As I have remarked more than once, I have always felt a kinship with how Judaism keeps its calendar. The coming of fall, with the return to the classroom, has been the start of my new year for nearly as long as I can remember, and in fact, 54 of my 59 years has been spent in or working for schools of one kind or another. It is always with a sense of rebirth each September that I great my old friend, Orion, during my morning run, hanging once more in the southern sky. Hence, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur have always made more sense to me than what is basically a celebration of the winter solstice and an excuse to party amidst the gloom of the darkest time of year (as if we needed an excuse to fight back against the gloom!).
However, one thing I appreciate that is common to both the Jewish Days of Awe and the Euro-American New Year traditions is the notion that here is a time for taking stock of one’s self, a time for reflection and honest admission, a time for resolve—to own the truth about one’s self and use it to chart a new course for the coming year. And so, it is in that spirit that I write today.
First, the stock-taking. It is an ugly and grim time to be an educator in this country. As members of an already underpaid and underappreciated profession, we have been front-line workers for over two years now in the middle of a pandemic—with little to no formal recognition that we have, in fact, been on the front-line, putting our health and well-being at risk. We have been tasked with managing the greatest loss in learning in history while simultaneously coping with a mental health crisis where 37% of students report feeling “so sad and helpless they couldn’t participate in regular activities” and one in five have seriously considered or attempted suicide (Prinstein & Ethier) . The pandemic has unleashed a wave of social and behavioral problems, and so we now have annual required A.L.I.C.E. training for active shooter situations and are regularly attacked by the political Right for teaching important truths—even facing legal sanction and job termination in an ever-growing number of states for doing so.
The potentially dispiriting thing is that I could go on and on with my “ugly and grim” stock-taking, and the burn-out has taken its toll. More than 50% of teachers polled this year by the National Education Association state that they are thinking about or actively leaving the profession, and in fact, the profession has become so unappealing that there are not enough individuals in the teacher training pipeline to meet demand—leaving schools scrambling this fall to fill quite literally hundreds of vacancies, even in the most affluent districts.
Why, then, are any of us still in the classroom? Why am I? Because as with all stock-taking, we must look at the entirety of a situation, and there is much that is beautiful and rewarding about teaching at this time as well. Each day, we who teach provide children with the intellectual tools and skills they will need to function successfully as adults. Each day, we who teach help children build the foundation for pursuing their passion, sometimes even inspiring what that passion is. Each day, we who teach engage with and help construct the moral character of our students. Each day, we who teach aid with losses and bind up wounds, both literal and figurative. Each day, we who teach engage children’s minds and enlarge their worlds. Each day, we who teach model what it means to be human well and in so doing, draw out that capacity in our charges. In short, each day, we who teach get to leave the world a little better place than we found it, and how many jobs get to say that?
Thus, having taken full stock of both the ugly & grim and the beautiful & rewarding, we turn to part two of charting a new course for the months ahead, the “infamous” New Year’s Resolutions. Here are mine:
- That I will be patient with my students’ learning losses even as I aid their recovery.
- That I will treasure seeing the totality of each of their faces, never forgetting what a gift it is to do so.
- That I will always care more about my students than the discipline I am teaching them.
- And that I will always speaking truth to them, regardless of cost.
What might your resolutions be for the coming year?
References
Allen, G. (July 13, 2022) Florida Gov. DeSantis Takes Aim at What He Sees as Indoctrination in Schools. NPR Morning Edition. https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1110842453/florida-gov-desantis-is-doing-battle-against-woke-public-schools.
Freeman, C. & LeBoeuf, S. (Aug. 3, 2022) Severe Maryland Teacher Shortage Highlights Difficult Working Conditions at K-12 Schools. The Baltimore Sun. https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-teacher-shortage-20220802-ogngisg4djdxznxccmqgspw54i-story.html.
NEA News (Feb. 1, 2022) Survey: Alarming Number of Educators May Soon Leave the Profession. National Education Association. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/survey-alarming-number-educators-may-soon-leave-profession.
Prinstein, M. & Ethier, K.A. (September 2022) Protecting Kids’ Mental Health. Scientific American; p. 11.
Light a Candle 