Mental Health Days

 Teaching is a stressful job.  The public thinks teachers only work 9 months a year, have a short day, teach the same thing over and over, teach sweet children with smiling faces. and so on. When I was teaching, and librarian-ing in public schools I frequently heard from parents what an easy job I had.  Even the administrators who should have known better acted as if teachers were lazy slackers sometimes.

But teaching is a stressful job, has always been stressful, but has become increasingly stressful in the past 20 years. I observe that when "testing" came in, teaching got more pressure filled and less fun. I think the same thing is true for the students as for the teachers. I doubt that testing will ever go away. I doubt that the stress will ever really get better.

Think about a job where you can't go to the bathroom when you need to, you hardly get a chance to speak to other adults, where people can yell at you about whatever and you have to maintain a professional attitude.  Every school year in recent memory lessons, standards and requirements have changed.  Days off during the school year and in the 2 month summer are used to update teachers on this years trends.

I could go on and on about test scores and computers and unruly students and lack of respect.  Mostly teachers are evaluated on things that have nothing to do with their connection with students and are measured subjectively.  Teaching is a stressful job.

The pandemic made teaching even more stressful.  Suddenly teachers were on camera and trying to evaluate learning in students that they could only see on a tiny square on a computer.  I was thankful to be retired, so thankful.

This year my old school district is reckoning with the stress of the past two years and giving some mental health days.  The days are the week of Thanksgiving. That is so great.  I am sure that a lot of teachers will appreciate the time to travel or cook for the holiday.  Perhaps it will provide less stress.  Mental health is important.  But, I maintain that being able to use the bathroom when you need to and having the opportunity to speak with other adults in the workplace would go a long way toward mental health.

Measuring Success

 A while back schools were forced to jump on the testing wagon.  It made a lot of companies selling tests very profitable. We measure children, we measure schools, we measure teachers, all as though they were sacks of flour or horses running a race.  Something is wrong with that in my mind.

Education has always been about telling stories, the story of math, the story of letters forming words, and the stories they tell, about human history, about how the world works, how to do and make things.  Education has been the telling a stories throughout time. The best teachers are good storytellers.

But somewhere in 2000 when schools became testing venues, the stories drifted to the background. Education became about measurable outcomes and things you could score. This isn't totally terrible. There needed to be better teaching in many cases.  The smart kids quit becoming teachers, and some of the not so smart ones who took their places were not good storytellers and were not motivated to even communicate effectively with students.

But, I believe better teaching involves better stories and better storytellers. To me it is important that learners buy into education.  It is important for people to have a story and an awareness of why they are telling it. I just don't think tests do that. I suppose schools won't ever stop trying to measure and quantify success.  There are a lot of special interests that will push to keep tests going.  But, I wonder how a school could actually measure the success of their students, of their staff, of their communities? What is success and how do we achieve it?

School

We are headed  into that time of summer I always hated.  The back to school sales would start about now.  I would scream inside my head, STOP, STOP, there is still some summer left.  But time is relentless.  I have been retired a few years now and the back to school sales don't effect me like they used to do.

But this year, this year, I can't even imagine how I would feel if I was going back to teach school.  Maybe most of the kids are safe, most.  But, teachers, counselors, lunch and bus people, none of them will be safe.  Some of them are getting older.  Some have conditions.  Some are type A blood.  And my former school district allowed us to take off 2 sick days a month or 5 in a semester without a doctor's note.  I remember the doctor looking strangely at me when I told him I needed a note for shingles.  How does one get a note for quarantine if someone in the house has the disease?

I don't have to worry about that anymore.  I understand that kids need to be in school.  But, I also don't think that teaching is a job worth dying for.  We need King Solomon who was so wise that no one before him or since him had been so wise.