No More “Normal”
A big takeaway from this article was that funding in public education has already existed even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our new “normal” is working through problems that have existed for a long time. Educators should not have to struggle like this.
Talking Points:
“Return to normal? Normal was awful, it is time to be bold”. I really liked this quote because was there really ever a normal before? Unfortunately educators have always been on the back burner. Forced to adhere to unrealistic expectations. If we as educators continue with these expectations, we allow inequalities of wealth/privilege to exist. I have a personal experience that I feel is similar to “being bold” in a situation that is considered “normal”. I am a school nurse, so a bit different from an educator. For the past two and a half years of my employment I have been silent about not having a scheduled lunch break because it was just “normal” I have not had time set aside for one. Recently I have started to realize that it is not “normal” and I should be getting a lunch break just like everyone else in my building. Experiencing more and more burn out is what led me to finally bringing this up. It was time for me to be bold and not to continue to conform to the “normal”. Another example I can think of is my educator friends in the building. They have been missing a lot of their prep periods due to staffing (no one able to cover specials or their classrooms during meetings). This has been resulting in them not being able to have materials prepped which is affecting their classrooms. They are not able to get out the curriculum and stay on track. One way myself, and these teachers, have been getting our point across is reporting these missed lunches/preps. This in turn is costing the district extra money and making administrators realize there is not enough help to go around.
“One of the insights of Jaffe’s article is that teachers’ mental health and longevity in the profession is linked to the strength of our unions”. I can agree that how strong our union is can directly impact how educators feel. With a stronger union comes more pushback and a sense of control comes. I think that a common issue for educators is not feeling supported. Educators give, give, and give, and many times do not get anything back. It is no wonder burn out occurs. Especially now during a time where there is little funding for education. In the No More “Normal” article it states “The city says there’s no money, but they’re doing a multimillion-dollar renovation to the Eagles’ stadium down the street from here. But we just make do.” (Did you watch the Super Bowl? According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA Rams’ SoFi Stadium cost more than $5 billion). The fact that our children's education is being put on the back burner is a shame and hurts our future generation.
“In the class period where my new student has just joined, there are more students than desks. My invaluable teacher’s aide now sits on the counter. I feel helpless and trapped. I’m a type 1 diabetic, which means I am immunocompromised. I’m also a probationary teacher, which means my job is not promised for next year. Should I take time off? I don’t want to jeopardize my position. Was that sore throat this morning nothing, or do I need to call my endocrinologist and set into motion the plan we worked out in September, when I realized how much I was increasing my risk by returning to work? Am I sick? Will I get sick? Will I pass COVID to my family? To my students? These thoughts race through my mind as my classroom fills up with students because there is no time to process a COVID exposure”. This quote from a teacher really resonated with me. Not only as educators are we worried about our students, but ourselves. If we are not taking care of ourselves, how can we properly take care of and educate our students? I can relate to this because as the school nurse, it is very hard to take time off and get a cover when I am sick. There have been times where I have truly needed a mental health day, and I cannot take it due to lack of help/support. I push through for my students, but at the end of the day I am hurting myself. The more we continue to think “Oh I will just work through it” or “I could not get coverage so I will just have to go in” should not be the new norm. I know I touched on this a lot in previous paragraphs, but it is something I feel strongly about. Working as a bedside nurse for years prior to my school nurse job, I knew what burnout was, and I am still currently experiencing that. I feel I am stretched very thin as the sole medical person in the building. The demands and medical needs are very high and sometimes it can be a lot for one person. The same goes for teachers. It can be very difficult to have to call out. The complex sub plans that need to be made and also the need for subs is slim. Many times these classrooms are being covered by many different people throughout the day. Teachers then return to school overwhelmed with guilt and have to play catch up. Needing time for yourself becomes a burden and it shouldn't! We need to prioritize the overall well being and mental health of our employees.
Argument Statement:
The underfunding of education systems is largely caused by governments prioritizing business interests over the needs of students and teachers.
Connections/Reflections:
“For years we’ve heard that “our children are our future.” It is a platitude doled out at every teacher inservice and award ceremony. But it’s time to put actions in place of sentiment”. This is something we do see everywhere. So if this is something we see time and time again, why are education systems still left to struggle. This article mentioned renovated schools-this is something that seriously lacks. There are a handful of schools I know of that are original builds, decades and decades old. Ceilings are leaking, bathroom sinks broken, faulty heating and cooling systems. Yet, football stadiums and other unrealistic things are being “fixed”. At my school when the ceiling leaks we just know a bucket gets put there and we walk around it. One year I had a student lean on the sink in the bathroom the wrong way and the entire sink fell off the wall. This student even sustained a serious injury and had to go to the hospital. None of the other sinks were ever replaced with new ones. Lack of funding is the main reason for this. “Our children are our future" yet we cannot even fix our schools.
I really liked your post and how honestly you connected the article to your own experience as a school nurse. Your examples about missed lunches, lost prep periods, and pushing through burnout made the bigger issue feel very real and not just theoretical. I also thought your point about schools being expected to “make do” while other things get prioritized was especially powerful. It really shows how much educators and school staff are asked to carry without enough support.
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica, I think your post this week really connected with everyone to some degree. The work environment is not normal. You clearly label the indecencies that schools burden faculty with everyday. Just like yourself, our school nurse is only one person and I see her always on the go. I wonder if she ever takes a lunch or a break? I wonder if she faces the same challenges that you name. In a related yet unrelated way, our administration does not support our faculty in regards to students. A student is a behavior problem and we have taken all means necessary and they get sent to the office and nothing happens. Or, a student has years of educational gaps and needs serious academic support beyond what any classroom teacher can provide in 50 minutes and the reply is to check in with the kid non-academically to make sure they feel welcome everyday. THAT DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM, THAT IS NOT NORMAL. How is this acceptable? What action steps are we taking to help the student be successful academically. Yes, I care how the child is doing, but we also need to think of a solution to help bridge the gaps. Retention does not exist anymore in schools. If a student is years behind peers and not showing growth, pushing them on is not going to make the situation any better. We are dis-servicing a child by just advancing when we can do so much more. THIS IS NOT NORMAL!
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica,
ReplyDeleteI think that everyone got so used to this being normal for schools that they kind of forget that it wouldn't be tolerated in many other settings. My building doesn't have a school nurse or any subs. Thankfully, we have enough staff who are in the building to support behavior that we can borrow one to sub in for someone who is absent, but there have been days when we had to split up a classroom because there just weren't enough teachers to cover all of the classes.
Also, just because something is 'normal' doesn't mean that it is good.
Hi Veronica! I also read no more "normal". I am very close with one of the nurses at my school (we have two). I often see them eating lunch in their office and making sure they're available in a second's notice. I can't even imagine how exhausting that is. Your example of the sink falling is a great example of what this article was about. Even though there is a CLEAR problem, it just gets swept under the rug because it costs money.
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica, your post resonates with me as well. Our school nurse is allowed to have a lunch and it is posted that their lunch is 12:30 to 1pm and the nurse's office is closed. Sometimes when our nurse isn't available on days we have no school nurse. As a teacher, we also have to cover other classes on many our prep periods due to a growing staff shortage. It is a surprise when we don't actually have to cover. I also like your comment about tax payer funded stadiums when schools are underfunded. I recently read that this is happening in Las Vegas with multiple sports. Our school is also poorly maintained and is old. In fact, we just got an email today that there are mold problems in certain areas and that they are going to address it. I hope that you are able to get a scheduled lunch that is not taken away.
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica! Great reflection on this article. I'm so glad you took the chance and you're fighting for your lunch. Seems so little but really you just need a minute to put you head down and nourish you brain. After years of surviving in these conditions, you almost big to second guess yourself. Am I really that sick to stay home? Am I sick enough to leave my kids hanging or my colleagues? You also mentioned the support of the union. Do you feel supported by the teacher's union as a healthcare professional?
ReplyDeleteThank you Veronica for your reflections! I feel like we can all resonate with your connections and reflections in our school environments. We spend so much time preparing for our students through thoughtful preparation and planning, time spent assessing student work and evaluating student progress, time spent preparing for the next day or the next week of school all on our own time. And if we have IEP meetings or other meetings happening during our prep time then essentially there is no prep time and it all needs to be completed on our own time. I feel like there is this generalization that teachers do it for the students and put in blood, sweat, and tears to get kids up to grade level and pour hours and hours of their own time into planning and preparation for successful, accessible, and meaningful lessons but there is so little allocated time to do so. I have a 20 minute lunch break by the time I drop off my kids at lunch and during that time I usually heat up my lunch, and am making copies or doing a working lunch. If I have a meeting on my prep while students are at enrichment class, then that prep time all goes to that meeting and the prep is not reallocated to another time of day. I can see how many educators are feeling burnt out.
ReplyDelete