Thread by @Mr_Rablin

I've had a bunch of close friends leave teaching and start working in the private sector. Without fail, every single one of them says they are less stressed, their work/life balance is better, and their mental health is better, even though some are making less money.

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For non-teaching friends who don't understand why teaching is so stressful, imagine this scenario. You have to run meetings all day long. You get virtually no time to prepare for the meetings. During the meetings, there are 30 people in the room who are forced to be there.

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Whether they want to or not, you are expected to make sure they all learn what you're supposed to ensure they understand, including the brand new recruits and the veterans. If they don't, you are held accountable for that, not them, by upper management.

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However, for the veterans, you are also expected to add additional materials for them to review. This is supposed to happen for every meeting. In addition, you are supposed to mentor the rookies so that they can catch up to the veterans.

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All of this is supposed to be done while you monitor the other 30 students in class.

When everyone submits their reports to you, you also have to review those reports and are expected to provide detailed feedback on them for revision. Note: you are in meetings all day...

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so you have to get as much done during the one hour you have (which is also time for you to prepare for the meetings you have the next day). Unfortunately, one of your colleagues is gone today, so you lose that one hour to prepare and leave feedback because you have to run...

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their meeting. So now, you didn't have any time to prepare for tomorrow's meetings, and you still have a stack of reports to review and prepare feedback for.

Meanwhile, your email is filling up with reminders to complete administrative tasks in your nonexistent...

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extra time. If you put those off, though, you will be reprimanded.

On top of all of this, your company is being demonized in a large portion of national news. It is in the middle of a political debate, and that's really weighing on the morale of everyone.

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Take this analogy and add the fact that the "employees" and actually young people with undeveloped prefrontal cortexes who haven't developed time management skills, control over their phones, or important social behaviors.

That's teaching right now.

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Do I still love it? Most days, yes.

Do I also believe this is a profession that is wildly unsustainable and I question continuing every year? Also yes.

We cannot keep asking more and more of teachers.

Here are ways we could make the profession more sustainable.

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(A) Increase the amount of planning time teachers get each day. Yes, ideally this would require hiring more teachers, but there just aren't more teachers.

There are other solutions, though.

Examples: americanprogress.org/article/reimag…

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(B) Decrease class sizes.

I know everyone's going to scream, "But there's evidence that shows this doesn't increase learning!"

You want to know what really doesn't increase learning? Not having any teachers left.

Smaller class sizes mean easier management, less time...

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spent providing feedback, more ability to interact one-on-one and in small groups, etc.

Sure, it can be beneficial to student learning, but just as importantly, it makes the job less taxing on teachers, ideally keeping more of us in the profession.

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(C) Alternative calendars.

There is a growing number of schools moving to four-day weeks, and the year-round school movement is picking up.

Both of these aim to provide more frequent breaks, more time for teachers (and students) to stay caught up, and a better...

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chance at a work/life balance. I know for me, as someone who loves camping and being outside on weekends, a four-day work week would do wonders for my mental health and well-being. It would give me time to fill my cup and still time to be the teacher I want to be.

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I know what everyone's thinking right now. "But this requires a bunch of funding!"

You're not wrong. Though I do think schools could be much better with their money in general, I don't actually think the priority right now should be to talk about money.

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Think about what underlies whether or not schools can get more funding: public support.

What does support begin with? Understanding and empathy.

There are so many non-educators who get it, but so many more just think teachers are being lazy.

If we want change...

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we have to share our stories. We have to help people understand why people are leaving the profession. We have to help people see that we are doing the best we can with what we have, but we need help because we want to do better for kids.

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That is what's going to change things.

If you've left teaching recently, please be a voice for us. You understand this better than most.

For those of us still in the classroom, don't stop telling your story. Stories change hearts, and changed hearts result in action.

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