I taught high school for five years, non-consecutively. I kept going back, like a wounded veteran after battle, into the fray. I finally got certified and landed at a nice middle class school in a decent district. That’s when I realized I hated it. And it was the department meetings, constant evaluation (of me, and of the students) that really pissed me off. I started to feel like this “good” school district was a factory that churned out (mostly) socially acceptable kids. I loved the kids, especially the 9th graders — but the feeling of being second-guessed on a random and planned basis just didn’t work for me. Constantly evaluating your employees doesn’t increase their skill level, but it definitely makes them want to appear more skilled. I got really good at making sure all my “learning objectives” were on the white board, but really bad at giving a shit. This article sums of the whole mess pretty concisely, but even now I still wish I could’ve made it work without sacrificing my sanity.