There are not enough hours in the day to complete all of the mandated extraneous tasks put upon us in addition to actually teaching the children!
Mental Health and Elementary School Teachers
“It’s easier to just be a team player”. That was the moment. That was when I decided I had to get out. That I could no longer be part of this, “team” of a district, of a national system that was failing our kids. Despite the good work I was doing in my own four walls with students, I could no longer contribute to the failing system. A system that would allow the most passionate of us, the ones who literally give up the best of themselves to educate our society’s children, to become defeated and walk away. I felt as if they had depleted all of my strength to fight for change any longer. It so often felt the more we tried, the more roadblocks out-of-touch district administrators and the school board put in our way.
When we tried to share our front-line, very educated, professional, and experienced voices, we were told by the superintendent at the time that we were, “Acting like her insolent teenage daughter.” We were given advice on how to better manage our time. We were told that we got a raise recently and should be grateful. We were told to attend another Professional Development Session. Our voices were unheard despite the plethora of surveys sent to us asking us to rate our teaching experiences on a scale of 1-5. Really!?
It Is Not About Teacher Pay
I deeply wish to express the reality of those last few months so that those without current relationships with the public school system may understand how the conditions under which we are leaving the profession. That it IS NOT ABOUT TEACHER PAY but teacher support. There are simply not enough hours in the day to fulfill the extraneous requirements in addition to the actual education of the children. There is also the constant mixed message of, “Take care of yourself”, “Have balance in your life”, and “If you don’t take care of yourself, how can you take care of the children?” And, “You are on salary and sometimes you have to work more than 40 hours”, Or, “Do you need help learning how to manage your time better?” The constant observations and evaluations are designed to let us know we could always do MORE.
Back in early 2021, the RAND Corp published that 1 in 4 teachers was experiencing symptoms of depression and sought mental health care. I think it is much higher now. In terms of the care I received, I was grateful to be able to use FMLA in order to seek counseling and have the support of my wife and family.
Counseling
The emotional rollercoaster I rode in those next weeks was physically as well as mentally draining. I attended outpatient (via zoom) cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in a group setting. Each session was two hours long, and held three times a week, for six weeks. One of my goals was to learn how to turn my anger back into a passion to teach. To regain perspective on why I felt teaching was the most important career one could have. To return to my students with healthy coping mechanisms to make it to the end of the year providing them with the best learning experience possible.
One of the first things I noticed was how many of us in the group session were teachers. The counselor told me he’d seen a dramatic increase in the number of classroom teachers seeking counseling. It was comforting to hear I wasn’t alone, but I think it angered me more because there are so many of us that were really struggling.
The most prevalent issue among all of us was the guilt of leaving the students when they really needed us most. The guilt of not being stronger for them. That weighed on me just as much as the question of my identity and purpose if I was no longer to BE a teacher.
Epidemic of Loss
I just did a cursory search on a major university’s database, looking for journal articles, books, or other media on the subject of the mental health of classroom teachers. I’m really proficient at doing research so I was surprised when I found little. Just do a google search for “mental health of elementary teachers” and you’ll find many have written on the subject of students and mental health but few on what teachers have gone through in the last decade. I did find a great, comprehensive piece, written by Stephen Noonoo for EdSurge in May of 2022: Mental Health Crisis Causing Teachers to Quit. My favorite quote is from a former teacher Kaitlynn Moore who says, “I call it emotional blackmail. They tell you, ‘It’s for the kids, you’re doing this for the kids.’ And if you don’t want to do something, well, then you must not love the kids enough.”
So many times we are told, “It is just one more curriculum change, one more student to your class, one more meeting, one more sub that didn’t show, and one more parent calling to complain. One more time to give up your limited planning time.
Our Voices Are Silenced
As a veteran teacher, I was more comfortable than some talking to the administration about concerns. As the school’s teachers’ union representative, it was my charge to do so.
I remember walking into the principal’s office that September, to share with her our concerns about all of the meetings we were mandated to attend during our planning time. I was also there to inquire about and request paid time for the faculty to complete a mandated, 6-hour course on reading intervention that none of us could complete during the work day. After sharing this with her, and reviewing our master contract that showed we were out of compliance in terms of our planning time, I was told that we are on salary, not hourly. It is part of the job, most people on a salary work more than 40 hours a week. (There is not a teacher in this country that works only 40 hours a week). Then to really twist the knife, she handed me a one-page sheet of paper entitled, How to Better Manage Your Time. It was a slap in the face. In front of her sat a 30-year veteran teacher with a master’s degree and national board certification, not to mention the leadership skills, passion, and proven dedication I have brought to classrooms.
And at that point, I just didn’t have the strength to fight, and maybe she saw that. I think I looked at her and laughed out loud. I shook my head realizing there was no use. Instead of asking me for my professional opinion, instead of recognizing our concerns, instead of problem-solving, she shut me down.
At least 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field between February 2020 and May 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.
And so I end with more questions than answers. What happens when all of the teachers are gone? Where is the outrage about what our failing elementary education system is doing to the future of our country?
Diane has dedicated the last 30 years to working with students and teachers in public schools across the United States. She has taught in Arizona, Washington, Oklahoma, Mexico, and Colorado gaining meaningful knowledge about how different systems work across the country. She knew early on that she wanted to be working with young people and brought her passion for social justice and equality to every community she worked. Diane has worked exclusively in public schools, all elementary level. Most recently, she taught 4th grade in Denver. She resigned in December of 2021 but not before helping her students establish the first LGBTQ+ Group at an elementary school in the district. Currently living in Bozeman, MT with her wife Stephanie and two pups Watson and Koa, she is taking some time to transition into the next stage of her career, whatever that may be.
I’d love to hear from you! Please share your stories or comment on something that resonates with you. If you’re considering a career in teaching, I’d love to know your hopes and dreams for it. You can leave a comment or email me directly at [email protected].