I gave up teaching because I was finding it difficult to stay positive, and I no longer felt I was making a difference. The pressure that is placed on teachers these days is continually increasing, and I was finding that many of these pressures were taking me away from working with the children effectively. Accountablity is important but we need to be given time away from the children to complete the required paper work that goes along with it, rather than having it compete with the needs of the children. I don’t know about you but I found that my enjoyment of my job decreased the more I had to spend time focussing on red tape rather than helping the children to discover more about the world and increasing their understanding. There is nothing quite as satisfying as the look on a child’s face when they get that AHA moment and finally understand something they have been struggling with or the look of excitement or wonder on a young child’s face as they share something important to them with you as their teacher!