Steven Singer writes that teachers are getting sick and exhausted because of the stress of the pandemic. One week, they are heroes. Next week, they are villains.
At the staff meeting the other day, one of my fellow teachers turned to me and said he was having trouble seeing.
He rushed home and had to have his blood pressure meds adjusted.
Another co-worker was sent home because one of her students had tested positive for Covid-19 and she had gone over to his desk to help him with his assignment.
I, myself, came home on Friday and was so beat down I just collapsed into bed having to spend the next week going from one medical procedure to another to regain my health.
The teachers are not okay.
This pandemic has been particularly hard on us.
Through every twist and turn, teachers have been at the center of the storm.
When schools first closed, we were heroes for teaching on-line.
When they remained closed, we were villains for wanting to remain there – safe from infection.
Then there was a vaccine and many of us wanted to reopen our schools but only if we were prioritized to be vaccinated first. We actually had to fight for the right to be vaccinated.
When our students got sick, we sounded the alarm – only to get gas lighting from the CDC that kids don’t catch Covid and even if they do, they certainly never catch it at school.
We were asked to redo our entire curriculums on-line, then in-person for handfuls of students in funky two-day blocks, then teach BOTH on-line and in-person at the same time.
The summer was squandered with easing of precautions and not enough adults and teens getting vaccinated. Then schools reopened in August and September to debates over whether we should continue safety precautions like requiring students and staff wear masks and if we should expand them to include mandatory vaccinations for all staff and eligible students to protect kids 11 and younger who can’t take the vaccine yet.
It’s been a rough year and a half, and I can tell you from experience – TEACHERS ARE EXHAUSTED.
As of Sept. 17, 2021, at least 1,116 active and retired K-12 educators have died of COVID-19,according to Education Week. Of that number, at least 361 were active teachers still on the job.
I’m sure the real number is much higher.
According to the Associated Press, the Covid pandemic has triggered a spike in teacher retirements and resignations not to mention a shortage of tutors and special aides.
Difficulties filling teacher openings have been reported in Tennessee, New Jersey and South Dakota. In the Mount Rushmore State, one district started the school year with 120 teacher vacancies.
But, as he writes, it didn’t start with COVID. Open the link. Read on
Diane Ravitch's blog 
An organization representing tens of thousands of school officials across the U.S. has appealed to the federal government for help in protecting school staffers under “immediate threat.” In a letter sent Wednesday, National School Boards Association President Viola Garcia and Interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven appeal directly to President Joe Biden, asking him to step in amid rising threats to school officials due to the right-wing furor surrounding mask mandates and critical race theory. “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the letter says.
It goes on to detail several recent incidents of “threats or actual acts of violence” against school officials, including “angry mobs” derailing school board meetings and at least one instance of alleged aggravated battery during a meeting. The group is asking for assistance from the FBI and U.S. Secret Service in assessing and monitoring threats to school officials, and for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to help filter out threatening letters targeting staffers, board members, and students.
Read it at National School Boards Association.
Click to access nsba-letter-to-president-biden-concerning-threats-to-public-schools-and-school-board-members-92921.pdf
Thanks for the comment.
During the 1999-2000 school year, the U.S. Government started sending periodic surveys to selected school principals, respective district superintendents, and their corresponding state chief of education, asking if they had a plan. For a series of events that would shutter a school, requiring teaching and learning off-campus.
We had no plan.
We were not prepared.
And we are living the consequences of decades of education leadership failure.
And I know this because it has become a passion for learning all I can about the field of education.
The latest gem I found is a memorandum dated August 14, 2002, to all Superintendents in Florida from the State Deputy Commissioner of Education Programs stating how and why Florida would intentionally mislead Stakeholders about the quality of the condition of learning.
mislead: the word which could stand as a symbol for the entire reaction
Until teachers walk en masse, they will continue to be ignored. Add in school boards and district administrators and maybe someone will pay attention. Just what exactly is a state or the federal government going to do if public school systems just shut down? Give the kids all vouchers and send them to charters? I know this scenario is a pipe dream for many reasons. The national unions should be screaming their heads off.
in harshest light we might see that highest legislative leadership is in bed with tech — as in, who needs teachers, kids can learn without them…
Everybody’s exhausted and a lot of people are not okay.
Very true, FLERP. The helping professions in general have it very tough, especially in hospitals. And one reads of aggression toward transportation personnel, restaurant workers, those manning entrance to event venues. The frogs in boiling water metaphor often occurs to me.
During the 1999-2000 school year, the U.S. Government started sending periodic surveys to selected school principals, respective district superintendents, and their corresponding state chief of education, asking if they had a plan. For a list of events shuttering a school or schools requiring teaching and learning conducted off-campus.
We had no plan.
We were not prepared.
And we are living the consequences.
I have friends and family in the classroom, and it Sucks!
So yes, this is personal, and it would still be personal even if I did not have family and friends in the classroom.
“Difficulties filling teacher openings have been reported in Tennessee, New Jersey and South Dakota. In the Mount Rushmore State, one district started the school year with 120 teacher vacancies”
.And why would there not be vacancies? Teachers are at the mercy of silly administration at all layers, who try to squeeze them between angry parents and unappreciative political leaders. Is that anyone’s idea of a dream job? Teaching programs throughout the country are still seeing decline in enrollment. Is this not the goal of so-called reformers? There exists in this country, a large group of people who thinks that only about 10 % of the population is capable of absorbing an education. They want this to happen. They are powerful, and attempt to make sure most of us are without an education. They know, however, that they cannot say this, for they will surely be opposed.
If the teacher exodus is any indication, they’ll have to rename South Dakota the ” Mount Rush-away-more State”
“Herd Resistance”
Everyone is sick and tired
Of doctor proclamations
So all of those should be retired
We’re really losing patience*
Pandemic thing has lasted well
Beyond expiry date
It’s time that someone rang the bell
Before it’s too damned late
The coward and his godDAM mask
Will lead us all to ruin
So now we have a simple task
“Resist” is what we’re doin’
*Patients works too
I think it’s accurate to say that publicly funded, private sector charter schools and/or voucher lovers and pushers are cheering to hear/read that public school teachers are suffering thanks to the pandemic.
If the shortage of public school teachers grows because of the pandemic, that may turn into more profits for the frauds and monsters behind the charter school and/or voucher scams.
Don’t expect any of the greedy Charter School/Voucher creeps to lose any sleep over public school teachers suffering. In fact, I think creating more stress for public school teachers is one of their major tactics.
definitely the teacher shortage will turn into huge profits for the tech gurus
Well when the ones, almost all teachers and adminimal, who have Gone Along to Get Along (GAGA) in implementing in Good German fashion educational malpractices such as the standards and testing malpractice regime one should expect some sort of eventual blowback. Twenty years of that malpractice regime in combination with the Covid epidemic now, begs for blowback. (See Chalmers Johnson for the idea behind the term blowback.)
Gaga
Lady Gaga went along
With everything they said
Lady Gaga sand the song
“It’s shallow in my head”
This is very relatable and accurate. I am in a district that is doing much more to protect staff and students and a nice suburb to work in – but the exhaustion and vibe of “on the verge of burn-out” is palpable. I can’t imagine what it is like in districts that aren’t requiring masks and are less supportive.
More and more good teachers are leaving the profession. Not because they don’t care – it’s because of all the forces working against the profession and public schools in general.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
In Rheeformy World, all you have to do is pretend that everything is okay. There, we are using TECHNOLOGY!!! Technology makes everything better. !!! Are you feeling drained, a little burned out, afraid for your life and the lives of your students and their families? Don’t worry! Fill out a Social Emotional Learning survey, and looking at the data analytics will give you grit and resilience. Rats and cockroaches can survive anything. Be like rats and cockroaches. (I was actually told that once by a consultant from a charter school.) Glitches, snags, bugs, hacks, zoom bombers… Just give tech companies your feedback and they’ll upgrade your life. Sick of giving meaningless standardized tests three times a year? How about you give us a smiley emoji! That’s all you need to feel better.
So appreciate your wit and your beautiful writing, LeftCoast. Thanks.
Rough day today, dealing with the adminimals about school policy. Your compliment helped. Thank you.
We’ve talked here of how the chaos surrounding the messy reopening of traditional publics pleases privatizers, whom we’ve seen (in press) exaggerate the supposed stampede out the door to charters/ vouchers. All we’ve seen on the latter is some ticks up & down in enrollment that don’t even correlate. It would be enlightening to have more specifics on what’s really happening. Last winter, when frustration was boiling over continued non-reopening of some large districts, I remember reading contrary info. E.g., in DC, nearly all charters too were closed. And in Chicago, “fully open” Catholic schools were actually 80% online.
I love teaching. I wouldn’t do it now, under these conditions, for 20 times the pay.
The constant micromanagement by morons, the test prep, the devolved and test preppy curricular materials, the constant disrespect. No thanks.
I’m with you, Bob.
I know you’re being VERY sarcastic here, speduktr. Have to add the top Chicago news item the other day was the Covid death of a mom w/2 students in a Chicago Public School, where testing & other protocols have not been done or have been inadequate, not to mention cleaning & ventilation!)
One of the networks included footage of a Chicago school with windows propped open, using books!
(Well, I guess that’s one good use for them, given that everyone’s on computers.)
When our students got sick, we sounded the alarm – only to get gas lighting from the CDC that kids don’t catch Covid and even if they do, they certainly never catch it at school.
The CDC has behaved shamefully. It is no longer a scientific organization. It does science by asking whoever is in charge on the political side what they want the recommendation to be.
This is literally and figuratively sickening. It’s how science was done in Stalin’s Russia.
Apparently, they still don’t catch it at school in Chicago, so therefore they are never taking it home to their families from school
Centers for Disease Control to Major Tom
SARS cov2 is cool
It can’t be caught in school
But only in a place
Like deepest outer space
Hilarious (and tragic), SomeDAM!
Yeah, the job I loved until recently is burning me out…technology, social emotional leaning mandates, demands for more social justice education without hard resources approved by the district, countless mandates and admin babble, some angry parents, teaching and learning while masked up, etc., etc…the last couple of years before I can retire are going to be rough. I hope I can make it! Yesterday’s open house was a 6:45am until 9pm slog…we zoomed our presentations, but had to be at school-they wouldn’t let us zoom from home for some reason…many people “on the edge” at my school. Oh, and many students these days are addicted to social media and all that brings to their lives. There are more snowflakes than ever before, and their education has changed so much the last couple of years-one parent yesterday was so upset at the school because their child with attention issues was taught math in a gym for an entire year. Things are getting ugly out there!
I have to hang tight until 2034. Hopefully, public schools will still exist then. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Excellent points. One correction, as far as South Dakota: It was not 120 teacher vacancies in one district; it was 120 teacher vacancies in the whole state.