I asked teachers to tell me about their demoralization — and how it differs from burnout.
It’s about the pay, but it’s more than that. It’s about the effects of standardized testing, but it’s more than that. It’s about COVID, but it's more than that.
"I'd leave tomorrow if I could find a steady job w/benefits. I feel like the past year has really unearthed what the community thinks about teachers, & I'm going to find it very difficult to continue to work in that environment without succumbing to really paralyzing resentment"
"Many days I find myself unable to move through the rage I feel, my anger rising as our nation’s teachers are blamed for the failings of the downright cruel society we’ve built. Teachers are once again a scapegoat for all of the failures of all the systems in America."
"No matter what changes we make in our teaching, whether it’s our curriculum or our pedagogical methods, we cannot change the structure of a larger society that does not prioritize safety and the needs of families."
"I got into this work because I believe in the transformative power of public education, and because I love the creativity and energy of young adults. I did not sign up to be a sacrifice, or a scapegoat."
"Every day our leaders implored us to stay positive, that we would get through this, that we had what it took. Soon, the toxic positivity became too much for me. I lost faith in every leader above me, and I don't know if that trust is likely to come back any time soon."
“Teachers are going to quit, in droves, at the end of this year."
A lot of teachers have told me that they recognize themselves in these stories, and appreciate that, but they don't want to recognize themselves. They want parents and community members to recognize them.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Yes, it is quite a punchline that the Idaho Legislature had to shut down b/c of a COVID outbreak while.....trying to pass a bill that would prevent local govts from instituting mask mandates:
But as this was happening, a handful of far right legislators met and managed to advance a bill that would prohibit racism or sexism from being taught in school:
Substack recruited me and gave me an advance based on my unpaid newsletter subscribers and my open rate. They had an idea of what my subscriber income would be, and they offered significantly less. In other words: people who take the advances make significantly less money
This is something that is absolutely getting lost in this conversation — which is a very important one. Substack has bungled the messaging at every turn. They missed an opportunity to come down very clearly on hate speech on the platform.
They have also missed an opportunity to highlight all of the people they've given money to who are not Greenwald et. al. *through their public fellowship programs.* This is not private information. It is all right here:
"Sex addiction" within the Evangelical context = he looked at porn and/or masturbated. It doesn't mean he went to or knew these women. It means that they represented an evil within his mind, something that felt impossible to control and yet damned him if he didn't
Every Evangelical/Xvangelical woman has a memory of "don't tempt your Christian brothers" with....your spaghetti string tank tops. The fault in this scenario is on the "temptress" for leading men astray. You can very easily see how this understanding could escalate.
the person who wrote this is the *personal health columnist* for the new york times
the responses to this remind me that this attitude towards eating is *so* familiar to many of us b/c it was/remains the dominant attitude towards "health" aka "maintaining your figure" for a certain generation of (mostly white) American women
i like to think of it as the "oh i quit smoking so i should probably eat like a bird and passive aggressively judge everyone else around me for their choices & aggressively judge my own family" approach to health
The answers to this tweet are the answers to every other "passion economy" job query: it will use your love for the vocation as a means to exploit you; it will acquaint you with white (and male) privilege in ever-more alarming ways; it will disillusion you & radicalize you
Scandal, historically speaking, occurs when there is a rupture in the status quo and attempts to immediately repair or narrativize it fail. The monarchy has been able to absorb & withstand massive scandals in the past but I don't know if it has the fortitude to absorb this one
There are no new romances, no new babies, no deflection. There is only an ailing Great-Grandfather. I'm not trying to be callous; I'm just thinking of how these narratives actually function
Also worth thinking through the fact that Oprah is maybe the only nationally trusted "confessor" (I mean that rhetorically, Harry and Meghan had nothing to atone for) and there doesn't seem to be successor, at least not at this point