What Teachers Wish Parents Knew

Photo by Sylvie Rosokoff

It’s easy to gloss over headlines about the teacher shortage in the United States, but the fact of the matter is this is a real and growing problem. It’s not for lack of candidates, but rather an issue of people being driven from the profession. This week, we spoke with a teacher in a battleground state about her experience, why she thinks teaching has become so difficult, and more. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, and to protect her job, we've chosen to keep her anonymous.To speak generally, last year was one of the most difficult years people had in education.

There were astronomical increases in behavioral problems, but no support from administration. Administration would say, write 'em up and then they would just be sent back. From high school kids, there was a level of emotional need that I haven't seen. 

They also don't have any educational stamina anymore. [Prior to the pandemic], they would have two tests in a day, and that would be light work. Now they have two tests in a day and they’re all stressed out, saying, “I can't do this, I can't handle this.”

During Covid, we made everything easy. You couldn't get below a 50, even if you didn’t turn anything in. And we had to accept work late. We removed all of the expectations and they turned into intellectual couch potatoes. They stopped pushing. This year, we saw that effect. I had kids crying in my room all the time because I happened to be the safe space for them. I really connected a lot with my kids this year.

On top of that, you've got all of this stuff in the right-wing media. The LGBTQ kids would come in and put their heads down on the desk because every day in the news there is something terrible about them. What made teaching so difficult was there was just so much need and it came out in all these ways. We've all been through a collective trauma. We don't have stamina. We're trying to get back to normal, but we tried to heal wounds that are still gaping.

I'm going to get political and I apologize, but it's a big part of what's going on. There's a massive teacher shortage. I'm sure you've heard about it. We just posted a job for a teacher that left over the summer and we didn't get any good applicants.

When I applied seven years ago, there were 300 applicants for one job. And now they're reposting job listings because they didn't get any applicants. That's pretty significant. Everybody's like, “pay teachers more.” Sure. Pay teachers more. Everyone would like to be paid more. But I'm paid pretty well. [The problem is] this component of being attacked in the news, being attacked on social media, being attacked, being attacked, being attacked, and it feels completely unfair.

We have a parent who doesn't even live in our state. He’s divorced from the child's mother and the child lives in the district. And that parent walked around back-to-school night handing out flyers about “critical race theory” to students. The flyer has a picture of a little white child on it and it says something like, “should she be made to feel guilty for slavery?”

We've had a parent go around the school and take pictures in the classroom. We all have rainbow hearts on our doors to show the kids that it's a safe space and he wanted those down. He put out an email with my name and my position [as well as others] saying, “these are people to watch out for.” Parents have sued to have board members removed for child abuse because of masking. They're trying to have every book that's not by a white, straight male removed from our curriculum and our library. They're showing up at the school board meetings. This is happening in pretty much every district. There's a Facebook group where they post all of these “horrible” things we're doing. 

There's this discomfort that I'm going to say something – not necessarily wrong – but something that can be interpreted differently. For instance, we made the international news because a teacher asked students which pronouns they prefer. You're trying to balance protecting the kids, and at the same time not sacrifice your livelihood. It's a very stressful time.

How many words do you think you say a day in front of a group of people, right? You have to be so paranoid about every single thing you say now. Things that were not controversial eight years ago, like vaccines, are now controversial topics. What is a safe topic? It's not even safe to say racism is bad anymore.

I'm tired of hearing that this is a “parent's rights” issue. My kid is going into first grade. I'm worried about how all of this is going to impact the education they get. You're stealing my rights as a parent for my kid to be taught history the way it actually happened, and to include more voices. I'm concerned as a parent, more than as a teacher, because I see what's happening in the schools.

Our school has good mental health support for the kids. But there's a movement that says social-emotional learning is indoctrination. So there's some pushback there. How could you be upset about your kid being taught empathy?

There's a very palpable rise in fear. I go into school, where I worry about being shot, and then you're worried that I'm indoctrinating your kid when I teach him empathy?

This should not be a job where your life is at risk. It's insane. And we should not be sending our children to places where their lives are at risk, but that's America in general, right? 

It's this feeling like the public is out to get you. These kids need more support than they've ever needed emotionally, and there's pushback about giving them that support. It’s like you're walking a tight rope that wasn't there before. Years ago, you felt like you were trusted as an authority figure.

Because everybody's gone to school, they think they know what it is to teach. They don't. For some reason in our profession, people think they know what our job is. 

[Virtual school] is part of the problem. People thought that they were homeschooling. But we were designing and grading and doing all of the actual schooling. You were parenting your child more than you usually have to parent your child. The schooling was still coming from the school. The teacher was still giving the instruction, grading the assessment, writing the learning progressions. I know that sounds cold, but I also had a child who was online learning. People misperceived what they were doing and I think that probably influences how they see teachers now.

What can parents do? You can send teachers a thank-you email on back-to-school night, you know? Or after parent-teacher conferences. We need to feel like we have parents in our corner.