Jan 22
Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts
The abusive treatment of teachers by a system that refuses to recognize it.
Today, a message was sent out to all of the teachers that a custodian had quit. We were asked to help with cleaning our rooms and taking out the trash. It is a small ask, they said, so that we can all pitch in and help keep our school clean “for the kids”.
But therein lies the problem. In a job where there is already no time to complete the things we need to complete, another small thing is added to our plates in a way that makes it impossible to say no without being the villain, without being the teacher who refuses to do what is best “for the kids”. Teachers are asked on a daily basis to make the impossible happen. We are asked to do way more than what is humanly possible to get done in an eight hour workday, but since we “do it for the kids” we use our own personal time and money to get everything done. We sacrifice time with our own families and children over and over again. Our own families get left behind when we are not present for them. We miss out on life’s moments because we’re “doing it for the kids” — everyone else’s kids. And the system rewards and even encourages this. Those teachers who work hours and hours over their teaching day get deemed inspirational and highly effective. They become shining examples of what we should all aspire to be. We watch movies of teacher heroes walking into a failing school and making magic happen. And we celebrate the fact that this hero was so committed to bettering the lives of these kids, they gave their entire selves for them.
Teachers, by nature, are very compassionate and empathetic people who care greatly for others. It is this very trait that makes them excellent nurturers for young minds. We want so badly to make a difference and to help these kids that we truly love.
But, it is also this very trait that has allowed an entire system to take advantage of and abuse teachers for decades. It is no one event or person or school that is causing this. It is an entire system that is falling apart at the seams. And the structure will not be repaired properly because everyone knows that educators will keep patching it up with bandaids “for the sake of the kids” lest they be called selfish, greedy or worse yet, uncaring.
There will be a mass exodus of teachers in the coming years. COVID isn’t the cause, though it certainly exacerbated the problem and probably revealed cracks that hadn’t been noticed before. No, the cause is an educational system that has repeatedly failed to take care of its most important asset. Teachers are finally saying “I can’t take this anymore”.
At what point is it ok for a teacher to take care of themselves? We are told to practice self-care, but in reality, there is no way to do so without leaving something undone or unfinished, without making someone angry or upset. But no one else is going to take care of us or our families, so we must do it ourselves. And still, there will be rallying cries across the nation about the teachers who failed our kids because they didn’t care about them.
My message is this. I cannot go on at the pace that I’ve been asked and after 17 years, it’s time for me to leave. It is quite simply unsustainable and deeply unhealthy. I love my students, my colleagues, my administration and my community. I’ve cried thinking about leaving a profession I’ve given so much of my life for. I’ve tried. I’ve really, really tried. But this self-care I’ve been told to practice? This is it.
