I also teach. It might be where you teach and the school's expectations. While I teach in the private sector, I remember reading a book title called Do Not Work Harder Than Your Students, and while I neither read it nor believed it implied laziness and apathy, I realized how many people burn themselves out in this regard. I grade critically and teach everything to prepare my students for college; however, if a student is not giving me their best effort (it is easy to tell the difference), then I cannot give them accurate grading to pinpoint their actual weaknesses. I will call them on procrastinating or submitting minimal work.

If you choose to consider education in the future, I would highly recommend reading Teach Like a Champion and its field guide, watch The Teaching Company's lecture series on lessons from master teachers, and buy the app 2Do for your phone (and Mac if applicable). Each will help separately.

My students now realize that they must apply themselves and while I am "the hard class," they know that they receive an education and are grateful to have a teacher who gives them honesty and diligence.

I wanted to share this because I, too, have been teaching for four years and worked at a boarding school for my first three, which exhausted me.

Best of luck to you, stranger.