You Don't Have To Be Burnt Out To Be Doing a Good Job

This week, I’m excited to bring you an interview with Patty Viramontes. Patty and I worked together in East LA, and collaborated closely on interdisciplinary projects, including an awesome zine project where students designed their own utopias. Fierce, driven and committed, I was so happy to sit down and catch up with her and hear about her new career.

Introduce yourself! Give us your name, location, number of years you spent teaching, what subject and grade level you taught, and number of years since you’ve left teaching.

I’m Patty Viramontes, and I live in LA. I taught high school social studies for four years, and have been out of the classroom for one year.

Why did you become a teacher?

I became a teacher because I really believed in using history as a tool to empower youth and as a tool to build critical consciousness. I felt like, as bell hook says, “The classroom is the most radical place.” And I felt that in order for me to feel like I was empowering youth, I needed to be in a classroom setting.

I had a really positive experience as a high school student in history classes. I remember being around curriculum that made me feel like I had agency, and that made me reflect on my own community and culture. I just knew how empowering that experience was, and I wanted to be a part of that in some way.

Briefly describe your experience teaching. What did you like about it? What did you find challenging or unfulfilling?

I really loved designing curriculum. I like that head-down work of, “Okay, I'm going to design this unit. I'm gonna backwards plan. I have a vision for the year.” That was something that I really, really enjoyed. It's like you kind of create this world in your head, and then you're like, “Okay, now I'm gonna see it come to life.” And I thought that was just really fun. 

Also I really appreciated working with other teachers, especially at [our former school], because I feel like [the admin] was so intentional with who they hired… Those first few years there, I was like, “Yes, I feel like everyone here is on a similar page.”

I also appreciated being around students. I do feel like that was a really fun part of the job—just being able to build community with students, to have them build community with each other, and being around that kind of joy. I think it’s so unique to that high school experience. 

[The biggest challenge] was the fact that I had to use so much of my own time to plan curriculum and grade. There's no built-in time in the day. You get, like, a prep or a conference period, but that's not really time for you to plan. It's like you either have to rest for that one hour because you're so tired, or you start planning, or you start grading, but you don't really do everything in that one hour… It's just not always realistic to work 40 hours a week as a teacher... I would also say, you know, the pilot school experience [a special designation of LAUSD schools with added responsibilities, beyond the typical contract] is different than a comprehensive school, so there were just other things that we were expected to do.

I personally have a hard time saying no–or I had a hard time saying no–and I struggled a lot with healthy boundaries. I think also because I was a lot younger, and I was just more excited and I had energy at that time. I mean, I started teaching when I was 22, and I was going to turn 23–I was little! 

The other thing I found challenging was… the last year, admin was not always making the best choices to sustain strong teachers. And LAUSD also doesn't make the best choices to sustain strong teachers and retain them. I think the structure in place isn't built to sustain teachers. And I think I just was really burnt out.

What brought you to the decision to leave teaching? What was the breaking point?

I think there are two main things. One of them was a lot of my friends my age were working hybrid jobs or remote jobs, and being paid a lot more. And I was like, “Okay, this feels unfair.” I also was like… “I'm also curious to see what that type of work is like.” 

The other thing is… this book, Rest Is Resistance… Essentially, she writes about the need for people to actively rest as a form of resistance against white supremacy, against worker exploitation. And so I finished that book during spring break, and I was like, “Yeah, I'm gonna quit my job.”

I felt so worn out and so burnt out that I just knew I couldn't physically teach that upcoming school year. I was like, “I don't have the tools to build healthy boundaries, and the system is just so broken that I won't be able to thrive in a way that I know students would need.”

What plans, if any, did you put in place before transitioning out of teaching? How and to what extent did you prepare for your transition? What fears, if any, did you have and how did you face those?

I was so scared. I didn't have any job lined up, [so] I was worried about, like, “What if I leave and I don't get hired anywhere?” I feel like it's really hard to sell yourself as a teacher… or at least that's what I thought. I was like, “I don't know how to apply to this new job. I don't know what skills are transferable.” And I didn't have a job lined up when I quit, which was really scary, mostly because I was like, “I need health insurance.” 

Maybe a week after… I told my principal that I was planning to leave, my friend [who I went to grad school with] texted me and was like, “Hey, my org is hiring, and we're hiring for this position, and you would work with a school called Da Vinci Design.” I was like, “Oh, how funny. I actually went to high school there.” It felt very much aligned. And I was really excited about the role. It was out of the classroom obviously, but it was still working with students in some capacity. [My friend] shared that the org was super flexible. So… I had tons of fear, but fortunately, things lined up for me that year–which was good, but definitely scary.

What specific factors did you have to consider in your transition? Did you have financial responsibilities, such as dependants, student loan debt, etc? Is there any type of privilege that aided your transition, such as a spouse or family member who supported you, contacts in other industries, an “in” on a job, etc? 

Fortunately, I don't have any dependents, and I also don't have any student loans. So that was definitely a privilege that I had. I just had to make sure that I paid rent. I knew that I had enough saved to survive at least a few months. I was like, “Okay, I'll be fine for a few months.” 

And I also had a friends whose orgs were hiring, so that definitely helped ease the anxiety... I made use of the people I knew, and I just made sure to connect with them a lot, and say, “Hey, I'm kind of interested. Don't know if you're hiring.” 

I think it also helped that at my school, I wasn't the only teacher leaving. So it's like, “Okay, I'm not alone. I have more confidence in my decision because other people are also doing it.” That's not economic support, but I do think it supports… feeling more confident.

Tell us about your first year out of the classroom. What lessons did you learn? What successes did you have? What challenges did you face? What, if anything, would you have done differently?

I feel like, as teachers, we have tons of skills, right? But there's also other things that I'm like, “Oh, I actually don't know how to do that.” Most of it is like, you know, program management in the sense of documenting everything. Like, yes, we as teachers plan, and we have everything, but we plan for ourselves and our own eyes. I think what I struggled with was documenting things in a way that made sense for other people, because it's like, “Oh, other people are going to use everything that I'm doing right now…”

Another challenge was [when I was in the classroom], I wasn’t really micromanaged at all. And I would say that outside of the classroom, you have a supervisor, and they're on you, and they're very curious about what you're doing. So I feel like that was new to me, because I'm like, “Oh, I always just plan for myself and my students. But now I have to keep your perspective in mind too.” 

The great things are learning new skills and growing as a person, and being able to be like, “Oh, I can now really manage a program,” or, “I can work with other kinds of students, older students.” Not just high schoolers, because my org works a lot with adults as well. 

[It was also great] not having to be in the office, or be somewhere five days a week. Being able to be like, “Okay, I have flexibility. I have time for myself. I can, you know, work out in the morning, and then come home and then prepare for a meeting, and not feel that stress and anxiety that we feel in the classroom.”

Fortunately, I am at an org [where] everyone's very like-minded. There's a really strong emphasis on work-life balance. You. So many people have families, so it's like, “That is the priority.” And everyone is like, “You take care of yourself first.” And that's not just said; it's definitely implemented. So I struggled a lot with that, because I felt like, “Oh no, I have to be burnt out in order to feel that I'm doing a good job.” And now it's like, “No, you don't. You can just work and be fine.” 

That was a lot to unlearn, for sure. And the other challenge is the reality that I also miss the classroom. I miss it. I miss working in East LA. I miss teaching history; I miss that aspect. So dealing with that, with the guilt of like, “I love teaching.” And, “Am I doing my part?” I’m also dealing with a loss of purpose, and an identity, like “Who am I now?” That sense of fulfillment that I got pretty often [in the classroom] doesn't always exist in the same way. 

What are you currently doing for work? What do you like about your current career or job?

My role title is college coach. So essentially, I work with a nonprofit that partners with orgs and schools around LA and in the Bay as well. We support working adults to earn their BA, through mentorship, through support with their classes, and also through social emotional support. So I have a cohort of students; we meet twice a week, and go over research skills and how to best complete a project together. And then every week, I meet with each of my students, virtually one-on-one, and talk about life and projects, so that we can ensure that they earn their BA in a timely manner. 

What, if anything, could have kept you in the classroom? What, if anything, could ever lure you back?

I would have stayed in the classroom if there wasn't a constant fight for rights and higher pay and respect. I think as union [chapter] chair, it was like this constant awareness of, “We are so exploited.” And I think just being around that and being around the expectation [from other teachers] of, “Yeah, we're so exploited, and what are you gonna do about it?” Like, “You need to do this, you need to do that.” And it's like, “Why is this my job?” It felt like I had to do so much to just feel respected. 

And the other thing that would have kept me…is a change in the school day and school structure. Like, five days a week–it's just a lot. If it was just four days with students, and one day planning, you know, so the planning [would be] built in… I guess just structural changes, like one more conference period—something where I'm not bringing home work every day.

And to be honest, I do really miss the classroom. So I feel that's also just my own self wanting to lure me back in.

Finally, what advice, tips or wisdom do you have to share with current teachers considering a career transition? Is there anything in specific you wish you’d known or prepared for?

I think the first thing is to remind yourself that your skills are transferable and very powerful. As teachers, we can do a lot, and do it a lot quicker than other people can, because we're so used to doing things on the fly. So I would say, definitely trust in the skills that you have. 

I would also add that if you are dealing with the guilt of leaving—that's real. So I’d just remind [teachers] that your wellness is really important and that you owe it to yourself to experience something outside of the classroom. You know, just kind of widening your horizons and being open to other things.

And then if you experience that, and you realize, “Oh, you know what? I actually still miss the classroom,” then at least you’ve gotten clarity on what you want and what you need, physically, spiritually, mentally and all that… It's okay to leave the classroom and return to it in the future, if that's what's best for you.

It's definitely a scary experience. You feel lost, you feel confused. And then once you leave, some co-workers who were also teachers are like, “Oh, I don't ever think about the classroom, it's in the past, like, I'm so much happier now.” Which is great. But then there's a reality where you may have those days where you're like, “Yeah, I really miss the classroom.” And it’s also okay to process and deal with that as well.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.