Sustainable or Just Survivable?

All the adults in my school look tired today. It's not a temporary kind of tired; it's the build-up of a campaign kind of tired. To the bone.

Some fight it with caffeine, some through sheer determination, but we're all succumbing to exhaustion. It leaves us stressed, irritable, and sick.

This is what I mean when I talk about the problem of the sustainability of the job. The physical, emotional, and psychological wear that is considered "par for the course" is NOT reasonable. It's like seeing portraits of Abraham Lincoln before and after the Civil War.

Most jobs have their ebb and flow, their busy seasons and their lulls. That might be on a daily pattern, like high-traffic hours. That might be on a seasonal pattern, like tax season. The key is that there are lulls: down moments, when the pressure is lower and a person can recoup a little energy (physical and mental).

Those rests and lulls are essential to self-care. If the pace remains relentless, even the strongest among us will hit a breaking point. And working our teachers until they break is how America runs its public schools.

There are a few simple changes that would help tremendously, but they will never be enacted because they cost money. I'm not even touching offering respectable pay for the work here, just setting up a situation that makes the educational system tenable.

1. More staff. There should never be fewer than two adults in any room with students (especially at middle school), one acting in an instructional role, and one in a support role: handling logistical details, and supporting both the students and the instructor. So much trouble could be avoided if there were just two sets of eyes and hands in the room.

2. Fewer classes. I currently teach 7 classes for my middle school every day. It's too many. I'm utterly amazing with what I can do in a day, but creating seven engaging lessons for seven groups of children ranging from age 11 to age 14 in grouping of 9 to 32 at a time? The numbers are against me. I'd half it, which takes us right back to number one again because we'd need double the number of teachers AND support staff in every room.

3. More time. Every other week, I'd provide a workday for teachers. Not a day for meetings, just a day for getting the work done that you struggle to complete on a daily basis: assessing your students' work, updating various systems, creating materials for new lessons, researching resources to help with your struggles. I think once every 10 school days would be often enough to keep me on top of things instead of buried by them.

I know I won't ever see this kind of support. For teacher appreciation week, people will give me little presents. They'll provide my lunch or give me gift cards.

And that's nice.

Small things really do make a difference. They help me keep heart.

But if you want to show your appreciation? If you mean it when you say that our work is among the most important work a person can do?

Vote for everything that brings more money and resources to our schools.

Because you'll be paying for these children one way or another. An early investment means they'll become productive citizens that help support the next generation on their way. Failure to do so means paying for the stop-gap measures and to mop up the messes created by the ones we weren't able to reach because this country won't spend the money to make it possible.

You get what you pay for.