachers or private school teachers? Shockingly you left that detail out. With about 5,000 others I'm sure.

[quote]Don't get me wrong: I loved my teachers, but most teachers I've encountered as an adult are obnoxious, catty, and snotty in their personal lives.

Don't get me wrong, I share your positive opinions despite all evidence to the contrary, while also harboring completely opposing opinions that are staunchly negative despite also agreeing with your positive opinions which I'll never actually state.

I started teaching (college) and retired a year ago after 42 years of teaching. I just felt like I had gone to the well as many times as I could, the students seemed less engaged (cliche as it sounds, combination of their addiction to social media, either lack of interest in or inability to read more than a few pages, emphasis on extra-curricular over classes), and not having the energy to deal with another set of incompetent B-school mentality administrators who had spent little or no time in the classroom. A modest inheritance (40k) will see me to 65, then TIAA-CREF until I qualify for max Social Security. I also have a husband who retired 15 years ago and made more money than I did.

Right now, I don’t miss the teaching (though I had hundreds of wonderful students over the decades). I’m doing a couple of reading classes online through the 92nd Street Y and I’ve continued to publish (three articles in the last year). I miss interacting with some of my colleagues, but we make efforts to see each other and stay in contact.

My parents were public school teachers and they were pressured to retire as early as possible so they could be replaced with younger, cheaper teachers. Also there's just a natural desire to retire. Even good teachers get bored and want to do something else with their lives while they still can.

[quote]All this talk about how teachers aren't paid enough

Comes from highly influential and well-funded teachers unions.

Teachers have always had the best pr.

So, which one is it? Are you all so put upon that we should pity the hard work you do for so little compensation and so much abuse or are we all supposed to be jealous of you and your amazing pensions and early retirement? You are literally playing the victim and the advantaged at the same exact time.

R41, who do you imagine you are addressing??

Is this a Fox News comment section? The bizarre narratives and leaping assumptions on display are, well, bizarre.

In my school board we have an 85 factor. If you start teaching as soon as you finish university you can generally retire as early as 53. I agree, that’s young.

I’m in my 50s and have seen several teachers hit their 50s and struggle. In many ways, it’s a younger person’s job. The demands keep increasing and it becomes harder to cope. I’m in this boat now.

I'd retire tomorrow if I could and it's not the students, it's the administration, endless report writing, KPIs, and everything needing to be quantified. I received 100% student satisfaction last year and my first thought was oh, fuck. I knew that if it dropped to even 99.9% this year I'd have to attend a performance review and write a report reflecting on why my satisfaction scores have gone down. Sure enough, and mostly due to Covid, everyone's satisfaction scores dropped so a new committee has now been established to find out what we've done wrong.

R42, how is it not clear who I am addressing? The teachers throughout the country who incessantly complain about how abused and underappreciated they are who are now on this thread also claiming the rest of us are all jealous of them. Pick one. You are either abused and underappreciated or you are in a position for people to be jealous of you. If you are in a position for people to be jealous of you then you are, in fact, not abused and underpaid and unappreciated.

R36: Exactly! That's exactly the sort of thing the teachers I know would write, particularly because it's petty, bitchy, and snooty while also being totally unrelated to what I wrote. You captured it perfectly!

Read it again, and you'll see that nothing I wrote was vague or contradictory. I said it was good that there were positive comments about teachers, and I do think it's good that people have positive perceptions of teachers (as people) because it's generally an admirable profession. I lamented that I can't make the same broad statements because the peers I've met who teach have been grating, and I said why. I want to like teachers, and I support teaching in general, but I think I'd like them better as a class of people if I hadn't met any after finishing school.

Those are just the ones I know, however. It's not likely that all teachers are that way. *My* teachers -- adults who taught me when I was young -- were great as teachers, although I didn't know them socially. Surely not all teachers read online forums and reply with nonsense that they structure just to make themselves feel superior.

There are places where a teacher's salary, in comparison the cost of living, allows you to live a very nice middle class life, and other areas, like R31, where a teacher's salary means you're barely making it.

I am a teacher and a nice day you can retire at 59 as long as we’ve been teaching about 30 years at that point. Almost every teacher I know who does retire that young gets another job because they can still get their pension as long as they are not working at a public school so many go to private school or a different field

That was supposed to be I am a teacher and in my state, you can retire…

To be honest, I’ve always envied the summers off, pensions and union protection. I mean talk about a sweetheart deal.

Then again I can’t stand most kids, so there’s that.

I taught in a private hs for 41 yrs. No public school pension program, no teacher's union, no formula for teaching a certain number of years before retirement. On the other hand, I didn't have to break up fights, chase kids to get their homework, combat troublemakers, spend much of my year preparing the students for state mandated testing, or deal with parents who thought their kids were God. It was worth the trade-off.

A lot of teachers go to College, get hired at 23 and do their 25 years. My undergrad advisor finished her Ph.D at like 24 and retired from her first job way early and moved on down the road.

Did she ease on down the road though?