Lessons Learned
Having confronted the emotional weight of her work in the classroom, Diane E. Manser wants to empower others linked to a profession known for causing fatigue.
Diane E. Manser relished every stage of her time as a student, from kindergarten to graduate school. She credits her teachers and peers for her good fortune. Her successes helped her develop confidence and leadership skills, though she might have learned the most from the times she struggled or even failed, because those lessons helped her “do better next time.”
So, as she started thinking about a career, educator seemed like the best path forward, if not the only one. She earned her first teaching position in 2006, at Hatboro-Horsham School District in Montgomery County.
“I’m entering my 21st year as a teacher,” says Manser, who teaches ninth-grade English at Hatboro-Horsham. “I’ve now taught thousands of students, and I still get excited for the start of the school year. It’s one of my favorite parts of the year—the energy, the newness. It’s a really special experience for the ninth graders, who are new to high school, and our job is to make this as positive an experience as possible. I honor that part of the job.”
Talk to Manser for five minutes and her enthusiasm for the work becomes all too apparent. There was a time about 10 years ago, however, when the profession left her wondering if she had made a mistake. While she enjoyed the camaraderie of her peers and the support of the school administration, she found herself on unsteady ground. She never imagined the casual indifference of a 15-year-old student could wound her emotionally, yet it did.
“It was a slow burn,” she recalls. “You’re working really hard and pouring a lot of energy and time and effort into something for your classroom or students, and maybe you’re doing that at a personal sacrifice when you could be doing something for yourself or your family. So when you do all that and the people you’ve worked so hard for dismiss it or disregard it or disrespect it, that’s when you feel hurt by the profession.
“You find yourself coming home at the end of the day not being able to shake off work,” she continues. “By Sunday afternoon, you don’t know if you want to go to school tomorrow. You can run from that for only so long.”
So she stopped running. She sought help from a therapist who, over the course of several months, “turned it all around for me.”
“[The therapist] helped me understand that I was fearful of rejection and needed approval, and those dynamics were playing out in the classroom,” she recalls. “He told me, ‘You’re working with people, and people are emotional.’ That’s when my whole viewpoint started to change.”
Reading prescribed books, listening to podcasts, and keeping a journal nudged her closer to empowerment. She also started talking with fellow teachers about the stressors and intense emotions many teachers have to wrestle with simply by doing their jobs.
“These other teachers would tell me their stories, and I realized I was learning a lot,” she says. “I kept this journal, and I liked the idea of typing these notes out, making them neater. I saw all these different themes I thought looked like chapters of a book.”
Which, it turns out, they were.
Manser’s book, I Didn’t Sign Up for This: One Classroom Teacher’s Journey Through Emotional Fatigue to Personal Empowerment, came into the world in May 2024. The book provides a peek behind the curtain of a teacher’s life—many teachers’ lives, in fact, as Manser interviewed 80 people for the book. Not only does the book detail the sometimes-overwhelming struggles of the men and women charged with educating the leaders of tomorrow, but it also offers strategies for rediscovering the joy teachers should find in their work.
“Teaching is an emotional profession, and we have to know ourselves on a deep level before we go into this work, or be willing to explore ourselves as we are in the work,” she says. “If we don’t have a handle on it, it’s going to come back to us somewhere, and it’s going to make us feel hurt and defensive. If we don’t manage that, we may find ourselves not being the teachers we wanted to be, or leaving the profession earlier than we wanted to.”
To her point, teacher turnover remains a persistent challenge in the United States, according to a March 2026 report from the Learning Policy Institute, which has offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Every school year, the report states, approximately one in seven public school teachers moves schools or leaves the profession.
“If you’re a teacher, there’s something in you that made you excited about working in a school system,” Manser adds, “and we have to be connected to that as deeply and as often as we can.”
Writing I Didn’t Sign Up for This was a challenging and intensely personal exercise for Manser. She had some reservations about exposing her vulnerabilities in such public fashion, but she feels it has been worthwhile if it helps fellow educators overcome or, for pre-service teachers, avoid the same hurt she once felt.
Manser has since formed an entity called Teaching is Emotional, with corresponding social media groups, to build community, connection, and validation among educators. She also welcomes opportunities to share her story through presentations at colleges, high schools, and academic conferences. One long-term goal for her enterprise, partly inspired by a mentor from early into her career: to sponsor teachers who are on “a tough journey,” such as taking care of an elderly parent or undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
“These are people whose lives after school are scary and stressful, but they’re still coming to school and doing a great job,” she says. “I hope to make enough money in the business so I can then send checks to teachers anywhere who could use a little extra love, a little support. I feel like I can get there; I just don’t know when.”
Blazing a Trail for Others to Follow
These women are in a class by themselves. Not only have they built thriving practices of their own making—healthcare, finance, law, etc.—but they also prioritize the well-being of the communities they serve and leave a trail for the next generation of leaders and innovators.
Patti Brennan
Owner of Key Financial Inc. in West Chester, a seasoned financial professional who takes pride in providing wealth management, estate planning, and tax strategies to help clients prepare for the future. keyfinancialinc.com
Kimberly J. Brumbaugh
Founder of Brumbaugh Wealth Management in Exton, which combines expertise and next-generation technology for clients seeking guidance with personal retirement planning, tax planning, investment management, and more. brumbaughwealth.com
Dr. Irina Frolov
Founder of Miracle Dental Center in Feasterville, and a specialist in comprehensive and cosmetic dentistry, including smile restoration and aesthetic treatments, as well as minimally invasive facial aesthetics. miracle.dental
Susan M. Gibson
Doylestown-based founder of Gibson Family Law and champion of her community as vice president of the Central Bucks School District Board of School Directors. gibsonfamilylaw.com
Dr. Afua Mintah
An obstetrician and gynecologist with St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, as well as a wife and mother, driven by a passion for women’s health. trinityhealthma.org
Gabrielle C. Sereni
Founder of Sereni Law Group LLC, a Glen Mills-based boutique law firm devoted to education, special education, and municipal matters, staffed by an all-women team of attorneys. serenilawgroup.com
Linda Tagliamonte
The woman behind The Skin Rejuvenator, with locations in Blue Bell and Philadelphia, devoted to whole-body rejuvenation, wellness, and longevity; also, someone who has played a part in protecting the health of minors on a state-by-state level. theskinrejuvenator.com
Dr. Miriam Ting
Clinician and founder of Think Oral Implants & Periodontics who enhances patients’ smiles and raises the bar for all practitioners as an educator of her peers. think-oral-implants-and-periodontics.org
Clinician and founder of Think Oral Implants & Periodontics who enhances patients’ smiles and raises the bar for all practitioners as an educator of her peers. think-oral-implants-and-periodontics.org
Julia Brufke Wenger
Tax specialist and financial planner with nearly four decades of experience who leads Phoenix Tax Consultants LLC and Bala Financial Group Inc., both based in Phoenixville. balaplanningteam.com | taxtacklers.com
Stephanie H. Winegrad and Hillary J. Moonay
Family law attorneys and partners at the law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP who uplift the profession’s next generation through teaching and mentoring. obermayer.com
Photo courtesy of Diane E. Manser
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life, September 2026.
