Blog # 5 No More "Normal"

                                          'Rethinking Schools'   Vol.36 No.3 Summer 2022

Author's Argument:  'Schools should not be forced to beg for what they deserve.  We need to push National unions, professional organizations, and school communities into transforming our schools and teachers' work lives.'

 

Talking Point # 1:

This week's article was written from the editors of the magazine Rethinking Schools, 2022.  This article gives a glimpse into what it's like to be a teacher in today's ever changing world. For years, teachers have had to make do with the materials, supplies, and textbooks that were available to them.  Often times, there isn't enough money in the budget which leads to a lack of materials.    This means a lot of 'out of pocket' expenses being made by the teachers themselves.  Far too often, many teachers pay for supplies for their classrooms.  In my own situation, I want you to think about a classroom of 20 students and being given 4 packs of pencils to last the whole year from the supply closet.  The general public needs to know this is real and takes place far to often.  Just drive by a local teacher store at the end of the summer to see teachers purchasing items for the start of school.  This is real and shouldn't be happening!  As an educator who switched positions from Special Ed. to a 2nd grade classroom 7 years ago, I've spent thousands of dollars of my own money in purchasing materials to enrich my classroom.

Talking Point #2:

Next the article talks about the pandemic.  "The pandemic has pushed many frayed public schools into a state of barely managed crisis."  Because of this crisis, many schools have limited substitutes, fewer bus drivers, as well as limited central office staff.  As a public school teacher working during this time, the stress and working conditions was something that brings back panic and still make me shiver! 

The district I work in is a regional school district with two towns; Exeter and West Greenwich.  There were so many restrictions placed upon school districts.   We had to limit the number of children in the classroom, cafeteria, and on the bus. My district had one town going to school 'in person' every other day'.  For example, Exeter children went to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of a particular week.  As for the students from the other town; West Greenwich, we as teachers had to make sure they had work to do at home. This would rotate every week.  If students had COVID and couldn't make it to school on their scheduled day, as their teacher I needed to include that child in our daily lesson using a ZOOM call.  If this all sounds CRAZY, it was!  I don't know how we managed it.

Many teachers across the country quit during this time.  I know of four teachers in my district that took an early retirement because they could not handle the technology piece, the parents, administration and just the absurdness of it all.  At times, it did feel like we were a babysitting service, trying to manage so many different issues during this time while still trying to stay safe ourselves.  We were in the 'thick of it all.'  I had 20 students that year, trying to teach, while also looking out for their social emotional needs.  Not to mention the 'crazy' parents!   The workload was overwhelming.  At the time, my own social/emotional well being suffered as did my own family's.  I was putting in 10 hour days and still feeling ineffective.  

The stress during this time was and continues to be real, not just looking back to the pandemic but also day-to-day.  The article quotes some educators and the reasons for leaving the classroom. "We are tasked with teaching students to read, write, think, compute, imagine, and evaluate.  Then we are blamed if our students don't make a benchmark based on some irrelevant, often culturally biased test."    Another teacher who felt the stress stated, "You couldn't pay me enough to add something else to my to-do list.  Besides, no one wants to attend more meetings after school," as she burst into tears.   

The article then goes into another reason teachers are quitting, not only because they feel overworked.  Some feel that as a result of the pandemic, some school districts had complete disregard for teachers' health and safety.  In the news, I remember there were some teachers in other districts who refused to receive the COVID vaccine.  One teacher who refused the vaccine for religious reasons from a school district got fired. While several others who had family members with compromised immune systems refused to go into the classroom.   

Kirkpatrick, a high school teacher during the pandemic spoke about the teaching and learning conditions in her high school:  "I'm a type 1 diabetic, which means I am immunocompromised.  I'm also a probational teacher, which means my job is not promised for next year.  Should I take time off? I don't want to jeopardize my position."

Talking Point #3:

Many teachers have longed for the return to 'normalcy.'  But the true fact of the matter is that the pandemic was not really the true problem.  That problem started WAY before COVID in the way we thought 'normal' was in our educational system.  Teachers are required to do far too many things in any given day.  To say our day starts at 8:20 and goes until 3:00 is truly absurd!  I long for a workday like that.  I typically start my day at 6:40 a.m. planning for my day and ending my workday at 6:00 p.m.  The hours teachers put in are countless.  Another major problem I spoke about in the beginning of the article is lack of funding that goes into our school systems.  The editors of Rethinking Schools feel, "There has been a disinvestment, a corporate ideology that values the voices of business leaders over education, and the broader failure of the political and economic system to adequately provide for working peoples' mental and physical well-being."  

Why are we not spending money to fund education?  In the year 2022, military spending was at $778 billion dollars.  U.S. dollars in that year went towards weapon systems, oil pipelines, football stadiums, tax/ wealth credits, and many more non-educational spendings.  The article asks, "Where are our priorities?"  The money is there but has not been used to support students and families, increasing staff pay, lowering class sizes, renovating/remodeling school buildings, and school budgeting.  

Teachers have and are continuing to leave  this profession.  Who will teach the children? Where are our priorities?  We need to think about changing this feeling of 'hopelessness' into a demand for change!  Government, National unions, professional organizations, school communities, towns, and cities need to make improvements to public education and institutions in order for change to happen.  Teachers must feel supported, valued, and empowered in order for this transformation in education to occur.

               Click here to read what students feel would improve education in the United States.