30- Cancerous Places

Teachers’ Lounges are cancerous places. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this ominous warning, but it is true. The Teachers’ Lounge is the place to go if your want to hate your job. Inside, you will always find a small collection of teachers who are unhappy with their job and are eager to spread their evil. They group together and complain. They whine desperately for the weekend to arrive and then they express dread about coming in again on Monday.
The Teachers’ Lounge is a very bad place for a new teacher to hang out. (Not that there is a lot of time for hanging out in this profession. It amazes me how much teachers complain about being overworked and so busy, but yet they have plenty of time to stop and chit chat between classes.) There are a handful of sour, bitter teachers at the core of each malicious gossip group within the school. These are the people to avoid. They hate children, they hate the administration, they hate teaching, and they want you to hate it all, too. A run in with one of these teachers can ruin your career.
I try to avoid loitering in the Teachers’ Lounge. I have been approached many times, and I never know if I’m talking a good guy or a bad guy- it can be difficult to differentiate. The bad guys act nice, they pose as your understanding older counterpart, but the second you express a weakness or concern about teaching, the bad guy will strike! They will reinforce your doubts by recounting similar deflating stories of their own. The next thing you know, the bad guy will be your comrade and will come to you with more and more negative news, until one day, you will find yourself hating your job.
My advice to all new teachers is to stick with the good guys. Always be kind to everyone, but only listen to those teachers who have a true love of children and teaching. They will protect your own passion for teaching and will positively support your trials and tribulations through out your career.