I can’t tell you how much I love this article! I started my career as a teacher when I was 20. For the next 3 years, I was stressed, trying to manage my own education along with teaching. I too had a 120 students and taught both literature and language. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. However, when I graduated, I was suggested to pick up a relevant job and to quit teaching — which for the sake of experience I did try. 6 years down the lane, I had the immense desire of returning to teaching. Somehow, I felt I still needed to feel that thrill once more. Only this time I realized how foolish I was to believe that if I could do it once, I could do it again. I was so wrong. Returning to teaching at age 30 was grueling. There was no support system and though I was in the most prestigious school with the best pay, I could not make it. I was stressed and lost my mind all for the same reasons you mentioned above. It was then that my husband asked me to stop. And I’m glad I did because had I stayed, I would have messed up not only my life but of those kids too.

What made me realize was that education has now become a forced affair — drill, drill them with exams, with forced learning and make sure they score high grades to prove their worth. Teachers are no longer able to be creative because we are so desperately trying to make sense of things. I hope some day, institutions world over would realize that education isn’t about memorizing and testing; it’s about experiencing and learning. And teachers need to be able to teach with happiness, with a relaxed state of mind. But with education becoming a global business, I doubt if we can ever achieve even a slice of that utopia. Until then, let’s hope!