I'm a teacher.

It's bad.

But it's not just bad for teachers; it's bad for students as well.

Each day, I stare out at a bunch of cold, dead faces, like zombies from an apocalyptic movie.

I ask them about their lives, what they are thinking, what they are doing in their spare time, what kinds of things get them out of bed in the morning, to connect with them, to try to build some rapport, because this is my workspace, the classroom, and I prefer my workspace to be minimally affable, for my own sanity, and I get dead, empty space in return.

The students turn their backs, stare at their phones or computer screens, wishing I would just stop talking and give them their required work for the day.

There is no discussion. There is no energy or even life in that room . . . in all of those rooms, just cold, dead, empty eyes staring back, thinking the whole business of education is a joke, because their culture, and some of their families tell them this: be suspect of education.

They think it's just another ruse, because when will they ever use English or communication skills, when will they need critical thinking skills, because all of this is just too hard to bother with -- just give me my grade, my course credit, and get out of my face, this is what they say.

It's not just teachers who don't want to be teaching, it's also students who don't want to be learning, to be in school, because they find zero value in it, other than the job they hope to get at the end of all of it.

It's Friday morning, and I am sitting here thinking: I can't do it; I can't face them again. It's the end of the work week and all my special reserves are exhausted and I have nothing to give to this battle, no armor or ammunition left.

I don't smile either. Not anymore. I can ignore climate change, or the other social problems that are so immediate and so depressing in our society, ignore them for a minute or for a day, but I cannot ignore my job, those dead-eyed students, not even for a second, not even in my sleep, which is troubled, always, with trying to find some way to make this profession bearable, to make a student care, even just a little bit, about learning, and if they can't care about learning, to care just a tiny bit, an angstrom, about me, or other teachers, as people, just like them, trying to do some good for society, just trying to make it through, but it never works, no matter how hard I try to tap-dance in front of them, entertain them, inspire them, get them out of their zombie-like state.

And, it's not getting better, only worse, year after year, as I see more and more good teachers retire early or leave the profession altogether, which is what I have resolved to do, because life is way too short, not to smile once in a while.

And, please, while good intentioned, do not respond to me with: hang in there, because hanging in there is what I have been doing for a decade, trying to figure this problem out, to find a way to make teaching bearable, and there is no way.

We have failed. Education has failed, just as intended, just like the Post Office, a planned demise of a once proud and storied institution.

We are devolving. The arc of history does NOT always bend towards progress, justice, or improvement as we once so foolishly and naively believed. The arc of history bends towards demise, and education is only one example of this.