Why I Made a Career Change and the Future of this Site

As an educator, I always avoided the teacher’s lounge. The teacher’s lounge was far too negative for me and it was often used as a place to vent. I stopped in the teacher’s lounge to grab a snack I heard a teacher make this comment. “I am so sick of getting gaslit by twelve-year-olds.” I grabbed my snack and moved on quickly. Then I reflected on this statement. Since the dawn of education, there has been these type of incidents. A teacher asks a kid why they threw a pencil and the kid denies throwing the pencil. This is not gaslighting this is a kid being a child. This simple experience drove me to reflect on my career as an educator. This was a microcosm of the societal issues that are penetrating schools across the country. I had to make a change. 

I have recently transitioned from public education to the corporate world where I am a manager of leadership development training for employees. The transition was not easy for me to make as I was committed to growth in the education sector and I had a lot invested. I was constantly exposed to the polarizing nature of our society as a principal. In 2020 I walked into my office and saw the light flashing that notified me I had a voicemail. I checked my voicemail and in fact, I had two voicemail messages. I listened to the first message and a parent had a concern that there were eight students that did not have their mouths and nose covered by a mask. Their child counted this and reported this to the parent and the parent then added that if I did not fix this all the students in the school were going to die from Covid. The second message was from a parent and it stated that if we continue to require students to wear masks the students would suffer from this and it would ultimately result in mental health issues that would progress to suicide and students would die. This parent also informed me that this would be all my fault. 

I then called both parents back and listened to their concerns, I ended up apologizing to both parents for different reasons. That is the extreme nature of thinking of people in our society. Neither of these situations was likely to happen as they were described and neither situation was my fault. Just as the child denying throwing a pencil was not gaslighting anyone. The extreme views of society are evident in every decision. There is no decision that a school can make that will not incite close to half of the community. This is similar to our societal situation regarding any public policy or decision made by our government. The ability to make a decision and explain the logic of that decision utilizing facts, logic, and reasoning is no longer effective in moving people to a decision or a compromise. Everything in society has become so polarizing that people can not even talk about issues in a productive way. This was infiltrating schools.

There are many other societal issues that penetrate schools and school board meetings. The curriculum is controversial. The identity issues are controversial. Human growth and development have always been controversial but it has reached new heights in that a Wisconsin school district now will teach kindergarten students the official names of their genitalia. I have children and they are being taught the official names of their body parts but that is my choice and responsibility as a parent. How did we get to a point where we feel that children at the age of five should be taught this personal information by an educator? This polarizing nature that results in unhealthy conflict has become so prevalent that there are school board meetings that require a police presence. In my role, I was not present in making these decisions but I was responsible for implementing and enforcing them and it became so unrewarding that I began to despise my job. 

I also battled the expectations as an educator after I became a parent. Prior to having my own kids, I served as a coach and there was a tremendous amount of time spent working outside of the normal school day. I enjoyed that at that point in my life, but that all changed when I became a parent. This was a conflict as a professional that put my career goals and expectations at odds with my most important commitment as a father. There was an expectation to put the student’s needs before my own children’s needs. ’ This was not something I was willing to compromise on at all and I knew I needed to find an employer that would allow me to be the father and husband that I needed to be for my family. 

This led me to pursue corporate opportunities in learning and development and I successfully acquired a job in the corporate world. The company I work for is unique and is not a testament at all to the corporate world as a whole. I have been at my new job for four months now and the changes in my life have been tremendous. I was on anxiety medication and blood pressure medication to help me navigate the health issues that developed when I transitioned to a leadership role in education. Having to handle issues of child abuse, sexual assault, loss, and violence is all a part of leading in education. Those tremendous challenges would eat at me and prevent me from being able to sleep. The medication helped manage the symptoms but they were not treating the root cause. Since I have left education I am no longer on anxiety or blood pressure medication. Last night my blood pressure was 110 over 64. I have overcome my addiction to chewing tobacco and I have not had a drop of alcohol for three and a half months. I am healthier and happier than I have ever been. 

I am more present and engaged with my wife and my two amazing children. When I get home from work, I am energized to see my family and I am raring to run rampant with a four-year-old and two-year-old. I am engaging in more meaningful conversations with my wife about life and our relationship. I am a better father and husband. When I would get home from working in education I was worn out and exhausted. This is the most rewarding part of my decision to change careers, and it is evident in the attitudes of my children as they now have a more present father. 

This career change was needed and has been beneficial to me and my family. I do not look at it as leaving education in my new role I am still in education but in a different setting. I am still passionate about education and helping people grow and develop, and that leads to the plans for this site. I plan on getting back into the habit of writing and sharing my thoughts with the world. I am going to begin writing and posting here predominantly on leadership, but also on other things that come to mind. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you and I hope you enjoy hearing them. I look forward to getting back to my passion for writing and I hope you will come along for the journey with me.