DO TEACHERS REALLY NEED SUMMER BREAKS?
After All They Only Work Nine Months
About 2:15 pm yesterday afternoon I heard the weirdest noises outside. I looked out the door and there was my daughter. She and the other 6th grade teachers were herding their 115 students down the street. The kids were joking, walking, spinning, laughing. And the teachers with glazed eyes were staring straight ahead, trying to hang on for one more day. Ha!
I still remember how those last days felt when I was a teacher. I had to promise myself an afternoon snack of Doritos & Pepsi to get myself out of bed each morning. I was completely burnt out at the end of the school year. And unlike today’s teachers, I never had to deal with the aftermath of a pandemic or the challenges of social media.
I loved to teach. I started each new school year refreshed and excited after a much-needed summer vacation. But somewhere after Christmas break — or was it during the last parent-teacher conference — I usually started feeling like a martyr. I was glad that a father who had advised me he had just a few pointers for me couldn’t see the steam coming out of my ears one year. By late spring, however, I was “fried.” I was sure to have blown my lid off at least once by then. One time I actually told a mother who admitted she wrote her daughter’s AP English essay that SHE needed to go back to Jr. high English class.
Being “fried” could be the only reason I was dumb enough to step in-between two six foot-something football players getting ready to fight one year.
And I thought I was really cooked the time a senior drove by mooning my study hall on Senior Skip Day. I was so shocked that the kid could contort himself enough to stick his rear end out the window while driving that I spit out, “Does anyone in here recognize that asshole?” OMG!
I’m just thankful for a principal and community who got it – ones who knew that teachers are 2 X more stressed than any other profession. A Rand Survey shows that today K-12 teachers are in the #1 burnout profession in the United States.
In fact, there are 500,000 fewer teachers after the pandemic, requiring those who remain to carry a much heavier workload. Constant criticism from modern day parents, lack of accountability, shortages, social media, ineffective administrators, fear for safety, and unruly, disrespectful students are creating anxiety, depression, fatigue and a lack of job satisfaction in many of today’s teachers. Nearly 85% of them think their jobs are unsustainable for the long term.
As high school graduation comes around each year, I lean back in my easy chair remembering the days when I was literally stuck to a folding chair in a long row of sweaty teachers. During one of those celebrations, a man behind me tapped me on the shoulder for some unknown reason and gloated, “I pay your salary, you know.”
And I said with a sarcastic snicker, “Thank you for being so generous.”
The next time you hear someone criticizing a teacher or think teachers have such an easy job, check to see if that teacher has been herding 115 students around for an entire year — especially twelve-year-olds “…desperate for approval. Surprisingly understanding. Hilarious. Smelly. Selfish at times. Selfless at times. Smart. Competent. Excited. Eager to please…” (according to a teacher on Reddit.)
Well, here’s to today’s teachers that make a difference in so many young people’s lives ~ Enjoy practicing the three R’s this summer: RELAX, REFRESH, RENEW. Them come back… ‘Cause we love you and the kids need you!
It’ll Be OK.
~~~~
“Confession of a Tired Teacher: ‘I was so tired that I stopped at a stop sign & waited for it to turn green.’” ~Pinterest
Jan, another delightful read! As a retired teacher, it resonated with me..on a “ little” different level, I taught kindergarten or first grade. Like you every fall I was eager to begin another year, even had the first day of school jitters. My biggest worry was getting the little ones on the right bus home, they didn’t know which one was going their way. The routes/ bus numbers changed every year! By February the tiredness started to kick in, then one of the little kids would start putting all the reading skills together…such a joy to see the “ light” come on for them. There was one year, that was a year! I had 4 little boys that were a handful everyday, as I would leave for school my husband would say “ don’t let the boys win”… they never did! I loved teaching those eager kids….now some of the other stuff we teachers had to do not so much.
Since I'll get June and July off (we go back August 5 now) we are hanging on. Completed my last lecture yesterday! No amount of Doritos and Pepsi can propel me through April and May. For me, it's spring break that starts summer fever. The weather starts getting nice and it's so hard to focus!
I'll put planning aside for a week or two, but College Board has restructured AP Psychology, so I have to revamp ALL of my instructional material, and that's just one of these classes I teach!
But I cannot say I don't enjoy it, at all. Most days are fun. Some days are rotten, but the good outweigh the bad. I may need that reminder next April.