Why some teachers last only a year?

I've decided this teaching thing is really hard. Even just supervising in clinic. It sounds easy. I can tell myself, it's like having highly trained technicians do the whole exam and then you just have to sign off on it. But no. That's not the case. I have to think through the whole exam and figure out the missing pieces and then try to help the student understand so they don't make the same mistake next time.

Sometimes they get it; sometimes they think I'm an idiot. Sometimes I think I'm an idiot! No one knows all the answers and unfortunately rarely is anything black and white. In this setting, students want black and white answers. I don't have them.

There are the students who are really keen, who can be a joy, but also require extra effort because they want to learn. There are the ones who don't want to be here in the first place, let alone do anything over and above. It's hard to care about teaching a blank face.

At the end of the day, I often leave feeling anxious, and also like my energy has been sucked out of me. After 8-9 hours of students milling about with charts and questions, needing signatures, asking advice on case presentations, I just want to go home to bed. Yes, even if it is 6:30.

To you teachers out there, I salute you. It's a tough job. Regardless of the amount of appreciation the students show, the energy drain is in a negative direction. I imagine it's a little like having children. Rewarding and very tough. Only hopefully I'd have a little more incentive to stick around.

Leadership is solving problems.

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day
you have stopped leading them.

They have either lost confidence that you can help
or concluded you do not care.

Either case is a failure of leadership. ~Colin Powell