Teachers Resigning Like Crazy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I work in an office job before coming to education. My typical day consisted of rolling into the office about 830, getting coffee and chatting until a little after nine, sitting down to do some work from that time till 10 or so then another coffee break more chatting, usually a meeting or so around 11 to 12 but an hour for lunch may be longer depending on the day, another meeting that could’ve been an email another hour or so at my desk, a tea break at the cafe downstairs, then back to my desk for an hour or so before heading home.

There were at least 100 people on my floor, following roughly the same pattern every day. Don’t act like office jobs are some high and mighty, nose to the Grindstone position.

Throw in checking websites for news and listening to podcasts and you described my 90K a year job.

That sounds amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS just released the results from the employee engagement survey, lol. One question was a type in answer, "describe your job in 1 word". The top 4 results were:

Overwhelmed
Stressed
Exhausted
Frustrated

Yayyyyyyyyyyy!

The question: “I am optimistic about the future” didn’t fare so well.

I'm not a teacher, but I think we need to rethink how education is structured centered around what will help teachers thrive. Students will be more likely to thrive with teachers that do. Any demands on teachers--for supporting students, for admin, for adjusting to changing needs--need to be considered in the context of how can that be achieved while not undermining the fundamental need for teachers to thrive. There may be some unmet needs that it is the responsibility of society as a whole to figure out how to fund and meet those needs, not unfunded mandates placed upon schools.

US Society as a whole is a failure. Schools are supposed to educate, but we also have to feed, clothe and parent students; the minute we’re not available to do those things (see: April 2020 onward) it’s OUR fault, but the minute we suggest shifting that burden to another part of the societal safety net, the same people who screamed about closing school buildings, scream that we can’t spend the money on that type of thing.

Until teachers can get back to being teachers and not substitute parents things are just going to get worse.

It's not just parenting issues, but also ever expanding content, more access to teachers via technology from students and parents, and more expectations for teachers to post everything online/grade quickly, more requirements to provide accommodations for students with a range of learning needs etc. Each one of these things might seem reasonable but on whole the demands are unsustainable. Before new legislation is passed requiring anything or an admin creates a policy, a review of the new addition in light of a teacher's full job needs to considered--if we add this new thing, what gets taken away. If we require this, when does the time to do it during contracted hours occur?

This is getting ridiculous. Teachers used to grade things all the time. You can say that things are getting harder, but we all know that we received more grades from our teachers than our kids do.

Ok I'll say it....teachers didn't have all the extra demands from the count and ridiculous parent demands we have now. When kids were sent to the office they were dealt with and principals weren't afraid of giving consequences. Parents supported teachers and admin not question there every movement. Parents be parents tell your kids no-tell them when their behavior is not ok. I spend 85% of my day dealing with behaviors. ENOUGH! And I'm done with the do nothings in Gatehouse-we have enough of them doing nothing but creating more for teachers to do-teachers who are not in quiet office. You know what we don't have time to do TEACH-and it's not just the extras from the county it's because parents are not parenting. We shouldn't be spending more than half our day talking to your children about their behavior. For those parents who parent-thank you we see you.

+100
I was subbing the other day in a specials class and the teacher brought her class in. She looked absolutely haggard, wiped out, and exhausted as she handed me a list of her "behavioral" problems and asked me to score them while they were with me. I had them for half an hour and can't even imagine what her days are like with these kids. There couldn't possibly be any learning going on in that classroom - and not because of her. These kids need to be removed and taught separately. It is beyond unfair to pile them into a mainstream class and expect that teacher to deal with them all day, every day.

+1. This right here is the utter failure of the school board and administrators. Nothing will improve until you fix the root cause. That means voting very differently than we’re accustomed. Anyone ready for that?

Yes, because the GOP is so supportive of special education and has solutions for addressing their needs. As a reminder, here is the link for two GOP candidates for the FCPS schoolboard who withdrew after laughing at a child with autism who sang the national anthem: https://wjla.com/newsletter/fairfax-county-school-board-candidates-drops-out-youtube-national-anthem-controvery-harry-jackson-stephanie-lundquist-arora-republican-gop-november-election-gov-glenn-youngkin

Yes, the GOP is on top of special education alright.

DP. Not sure that clip has anything to do with anyone except the two people involved. You probably think the best way to teach special needs kids is by mainstreaming them, right? That has proven to be a failure. Neither the special needs kids nor the mainstream kids are learning anything. Do better.

Mainstreaming is the law. And it hasn't proven to be a failure--what happened before was criminal to SpEd kids--their outcomes were much, much worse. Mainstreaming has been a HUGE success when you look at the overall outcomes for kids with special needs. The issue is that it is an unfunded mandate that is hard to support and it challenging for teachers to implement. Also, there needs to be more clear guidance on a process for establishing least restricted environment that doesn't just attend to what the parents of the child with Special Needs and their advocates want, but also the impact on the classroom community when these are percieved as in conflict.

Continued violence in the classroom is a HUGE failure. Any child with a history of violence must not be allowed in any mainstream classroom, unless a responsible parent can accompany their child.

Mainstreaming has been a success for the vast number of Special Needs students. It has created high profile issues and tensions for a tiny percentage of students with emotional disabilities that may make them prone to violence.


People of all political persuasion wish that we could quickly make an alternative placement for the rare situation of a child with special needs who poses a threat to others, but if the child has documented special needs there are processes that federal laws say must be followed. There is required documentation that can take a long time unless the parent is willing. Least Restrictive Environment is a federal law that has been around since 1975, but the lawsuits since then have tightened up implementation requirements so much that it has made it so that schools have to carefully document repeated instances in order to change the placement of a given student. If a parent does not want their child in an alternative placement, schools have zero alternative but to follow the documentation process to demand it. They also sometimes need to follow this long process in order to use the funds for an alternative placement as the costs are very high and there are not enough therapeutic facilities so they need to be saved for those kids who pose a risk to themselves or others, not just who might benefit from therapeutic services.

I don't think people understand how much school boards, schools, principals, teachers have their hands tied around this--it's federal law, not some wishy-washiness about discipline or something.

This. We have had many parents refuse placement changes. While I absolutely respect parents advocating for their kids, if a teacher cannot teach because of a child, the school should have the power to change their placement. 1 kid does not have the right to affect 26 other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I work in an office job before coming to education. My typical day consisted of rolling into the office about 830, getting coffee and chatting until a little after nine, sitting down to do some work from that time till 10 or so then another coffee break more chatting, usually a meeting or so around 11 to 12 but an hour for lunch may be longer depending on the day, another meeting that could’ve been an email another hour or so at my desk, a tea break at the cafe downstairs, then back to my desk for an hour or so before heading home.

There were at least 100 people on my floor, following roughly the same pattern every day. Don’t act like office jobs are some high and mighty, nose to the Grindstone position.

Throw in checking websites for news and listening to podcasts and you described my 90K a year job.

Mine was just long enough ago that smartphones weren’t ubiquitous and our internet was very slow and heavily filtered, so not a lot of online distractions, but we made up for it with coffee breaks. The floor above mine had TVs at the coffee stations so lots of people standing there refilling coffee and watching Sportscenter. About the only specialized skill most of us had was the ability to make it look like the 10 hours of actual work per week we had took 40, but yeah teachers aren’t qualified to perform these “real” jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I work in an office job before coming to education. My typical day consisted of rolling into the office about 830, getting coffee and chatting until a little after nine, sitting down to do some work from that time till 10 or so then another coffee break more chatting, usually a meeting or so around 11 to 12 but an hour for lunch may be longer depending on the day, another meeting that could’ve been an email another hour or so at my desk, a tea break at the cafe downstairs, then back to my desk for an hour or so before heading home.

There were at least 100 people on my floor, following roughly the same pattern every day. Don’t act like office jobs are some high and mighty, nose to the Grindstone position.

Throw in checking websites for news and listening to podcasts and you described my 90K a year job.

Mine was just long enough ago that smartphones weren’t ubiquitous and our internet was very slow and heavily filtered, so not a lot of online distractions, but we made up for it with coffee breaks. The floor above mine had TVs at the coffee stations so lots of people standing there refilling coffee and watching Sportscenter. About the only specialized skill most of us had was the ability to make it look like the 10 hours of actual work per week we had took 40, but yeah teachers aren’t qualified to perform these “real” jobs.

That's not an office job skill, that's a human skill. What do you think unions are for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS just released the results from the employee engagement survey, lol. One question was a type in answer, "describe your job in 1 word". The top 4 results were:

Overwhelmed
Stressed
Exhausted
Frustrated

Yayyyyyyyyyyy!

The question: “I am optimistic about the future” didn’t fare so well.

I'm not a teacher, but I think we need to rethink how education is structured centered around what will help teachers thrive. Students will be more likely to thrive with teachers that do. Any demands on teachers--for supporting students, for admin, for adjusting to changing needs--need to be considered in the context of how can that be achieved while not undermining the fundamental need for teachers to thrive. There may be some unmet needs that it is the responsibility of society as a whole to figure out how to fund and meet those needs, not unfunded mandates placed upon schools.

US Society as a whole is a failure. Schools are supposed to educate, but we also have to feed, clothe and parent students; the minute we’re not available to do those things (see: April 2020 onward) it’s OUR fault, but the minute we suggest shifting that burden to another part of the societal safety net, the same people who screamed about closing school buildings, scream that we can’t spend the money on that type of thing.

Until teachers can get back to being teachers and not substitute parents things are just going to get worse.

It's not just parenting issues, but also ever expanding content, more access to teachers via technology from students and parents, and more expectations for teachers to post everything online/grade quickly, more requirements to provide accommodations for students with a range of learning needs etc. Each one of these things might seem reasonable but on whole the demands are unsustainable. Before new legislation is passed requiring anything or an admin creates a policy, a review of the new addition in light of a teacher's full job needs to considered--if we add this new thing, what gets taken away. If we require this, when does the time to do it during contracted hours occur?

This is getting ridiculous. Teachers used to grade things all the time. You can say that things are getting harder, but we all know that we received more grades from our teachers than our kids do.

Ok I'll say it....teachers didn't have all the extra demands from the count and ridiculous parent demands we have now. When kids were sent to the office they were dealt with and principals weren't afraid of giving consequences. Parents supported teachers and admin not question there every movement. Parents be parents tell your kids no-tell them when their behavior is not ok. I spend 85% of my day dealing with behaviors. ENOUGH! And I'm done with the do nothings in Gatehouse-we have enough of them doing nothing but creating more for teachers to do-teachers who are not in quiet office. You know what we don't have time to do TEACH-and it's not just the extras from the county it's because parents are not parenting. We shouldn't be spending more than half our day talking to your children about their behavior. For those parents who parent-thank you we see you.

+100
I was subbing the other day in a specials class and the teacher brought her class in. She looked absolutely haggard, wiped out, and exhausted as she handed me a list of her "behavioral" problems and asked me to score them while they were with me. I had them for half an hour and can't even imagine what her days are like with these kids. There couldn't possibly be any learning going on in that classroom - and not because of her. These kids need to be removed and taught separately. It is beyond unfair to pile them into a mainstream class and expect that teacher to deal with them all day, every day.

+1. This right here is the utter failure of the school board and administrators. Nothing will improve until you fix the root cause. That means voting very differently than we’re accustomed. Anyone ready for that?

Yes, because the GOP is so supportive of special education and has solutions for addressing their needs. As a reminder, here is the link for two GOP candidates for the FCPS schoolboard who withdrew after laughing at a child with autism who sang the national anthem: https://wjla.com/newsletter/fairfax-county-school-board-candidates-drops-out-youtube-national-anthem-controvery-harry-jackson-stephanie-lundquist-arora-republican-gop-november-election-gov-glenn-youngkin

Yes, the GOP is on top of special education alright.

DP. Not sure that clip has anything to do with anyone except the two people involved. You probably think the best way to teach special needs kids is by mainstreaming them, right? That has proven to be a failure. Neither the special needs kids nor the mainstream kids are learning anything. Do better.

Mainstreaming is the law. And it hasn't proven to be a failure--what happened before was criminal to SpEd kids--their outcomes were much, much worse. Mainstreaming has been a HUGE success when you look at the overall outcomes for kids with special needs. The issue is that it is an unfunded mandate that is hard to support and it challenging for teachers to implement. Also, there needs to be more clear guidance on a process for establishing least restricted environment that doesn't just attend to what the parents of the child with Special Needs and their advocates want, but also the impact on the classroom community when these are percieved as in conflict.

Continued violence in the classroom is a HUGE failure. Any child with a history of violence must not be allowed in any mainstream classroom, unless a responsible parent can accompany their child.

Mainstreaming has been a success for the vast number of Special Needs students. It has created high profile issues and tensions for a tiny percentage of students with emotional disabilities that may make them prone to violence.


People of all political persuasion wish that we could quickly make an alternative placement for the rare situation of a child with special needs who poses a threat to others, but if the child has documented special needs there are processes that federal laws say must be followed. There is required documentation that can take a long time unless the parent is willing. Least Restrictive Environment is a federal law that has been around since 1975, but the lawsuits since then have tightened up implementation requirements so much that it has made it so that schools have to carefully document repeated instances in order to change the placement of a given student. If a parent does not want their child in an alternative placement, schools have zero alternative but to follow the documentation process to demand it. They also sometimes need to follow this long process in order to use the funds for an alternative placement as the costs are very high and there are not enough therapeutic facilities so they need to be saved for those kids who pose a risk to themselves or others, not just who might benefit from therapeutic services.

I don't think people understand how much school boards, schools, principals, teachers have their hands tied around this--it's federal law, not some wishy-washiness about discipline or something.

This. We have had many parents refuse placement changes. While I absolutely respect parents advocating for their kids, if a teacher cannot teach because of a child, the school should have the power to change their placement. 1 kid does not have the right to affect 26 other kids.

Nor does any student have the right to threaten teachers and students. THAT is NOT part of the law. Administrators are blatantly lying about that. Enough is enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

I’ve had to do much the same in HS. 6 minute class break to try to pee, but 1 minute to the nearest faculty bathroom and 1 minute back, and there’s only one stall that’s serving 10-12 classrooms so there’s usually a wait.

Most of the Office Jobs Über Alles crew wouldn’t last a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

I’ve had to do much the same in HS. 6 minute class break to try to pee, but 1 minute to the nearest faculty bathroom and 1 minute back, and there’s only one stall that’s serving 10-12 classrooms so there’s usually a wait.

Most of the Office Jobs Über Alles crew wouldn’t last a week.

I mean, it's so disheartening to hear this. If school administrators can't figure out a way to allow teachers to use the bathroom when they need to, what hope is there that they can tackle more difficult problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

Yes

+1- the reason I will only teach K or pre-k is so I can pee when I need to!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

I’ve had to do much the same in HS. 6 minute class break to try to pee, but 1 minute to the nearest faculty bathroom and 1 minute back, and there’s only one stall that’s serving 10-12 classrooms so there’s usually a wait.

Most of the Office Jobs Über Alles crew wouldn’t last a week.

I mean, it's so disheartening to hear this. If school administrators can't figure out a way to allow teachers to use the bathroom when they need to, what hope is there that they can tackle more difficult problems.

I know people complain about this on this board, but it isn’t something I hear teachers mention IRL. I’ve been teaching 30 years and IME there isn’t much anxiety over this. I go at 6:40 when I get up, 12:00, and again before I leave or when I get home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

I’ve had to do much the same in HS. 6 minute class break to try to pee, but 1 minute to the nearest faculty bathroom and 1 minute back, and there’s only one stall that’s serving 10-12 classrooms so there’s usually a wait.

Most of the Office Jobs Über Alles crew wouldn’t last a week.

I mean, it's so disheartening to hear this. If school administrators can't figure out a way to allow teachers to use the bathroom when they need to, what hope is there that they can tackle more difficult problems.

I know people complain about this on this board, but it isn’t something I hear teachers mention IRL. I’ve been teaching 30 years and IME there isn’t much anxiety over this. I go at 6:40 when I get up, 12:00, and again before I leave or when I get home.

DP. I don't really understand it either. Not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren't ! Not any more than other positions. They really have no other skills or opportunities except retail or daycare.

Not true, I know plenty of teachers who left and went directly into office jobs. Anyone can send emails, edit documents, sit in meetings, etc.

I'm so curious about people like you -- what exactly do you think those of us who work in an "office job" actually do all day long. Do you think we all have the exact same job? Do you think every company is Dundler Mifflin? Please tell us more about the typical "office job"!!

I'd settle for just being able to go to the bathroom when I need to instead of praying for some random adult to walk past my classroom at the end of the hall.

This sounds like my nightmare. Are you an elementary teacher?

I’ve had to do much the same in HS. 6 minute class break to try to pee, but 1 minute to the nearest faculty bathroom and 1 minute back, and there’s only one stall that’s serving 10-12 classrooms so there’s usually a wait.

Most of the Office Jobs Über Alles crew wouldn’t last a week.

I mean, it's so disheartening to hear this. If school administrators can't figure out a way to allow teachers to use the bathroom when they need to, what hope is there that they can tackle more difficult problems.

I know people complain about this on this board, but it isn’t something I hear teachers mention IRL. I’ve been teaching 30 years and IME there isn’t much anxiety over this. I go at 6:40 when I get up, 12:00, and again before I leave or when I get home.

DP. I don't really understand it either. Not an issue.

I normally have to call the office 2-3 times a year to watch my class while I go to the bathroom. It’s not frequent, but still annoying. Where the real issue came in was when I had fibroids. It was awful. I almost didn’t survive that year, the poor front office had to cover me a lot! It’s generally ok, until you have a medical issue. I had a co-worker with Crohn’s year ago, some days were very bad for her.

[Anonymous]

The peeing was fine until I was in a trailer and had to go into the main building for bathrooms and was pregnant. And of course, no connecting doors. That was the only year it’s been bad. Usually it’s once or twice a year and if my room is in the building I can just ask the teacher across the hall to make sure no one lights anything on fire (middle school).

[Anonymous]

I think bathroom breaks are just a symptom of the larger issue that teachers have very little autonomy over anything these days, from what they teach, when/how they teach it, when and where they can eat (if I leave campus to run across the street for lunch I have to sign out and use leave, WTH?), what resources they can use, and when they can pee. Any of these alone are obnoxious but doable, but together they make staff feel like children vs. adult professionals.