I am a teacher, not a martyr. What will we have to do to make that true?

Something that is said often in teaching is “I love teaching kids, everything else about the job sucks”. This is true, so very true. People choose to be teachers because they love kids. They love watching students grow, mature, learn new skills, and when that student leaves school be able to say “I made a difference in their life”. I have come to realize the huge impact I make as a teacher and that often is at the core of my motivation to push through the extra crap I have to deal with.

There are many problems at the core of teaching, but what I keep coming back to as the biggest issue is teachers' inability to stand up for themselves. Teachers allow administrators to pile more responsibilities and governments to ignore the needs of teachers and outright attack schools without any fight. Teachers shoulder these burdens and attacks for a few reasons:

1. We fear for our jobs. If you push back against administration you are labeled as a ‘difficult” teacher and your job becomes tougher or you are straight-up fired.
2. We are tired. Let’s say you want to push for political changes locally to help improve schools and provide for student needs. Good luck finding time when you get home at 5 PM and you spend most of your Sunday preparing for the next week.
3. The problems are too large. How am I, a single teacher, supposed to change the massive structural issues in education that are leading to a massive teaching shortage and toxic work environment? How am I even supposed to fix the problems within my own school? It all feels too large.
4. We do what is best for kids. That is the core of our job. I put up with everything else because my students need me.

Number 4 is what I want to zoom in on. It is a martyr point of view that is reinforced in teachers by administration, society, and our government in a bunch of different ways. Let’s go through some examples that make me want to rip my hair out.

The martyr speech — we have all heard this one. An administrator or another teacher stands in front of the group and reminds teachers that our job is SO TOUGH and this year is SO HARD but we serve kids who need us, and we do SUCH IMPORTANT WORK. We have to keep at it for the kids. This speech is terrible because it insinuates that if I want any materially better conditions for myself then I am a terrible person who is not willing to sacrifice for the betterment of kids. This is hilarious because the things I want such as better pay, reduced workload, smaller classes, more emotional and mental support for kids would vastly improve student success because I would be a better teacher.

The inspirational teacher story- This is often seen on the local news or in a made for tv movie about teaching. This is shown as a teacher putting in an ungodly amount of hours to help their students succeed, often spending their own money for supplies, giving a ton of extra hours basically giving everything they have for their students, and that is shown as what teaching should be. That is not sustainable and not what should be expected out of a career. I always remember when we watched those movies the movie ended with telling us that the teacher no longer works in the classroom because they travel and give speeches on teaching. This is because they couldn’t maintain it. No one can. At least they got famous enough to make money off the experience of teaching since they can’t from teaching itself.

These teachers are poor, someone gives them something, how nice! — I have two examples of this that are seared into my memory. One is of an Alabama teacher who was given a car by a parent because she rode the bus to work each day. Go read the comments on the video! No one stops to think why is it that a teacher can’t afford a car but instead gushes over the generosity of the parent. I am tired of us relying on generosity, teachers deserve to make enough to not hope someone is nice to them! The second example has blown up recently of a South Dakota hockey game where between periods teachers raced to collect cash for their classrooms because they don’t make enough money and their schools can’t or won’t give them any more. Both of these examples show how our society normalizes the poverty of teachers and encourages people to be generous towards us instead of actually changing our conditions to help teachers and thus help kids.

The fact that a large portion of school funding is still based on property tax — Working at an inner-city or rural school? Sucks for you! Your school doesn’t matter and your students deserve less because their parents are poor. I love that our country really sets the standard early for how we should view and treat poor people.

All of these examples and more reinforce to teachers that these conditions are permanent, this is what teaching is, so suck it up. The problem is that teachers over the past few years, and especially this year, have decided enough is enough. There is a massive teaching shortage in our country that has been building for years. Our governments, from local to state to federal have done little to stop it. Teachers will face the brunt of this, as we have to teach larger classes, work more, and help students through the emotional problems caused by a teacher quitting on them. This will also affect families, as their students will receive a worse level of teaching, and some schools will even have to go virtual because there are too many kids per teacher.

Here’s the thing though, every teacher who quits is met with shrugs by other teachers because they get it. They get why someone would want to leave our profession. It is a tough job that is not rewarded for the impact we have and the hours we put in. It is a job you are expected to sacrifice for, and every mistake is put under a microscope.

I’m tired of the two options for teachers are quit or suck it up, because teachers are more and more going to quit. I am constantly faced with the rot that lives at the center of my career and I hate it. Every kid in our country deserves a good education, and for that to happen schools need to be funded, teachers need to be paid, and the conditions in schools need to change.

The solution in my opinion starts at the top. How our government legislates and supports education must fundamentally change. That will only happen if teachers force that issue because elected officials will do nothing until the issue is forced. If anything from the past year shows us, it is only when workers decide things should change will conditions actually improve.

Let’s sit down and actually think through some changes that would improve teaching and most likely vastly improve the educational experience for kids, which would help our country immensely.

Shorter School day — If you ask any teacher and student, they will tell you they always feel tired. The amount of work we do in a day, on top of the fact that students often have jobs or other activities after school, leads to burnout that builds through the year. A shorter day would allow a more manageable workload, more time for both students and teachers to get work done, and allow students to take part in, and teachers to coach, the sports and activities that help kids stay attached to school and learn skills that our classes currently don’t teach.

Higher salaries — Everyone knows teachers don’t make enough, especially new teachers. As a teacher in my 5th year teaching I am finding it difficult to foresee how my wife and I will afford to start a family, own a home, and pay off her student loans (that’s right, my WIFE’S student loans, not even mine. If I had student loans we would truly be in trouble). A legitimate thing I have to consider is taking a different job for the good of my family. A higher salary would draw more people to the profession, and make the work feel more rewarding for the number of hours that are put in.

More teachers, smaller class sizes — Last spring I was able to try teaching a class of just 15 students as my school tested out in-person learning with Covid restrictions. I have never felt like a more effective teacher, as I was able to get to know each of my students personally, have time to help each of them one on one and make sure my lesson was effective for their various skill levels. My students grew quickly, it was remarkable. Then this year started, and I am back to having classes of 25 or more. I am lucky, in my school we have classes of 30 kids or more. You are not a good teacher with that many kids, you just cannot reach each kid. If students had smaller classes, they would improve at a much faster rate.

More social workers and counselors — Many teachers have by now had a professional development titled something like “Trauma-informed teaching” where you learn students who have experienced trauma need vastly different supports to be successful. This might not surprise you, but one PD does not make someone effective at supporting a student with trauma. We need professionals in the building, especially as we serve communities who have been ravaged by COVID and experience gun violence, drug addiction, and a litany of other potentially traumatic experiences. Our student's education would be vastly improved if we had more professionals in the building who could adequately support our student's mental and emotional needs.

More after-school programs — For our students’ school is a safe place that should offer more than just learning. From elementary to high school having more programs staffed by professionals would keep kids safe, allow them to learn skills and ideas that are outside of the normal school curriculum, and give kids a deeper connection to their peers and school community. Imagine if high schoolers could take extracurricular classes in career skills especially in tech, have a place to do school work with the internet and a focused environment, or just play and be a kid. You could even extend this to adult classes for parents who are looking to learn new skills or need support. My mom speaks highly of the parenting class she took at the preschool we went to as children that helped her dramatically in her parenting skills.

Better equipped schools- most schools, especially in rural areas and in the city, are falling apart. Students thus have to go to schools that every day represent how little our country cares about their education, and at their worst are literally unsafe. For the education, our students deserve we need more materials, better equipped, and up-to-date schools. The future is technology and innovation, yet many kids still read from books from the 80's and 90’s, much less have a computer to use.

Feed kids meals that support their growth — Right now schools are offering free lunches to all kids. This is awesome! The problem is most of these meals suck and when kids complain about them I have to agree because they are terrible. Students are constantly showing me pictures from their friends’ schools that also have terrible meals because schools cannot afford to get anything better. For many kids the free lunch they get at school is vital, but they are getting meals that are barely edible and definitely do not give them enough calories. Kids would learn a lot better with meals that support them.

There are more things I could add, but that is what comes off the top of my head. Here is the thing though, none of this will happen unless we demand it and fight for it. The only way we can fight for that is together. This has been an article of lists, so let me do one more for what I envision as the path forward to get these sorts of changes

1. Teachers need to talk — What are you getting paid? What came out of that meeting you had with your principal? What do you think of the recent curriculum changes? What are you struggling with? What do you want to change? These things need to be talked about in the open so that everyone is on the same page. We often feel isolated with our problems, when in reality our co-workers often feel the same thing
2. Teachers need to organize — If your school has a union, they should actually do stuff. The point of a union is to fight for you, whereas too often unions have done little to actually better their member's working conditions. If your school doesn’t have a union, form one or at least talk and demand things together. When teachers work together, small changes occur within schools that are important. I have heard from a lot of teachers the fear they have if even a hint of organizing occurs, but right now what is there to lose? Schools can’t find people to hire, good luck replacing you.
3. Teachers need to form connections with teachers from other schools — Just like the isolation that can occur within your school, there is an isolating feeling between schools. By talking to other teachers from other schools you learn the common issues and needs that you have and can find solidarity in that common cause.
4. Teachers need to then fight — Ask yourself, have you heard of any state that has dramatically improved the conditions of schools recently without conflict? My guess is that you haven’t. That is because the only states that have had huge changes, such as Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia, only happened when teachers from across those states came together, walked out of school and to the capitol, and demanded changes. Society cannot run without schools, and when teachers decide that they want something, they can get it. It just requires teachers to demand it together.

I am a teacher, not a martyr. As I am staring down the barrel of America’s deteriorating education system I have found myself asking if I don’t want to quit, am I willing to demand better? How many teachers are willing to demand better as well? It will mean the difference between our education system falling apart, or it finally changing to what our schools should and can be.