TikToker Millennial Ms. Frizzle—@millennialmsfrizz—posted a video explaining why she stepped away from the teaching profession and went to work for Costco.
In the viral video—which has been viewed more than 4 million times—Millennial Ms. Frizzle revealed she did not regret the change.
After her retail shift on Christmas Eve she shared:
"This is my first ever year not having a winter break."
"And how do I feel?"
"I feel great."
She added:
"As a teacher, it was like, like I was just surviving, every moment. By the time I got to Christmas break, I was so exhausted that I was literally sick."
"So yeah, feels pretty good to not be a teacher at this time."
The former educator shared she originally stopped teaching to pursue a PH.D., but eventually switched to continuing her education part-time while working at Costco full-time.
In another video she shared though she is nearing the finish line to her doctorate, Millennial Ms. Frizz said given her life improvements since leaving teaching, she doesn't "have plans to enter academia as a professor or return to classroom instruction."
"If education had changed enough by that time, I would already hopefully be in a place with Costco where it wouldn't be financially worth it for me to leave and go back to teaching."
"And that's just the way that Costco is structured better than education in terms of pay for teachers."
Millennial Ms. Frizz addressed those who called her and other teachers "soft," replying:
"I'm soft because I've noticed when a student comes to school in the same clothes for four days in a row and progressively smells worse and has greasier hair and so tired and lethargic they just can't do their work."
"I'm soft because I see kids come to school with their duffel bag to go to dad's house for the weekend and take home extra food from school just in case."
"I'm soft because I buy school supplies for students every single year spending hundreds of dollars out of my pocket."
"I'm soft because I always provided accommodations for special needs to the entire class rather than just the students who specifically needed it because I knew there were a lot of kids who couldn't get documentation that they did have special needs."
She continued:
"A teachers empathy is part of her disposition. It's not something that has limits."
Referencing the hate she said:
"I don't know what triggers you. Maybe it triggers you to see me happy now and to think that teachers aren't just these quiet selfless servants."
Aside from those few, most commended Millennial Ms. Frizzle for taking action and also shared their own similar experiences.
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It's no secret this important and vital profession is undervalued in society and teachers continue to face more and more challenges each year.
Teachers continue to be underpaid, schools underfunded, students feeling unsafe and everyone—staff, administration, students and even parents—feeling stress from the priority placed on passing a standardized test.
Sadly unless something changes good teachers like Millennial Ms. Frizzle will continue to leave the world of education in droves to find careers with a healthy work-life balance...as they should.
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AMC