BeDo

At the end of the 2017-2018 academic year, I stepped away from 17 years of classroom instruction to become the Director of Impact Education at Creative Visions Foundation. This change meant leaving the teaching of English and Creative Writing behind and diving into a new career sector. It also required a move from the state I’d called home for more than 30 years.

Was the decision to leave the classroom easy?

I loved teaching. I loved the challenges and rewards of the classroom–the lightbulb moments, the nuanced understandings, the relationships between students and the way that no day was ever the same. I started a pros/cons list for leaving and under reasons to stay, I wrote in thick, black ink—the students. Then I began listing reasons for leaving. Within five minutes, the column was filled to capacity. The most glaring reason was an increase in workload every year with no pay increase to match.

In addition to lesson planning, grading, and communicating with parents and administration, teachers also have ongoing job requirements. Some of these include: professional development/training for keeping a teaching certificate current, testing analysis and revision of curriculum based on that data, committees, club sponsorships, administrator observations, IEP meetings, department meetings, staff meetings, student-meetings, curriculum building, etc. I’m barely scratching the surface.

For years, the rewards of the classroom were enough to tolerate the external demands of this profession. But the acknowledgment of teacher expertise and autonomy in the classroom were and continue to be whittled away at an alarming rate. My last year of teaching AP Literature, I had to wrestle with every decision about introducing literature that had largely and historically been deemed as remarkable. Would I be able to teach Ellison’s The Invisible Man? Was teaching Orwell’s 1984 grounds for insubordination? I also had to cope with multiple lockdown drills and anxiety about the ever-increasing possibility of a school shooting.  

  Were there mental health supports in place for educators as workload and societal issues compounded? Nope. And—this is important—all of this was before the pandemic. Perhaps the most important fact to reckon with today is that our teachers, specifically public school educators, are simultaneously being asked to solve societal issues pertaining to youth while being scapegoated for the majority of those issues. How can they healthfully function as a problem and solution? What are we doing to address the attacks on a system designed to promote democratic ideals? More importantly, what are we doing to support teachers who risk their physical and mental health as well as their fiscal health to perform their calling?

My new position enables me to reach far more students than I could in the classroom. I’m grateful to be able to impact and empower youth on a global scale. I would feel better, though, if I could move the needle in the direction of measurable, positive change for teachers. My fellow educators deserve a seat at the policymaking table and pay that not only reflects the value they bring to society, but also provides enough to promote work and life balance. They deserve hazard pay for taking risks with their own health by returning to the classroom, and they deserve mental health support for the emotional demands of teaching in the pandemic era. My fellow teachers are stymied in what they’re permitted to do/say in and out of the classroom; the politicization of their work is demoralizing, and they deserve support. I will elevate my voice on their behalf. Will you?