DEAR ABBY: My husband’s job brings him a great deal of unhappiness, but he doesn’t want to quit. He has been a high school Spanish teacher for 13 years. It’s the only career he’s ever known. There have always been ups and downs, but the problems over the past few years seem to be that the majority of kids at his school, and the school environment in general, have become increasingly apathetic, dysfunctional and lacking in civility.
He hesitates because he knows that if he left, he would lose interaction with the few kids who make his workdays worthwhile, plus he’d be giving up his pension. He is afraid that another job, if there is even one that he’s qualified for, would only make him unhappy in a different way. He comes home seriously downtrodden more days than he comes home feeling OK, let alone happy, and I feel so helpless. What should I do? — TEACHER’S WIFE IN NEW YORK
