Skip to main content

Scientific Proof for My Burnout


The San Francisco Chronicle ran several articles about why teachers quit. Again, I could have told them all of these answers, but they didn't ask me. They preferred instead to spend God-knows how much money on a study.

The second article particularly interests me. Among the important points:
  • "Nicolle Miller could handle the overcrowded classrooms, the lack of supplies and even the shortage of books for her seventh- and eighth-grade students at an Anaheim middle school. What she found most discouraging was the lack of support. "I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to help these kids. A lot of times I would feel that I wasn't allowed to do certain things," to teach her mostly poor, non-English-speaking students at South Junior High.

  • "It was this constant, 'If you don't do better, you're going to lose your job.'"

  • Those who quit overwhelmingly cited bureaucratic impediments to teaching, such as excessive paperwork, too much classroom interruption and too many restrictions on teaching. Despite the high rate of attrition, virtually no schools have adopted the standard business practice of exit interviews to survey teachers about why they're leaving.
  • Miller, of Anaheim, left in 2001, saying she had burned out. She now works in children's ministries at her church and sometimes does substitute teaching at the private school her children attend.
I'm afraid that might be where I'm headed. Everything here describes me exactly. I can't count how many times I've told people, "It's not the kids [even though the kids have so many problems - I can deal with those]. It's the adults who are driving me out."

And it is. Over and over, it's the adults driving me out. From principal #1 who kept telling me, "If you don't watch out, you'll get fired," to the most recent principals who kept saying that we'd better dust of our resumes - I'm tired of the fear tactic as a way to push for excellence. (Has that ever worked for anyone??)

It's heartbreaking to see kids reach out and cry for help and yet know that once again, the district/state/nation has cut funding for counselors or given teachers five more things to be responsible for so that we don't have time to help our children.

It is disheartening to see children beg for science or not know the first thing about history - or show an incredible aptitude for art/dance/music and know that we are so focused on testing that we don't have time or money to teach them what they need and want to know.

And it is just plain INFURIATING to see children who want to learn, who need to learn, who are motivated to learn, and who have to take these damn tests over and over and over! Who get so burned out because anyone would get burned out if they took this many tests - and practice tests - throughout a year. We're beating the natural curiosity out of them by testing them - over and over every single year.

We're going to regret the way we're running education. I think we're going to regret it very soon, and it's going to last a very long time.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers

I had some of the most overqualified volunteers ever in my third grade class.  This may have had something to do with the fact that I shamelessly begged my friends to help in any way possible.  I think there were a few friends who I asked to come as soon as I met them, before I was entirely sure of their names.  Some of my volunteers included: -Someone with an MFA helping kids read -a PhD candidate in chemical engineering from Stanford helping with math -a PhD candidate in civil engineering from Cal helping with math -several PhD candidates in engineering from Cal teaching about construction (several years in a row) and helping with a field trip -my extremely talented brother bringing his drums several times -a friend from Pixar who got us tours three different years, once when they were no longer giving tours - and came to the class to sign the kids' toys from Cars . -a physical therapist (who I think has a masters') who helped the kids with reading -many athlet...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Difference a School Makes

Update:   9/28/26: If you are reading this, the spoiler alert is that things got much harder for Jorge after this, and we kept in touch over the decades, even as he’s been incarcerated. He’s getting out of prison in early 2027 and I’m raising money to help him start his life fresh because everyone deserves second chances. Please take a look! Wow. I've talked before about the two kids that a friend and I mentor in a way. I'll call them Jorge (the older one) and Luis (the younger). I had Jorge in my class in third grade and he has had it rough. He's the oldest of six children and was born when his mother was 14. His mom is frequently in rehab or jail, although she seems to have been out for the last couple of years. If she's clean or not is anyone's guess. Jorge helped his grandmother raise Luis. He's always been super over-responsible, stressed out, and had way too many adult responsibilities. About a year ago, Jorge started to crack. He was 13, which isn't f...
1 comment
Read more

Cinderella, retold (and much better)

A seventh-grade student rewrote Cinderella and I think it’s much better! The Dressmakers Once there was a girl named Cinderella whose mother died. Then her father married again, a woman who did not care for Cinderella. She only cared for her own daughters and her husband's fortune. Cinderella’s father made sure they were always fair to Cinderella but two years later,  her father died. Cinderella was left alone with her  stepmother and stepsisters. Cinderella was treated like a house maid but got no money for her work. She had to make the meals, iron the clothes and more. But on some things, like cleaning the windows and floor, Cinderella had to clean them five times per day or according to her stepmother, they will not shine as much as they should.    Cinderella would often cry by a tree by her parents' graves. In that tree lived a little bird who Cinderella would talk with. She would talk to the bird about her stepmother’s many chores and little love for her, a...
1 comment
Read more