Teachers, how is your mental health?

[Anonymous]

I work in a local K-8 independent school, a respected but not competitive/"big 3" type school. Our head of school doesn't give special treatment to donors' children, but they will spend more time wining and dining their parents. If the parent became abusive to teachers, or their student was wrecking the school culture with bullying, the family would be asked to leave. I've seen it happen in leaner times when it was harder to fill the roster, and that was a big decision. Now, forget it. The public schools are failing children and we have long waiting lists and can be choosy. There is no way the head would hang onto someone who made others miserable or put anyone at risk. The school won't even tolerate parents who are big donors being rude and abusive to staff, no matter how wonderful their child is. I don't think admin has the patience, especially now.

[Anonymous]

It's ok but I'm not crazy about starting to teach phonics to 4th graders. Too many kids, too many gaps - up to 20% need phonics, most of them can't write a paragraph. Those who can figured it out on their own or had help during last year. I figured this would happen; it's depressing.

[Anonymous]

I have never been so tired

[Anonymous]

Do teachers really believe that every other career field has been easy or hasn’t been more difficult during the last two years? That the stress of the pandemic and family life hasn’t worn down everyone?

I’ve seen so many posts about the mental health of teachers or how hard it has been this year.

The pandemic has sucked for every career field. Especially those which never had the ability to shelter and isolate.

There isn’t a career field which has been sheltered from the pandemic stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest question - are these behavioral issues limited to public schools? Are these problems still popping up in various upscale private schools in the area?

Private schools don't have to allow misbehaviors. Public schools have to take everybody. I teach at a public school and our kids go to well-known DMV private schools. In general there is a huge difference in parental expectations and child behaviors. Our kids and their friends don't misbehave because they know their parents won't tolerate it. At public schools it seems like some (only some) seem to actually encourage bad behavior in their kids.

That sounds like a general comparison/complaint, not something related to the pandemic and misbehavior/unsocialization caused by school closures and lockdowns.

DP: But there was no gap in socialization and no gap in academic or behavioral expectations during COVID for these kids either. They aren't behind socially or academically, so now the gulf is wider.

Hmm, if only the public schools had opened like the private schools did. I wonder why they didn’t?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in the grocery store today and saw multiple kids acting nuts while the adults they were with didn't bat an eye. There is a lot of lazy parenting going on. By the time your kid is in ES, they should know how to behave at a store. These kids were running down the aisles dodging carts and yelling. One kid screamed across a few aisles to get someone's attention. They were all 9 or older. Old enough to have some self-control.

I empathize with teachers this year but you need to cut the parents some slack as well. The ones who have been trying to juggle full time jobs while unexpectedly supervising their children’s virtual learning for the last 1.5 years /dealing with quarantines and alternatingly being demonized for taking their kids to places unnecessarily or for failing to adequately socialize them. Frankly a lot of parents are just burnt out too.

This is where I get confused. The schools were closed and parents were demonized for not being able to drop everything and assist with virtual learning. Then we were told we shouldn’t expect the schools to be daycare. Parents lose it out of frustration and being stressed and overwhelmed. We are told “too bad, so sad. It’s a pandemic.”

Now it’s teachers saying they are stressed and struggling because it’s too hard to handle Brightspace/Google classroom with teaching in person. Testing is too difficult and catching the kids up at the same time. Kids aren’t well behaved and mental health issues from returning to classrooms has been difficult.

As a parent, I’m inclined to shrug and explain that yeah, the pandemic has been overwhelming and stressful. More to do than someone can get done and for not enough money. We received no Grace as parents when we needed it. Only judgment and expectations we could help with virtual learning while working our own jobs so teachers could safely shelter when we could not.

There had to be a price to be paid for the last 18 months and this is it. A difficult transition and struggling kids which are behind.

I assume it will get better. I mean, I read tons of posts about all those kids who thrived in virtual learning and weren’t behind. Where are those kids now?

I am happy to send supportive emails and volunteer at the school for lunchtimes. I have a hard time mustering up empathy for how hard it is to deal with the kids. It was always the expectation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in the grocery store today and saw multiple kids acting nuts while the adults they were with didn't bat an eye. There is a lot of lazy parenting going on. By the time your kid is in ES, they should know how to behave at a store. These kids were running down the aisles dodging carts and yelling. One kid screamed across a few aisles to get someone's attention. They were all 9 or older. Old enough to have some self-control.

I empathize with teachers this year but you need to cut the parents some slack as well. The ones who have been trying to juggle full time jobs while unexpectedly supervising their children’s virtual learning for the last 1.5 years /dealing with quarantines and alternatingly being demonized for taking their kids to places unnecessarily or for failing to adequately socialize them. Frankly a lot of parents are just burnt out too.

This is where I get confused. The schools were closed and parents were demonized for not being able to drop everything and assist with virtual learning. Then we were told we shouldn’t expect the schools to be daycare. Parents lose it out of frustration and being stressed and overwhelmed. We are told “too bad, so sad. It’s a pandemic.”

Now it’s teachers saying they are stressed and struggling because it’s too hard to handle Brightspace/Google classroom with teaching in person. Testing is too difficult and catching the kids up at the same time. Kids aren’t well behaved and mental health issues from returning to classrooms has been difficult.

As a parent, I’m inclined to shrug and explain that yeah, the pandemic has been overwhelming and stressful. More to do than someone can get done and for not enough money. We received no Grace as parents when we needed it. Only judgment and expectations we could help with virtual learning while working our own jobs so teachers could safely shelter when we could not.

There had to be a price to be paid for the last 18 months and this is it. A difficult transition and struggling kids which are behind.

I assume it will get better. I mean, I read tons of posts about all those kids who thrived in virtual learning and weren’t behind. Where are those kids now?

I am happy to send supportive emails and volunteer at the school for lunchtimes.[b] I have a hard time mustering up empathy for how hard it is to deal with the kids. It was always the expectation.

Many, many of the screaming parents during DL had at least one, if not both, white collar parents who did indeed shelter at home, just like teachers, despite the hilarious number of them on an anonymous message board who claimed, conveniently and anonymously, to be "in person frontline workers."

You can keep your lack of "empathy" or insert it into the orifice of your choosing and if it gets any worse, your kids' teachers can just quit and oh, by the way, there not only aren't competent subs, but not even warm body subs, so when that happens, enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in the grocery store today and saw multiple kids acting nuts while the adults they were with didn't bat an eye. There is a lot of lazy parenting going on. By the time your kid is in ES, they should know how to behave at a store. These kids were running down the aisles dodging carts and yelling. One kid screamed across a few aisles to get someone's attention. They were all 9 or older. Old enough to have some self-control.

I empathize with teachers this year but you need to cut the parents some slack as well. The ones who have been trying to juggle full time jobs while unexpectedly supervising their children’s virtual learning for the last 1.5 years /dealing with quarantines and alternatingly being demonized for taking their kids to places unnecessarily or for failing to adequately socialize them. Frankly a lot of parents are just burnt out too.

This is where I get confused. The schools were closed and parents were demonized for not being able to drop everything and assist with virtual learning. Then we were told we shouldn’t expect the schools to be daycare. Parents lose it out of frustration and being stressed and overwhelmed. We are told “too bad, so sad. It’s a pandemic.”

Now it’s teachers saying they are stressed and struggling because it’s too hard to handle Brightspace/Google classroom with teaching in person. Testing is too difficult and catching the kids up at the same time. Kids aren’t well behaved and mental health issues from returning to classrooms has been difficult.

As a parent, I’m inclined to shrug and explain that yeah, the pandemic has been overwhelming and stressful. More to do than someone can get done and for not enough money. We received no Grace as parents when we needed it. Only judgment and expectations we could help with virtual learning while working our own jobs so teachers could safely shelter when we could not.

There had to be a price to be paid for the last 18 months and this is it. A difficult transition and struggling kids which are behind.

I assume it will get better. I mean, I read tons of posts about all those kids who thrived in virtual learning and weren’t behind. Where are those kids now?

I am happy to send supportive emails and volunteer at the school for lunchtimes.[b] I have a hard time mustering up empathy for how hard it is to deal with the kids. It was always the expectation.

Many, many of the screaming parents during DL had at least one, if not both, white collar parents who did indeed shelter at home, just like teachers, despite the hilarious number of them on an anonymous message board who claimed, conveniently and anonymously, to be "in person frontline workers."

You can keep your lack of "empathy" or insert it into the orifice of your choosing and if it gets any worse, your kids' teachers can just quit and oh, by the way, there not only aren't competent subs, but not even warm body subs, so when that happens, enjoy!

You realize people working from home were supposed to be working, correct? And were working and helping with DL?
I think the lack of empathy has been on both sides for awhile now. I don’t think many care about competent subs.
In reality, I don’t see a mass exodus of teachers - and yes, I teach. If people didnt quit back in August, I don’t see it happening until we finish this year. I would try something else but Im too close to retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a career changer and this is my second year as a teacher. What did I get myself into. I have never had a job so intense and exhausting. I am barely hanging on this year. I hope it gets better because this is too much. It is crazy how much is expected of teachers. It seems unsustainable.

Another career changer in their second year and I feel exactly the same way. I teach high school math and about half of my students are two years behind or more in math. They cheated while online and those who were hanging by a thread to begin with two years ago not only didn't make any progress--they actually regressed. They sit there like zombies, not taking notes or doing anything productive or play on their phones while I'm teaching.

They're scoring 10-20% tops on assessments and express shock because they "felt extremely well prepared." They refuse to move down to a lower-level class, and when I contact parents, many reply that the kid wants to do a retake--what kind of retake is going to mutliply their kids' score by five after 60 minutes of remediation?--if they show up for the remediation, which they almost never do.

The parents think they're in school, learning, but many of them use every opportunity to get out of class and vanish for 30 minutes at a time--bathroom trips, counselor trips, clinic trips--and then they come back and get on their phones again. Some are brazen and aggressive in their attempts to cheat, or demand to "start the test now and finish it later" during random periods of their choosing, or my lunch break, or before school or after school on a day they are available because advisory or the days I'm available are inconvenient.

I recently started experiencing limb tremors and have decided that I'll do my best to finish the year but am brushing up that resume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As a parent, I’m inclined to shrug and explain that yeah, the pandemic has been overwhelming and stressful. More to do than someone can get done and for not enough money. We received no Grace as parents when we needed it. Only judgment and expectations we could help with virtual learning while working our own jobs so teachers could safely shelter when we could not.

There had to be a price to be paid for the last 18 months and this is it. A difficult transition and struggling kids which are behind.

I assume it will get better. I mean, I read tons of posts about all those kids who thrived in virtual learning and weren’t behind. Where are those kids now?

I am happy to send supportive emails and volunteer at the school for lunchtimes. I have a hard time mustering up empathy for how hard it is to deal with the kids. It was always the expectation.

I can't speak for elementary school, but the high school kids who thrived in virtual learning were those who worked hard and continued to study instead of cheating. They're still thriving. The cheaters, not so much.

And keep your empathy if you wish. At the end of the day, teachers are doing their best to teach your kids and are under pressure to meet specific goals. If your kid doesn't cooperate, they end up being forced to give them a bare pass and let them continuously fail upward--which, in a decade, will become a major problem for you.

[Anonymous]

Last year was 100x worse for me.

This year, I only have a panic attack once per week or two instead of multiple times per day the way I did last year.

This year, I have only cried 2 or 3 times instead of twice per day the way I did last year.


My anxiety is still high, and I am still very stressed, but i am functioning.

[Anonymous]

What's really different this year is the lack of subs and there are many staff positions that still haven't been filled. Teachers are giving up their planning periods, class sizes are increasing, they are having to cover when other teachers are sick/out. Kids are far behind. Admin is no help. And there are so many new initiatives and trainings still being handed down for the teachers to adopt.

Anonymous wrote:Do teachers really believe that every other career field has been easy or hasn’t been more difficult during the last two years? That the stress of the pandemic and family life hasn’t worn down everyone?

I’ve seen so many posts about the mental health of teachers or how hard it has been this year.

The pandemic has sucked for every career field. Especially those which never had the ability to shelter and isolate.

There isn’t a career field which has been sheltered from the pandemic stress.

[Anonymous]

💯 to all of the issues above. The new trainings and initiatives kill me. What in heaven’s name made the central office think that THIS was the year to pile on?

[Anonymous]

If you want students to thrive, cut teachers some slack! How can we even have a moment to think creatively or do anything interesting at all when there isn’t even a moment to breathe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in the grocery store today and saw multiple kids acting nuts while the adults they were with didn't bat an eye. There is a lot of lazy parenting going on. By the time your kid is in ES, they should know how to behave at a store. These kids were running down the aisles dodging carts and yelling. One kid screamed across a few aisles to get someone's attention. They were all 9 or older. Old enough to have some self-control.

I empathize with teachers this year but you need to cut the parents some slack as well. The ones who have been trying to juggle full time jobs while unexpectedly supervising their children’s virtual learning for the last 1.5 years /dealing with quarantines and alternatingly being demonized for taking their kids to places unnecessarily or for failing to adequately socialize them. Frankly a lot of parents are just burnt out too.

This is where I get confused. The schools were closed and parents were demonized for not being able to drop everything and assist with virtual learning. Then we were told we shouldn’t expect the schools to be daycare. Parents lose it out of frustration and being stressed and overwhelmed. We are told “too bad, so sad. It’s a pandemic.”

Now it’s teachers saying they are stressed and struggling because it’s too hard to handle Brightspace/Google classroom with teaching in person. Testing is too difficult and catching the kids up at the same time. Kids aren’t well behaved and mental health issues from returning to classrooms has been difficult.

As a parent, I’m inclined to shrug and explain that yeah, the pandemic has been overwhelming and stressful. More to do than someone can get done and for not enough money. We received no Grace as parents when we needed it. Only judgment and expectations we could help with virtual learning while working our own jobs so teachers could safely shelter when we could not.

There had to be a price to be paid for the last 18 months and this is it. A difficult transition and struggling kids which are behind.

I assume it will get better. I mean, I read tons of posts about all those kids who thrived in virtual learning and weren’t behind. Where are those kids now?

I am happy to send supportive emails and volunteer at the school for lunchtimes. I have a hard time mustering up empathy for how hard it is to deal with the kids. It was always the expectation.

Many, many of the screaming parents during DL had at least one, if not both, white collar parents who did indeed shelter at home, just like teachers, despite the hilarious number of them on an anonymous message board who claimed, conveniently and anonymously, to be "in person frontline workers."

You can keep your lack of "empathy" or insert it into the orifice of your choosing and if it gets any worse, your kids' teachers can just quit and oh, by the way, there not only aren't competent subs, but not even warm body subs, so when that happens, enjoy!

You realize people working from home were supposed to be working, correct? And were working and helping with DL?
I think the lack of empathy has been on both sides for awhile now. [b]I don’t think many care about competent subs.
In reality, I don’t see a mass exodus of teachers - and yes, I teach. If people didnt quit back in August, I don’t see it happening until we finish this year. I would try something else but Im too close to retirement.

You’re right. They don’t. Last year, ignorant parents were yelling that unemployed Target cashiers and waiters should “teach” their kids — any unqualified warm body, just as long as it was outside of their house.

They scream and scream OMG IT’S ABOUT EDUCATION NOT CHILDCARE any time it’s brought up, but it’s a lie. It’s about having a place to park their kids five days a week that they don’t have to pay for (and no, for the millionth time, the piddly, measley fraction of their property taxes set aside directly for public education doesn’t BEGIN to approximate what 30-35+ hours of weekly childcare would cost).