Exit Interview: My Teaching Experience Will Be Highly Relevant to My New Career as an Animal Population Control Specialist
I'm ready for some piece and quiet
SUPERVISOR: Could you explain your decision to resign?
TEACHER: I’ve loved every minute of the twenty years I’ve spent in this school. Whenever someone’s asked me why I got into teaching, I’ve always had the same answer: My compassion. And it’s this very same compassion that’s pushed me to quit the only job I’ve ever known and apply for a new position, culling wild animals for the National Park Service.
My passion for education, for learning, and for children is only matched by my love of the natural world. I’ve always said that if I’ve been able to inspire just one child, my career will have been worth it. Similarly, if I can save just one endangered orchid by exterminating 500,000 invasive pythons from the Florida swamp, I’m going to do it.
SUPERVISOR: You’re leaving the profession? If you don’t mind my asking, how do you think you’ll handle the transition?
TEACHER: I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little nervous. But, as you know, I’m a fast learner, and I’ve always been an eager participant in professional development opportunities. I’m excited for the opportunity to start as a culler in training. I’ll be tailing an experienced ranger, trudging through swamps in the Ozarks in waist-high rubber boots, swatting away mosquitoes and stomping on the heads of geese he shoots from the sky.
I survived teaching training after all, back in the day. Honking screams must be nothing compared to the cafeteria on Jello Day.
SUPERVISOR: I’m sure you’ll be successful in any future career. How did you find the professional development opportunities we’ve provided for you over the years?
TEACHER: I loved them. But I’m most grateful for the opportunities the school has provided me to work in different contexts, from teaching different grade levels, subbing in different departments, and even working on standardized tests with the state.
I hope to do the same as a park ranger. From stomping on goose heads to setting bear traps to disemboweling pregnant deer, I’m eager to learn.
And maybe decades from now it’ll be me traipsing through bogs and deserts, shooting down overpopulated fowl from the sky above, while some bright-eyed aspiring ranger follows from behind, honking with every step.
SUPERVISOR: I have no doubt. And remember, you’ll always have a home here if you decide to come back.
TEACHER: That’s very kind. I’m a realist, and I know anything’s possible. But don’t expect me to come back to teaching. That chapter of my life is over. I’ve got my sights set on the local kill shelter as a fallback.