Teaching

Is not for the fainthearted

When I started teaching in 1988, I was constantly reminded by veteran colleagues that 50% of new teachers quit in the first five years.

Since then, turnover has been even higher. A young English teacher recently remarked that she was third in seniority in our department. She is 27. Every year, we hire two new English teachers. The others leave for other school districts, move up to administration, or leave teaching altogether.

Covid is making some districts desperate. More and more teachers have Covid or are quarantined, and substitute teachers are part of the great resignation — not willing to put their health at risk for very little pay.

Right now it’s winter, and everyone is tired and often disillusioned. After another e-learning day and many kids not submitting their assignments, teachers are tired of messages at 3 a.m. from students who couldn’t do the assignment before it closed at midnight because their “internet went out.”

It is surprising that in our small town of 25000 people internet outages affect only one house at a time and always right after an assignment closes.

We veteran teachers smile indulgently at the lame excuses and pretend to believe them. New teachers are often indignant and frustrated. They arrive in the morning tired and sleep deprived from teaching and coaching (often a must for new hires). They worry about their mental health.

This Bloomberg article is correct when it claims that “The Teachers Are Not All Right.”

We may have another (weather-related) e-learning day tomorrow. No one knows from day to day how many teachers and students will get Covid or will have to quarantine.

Student Services keeps a chalk board with teachers who are absent. The board is never empty. One of my colleagues is often absent because her daughter has depression. She is trying to recover from the social isolation caused by being an e-learner all last year.

Other kids have trouble adjusting to being at school. The Dean of Students for Freshmen recently complained that he already had to deal with over 1000 discipline referrals. One student was expelled after he tried to hit an administrator.

The virtual branch of our school is growing for those students who are better off learning from home. Every school district in the area has a virtual branch now to keep the kids and tax dollars here. Our state’s policies have bled the schools so much that the can’t afford to lose any more.

There is little continuity. Ten of my students left for the virtual branch or for Aspire (an alternative program for failing students), and I picked up 12 new students who switched from honors to regular English or who transferred from different schools. Gone are the days when we end the school year with the same students we started it.

I am surprised that I still look forward to teaching every day. As an empty Nester, I have a better chance to decompress at home than many of the younger teachers who have to worry about their own children handling life and school during Covid.

Many teachers want life to return to normal, but I think it never will. The paradigm has shifted in education. In some respects, that good. Students have more choices of how to complete their education. Change is always hard, but public schools will adapt. They have to.