Teachers Reflect on a Tough School Year: 'It's Been Very Stressful'
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Summer vacation season is here. And after this school year, teachers need a break as much as anyone.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Do not comply. Do not comply.
SHAPIRO: The school year started with rage. All over the U.S., school board meetings became flashpoints in the culture wars over mask mandates and critical race theory.
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KYRA PHILLIPS: Let's get to COVID now and the battle over whether schools should be open for in-person learning as the omicron variant just surges across the country now.
SHAPIRO: As fall turned to winter, teachers had to carry on through the deadly omicron surge. Most schools stayed open even as the COVID variant tore through them. And then in the spring...
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DAVID MUIR: Good afternoon. And we're coming on the air because of an awful scene playing out today in Texas - an active shooter for a time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
SHAPIRO: Last month in Uvalde, Texas, 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in their classrooms, renewing a national debate about gun violence, school safety and even arming teachers. For many, it's too much. In a nationwide poll this year, the National Education Association surveyed more than 3,000 educators, and 67% said burnout was a major problem. More than half of teachers said they'll likely leave their profession sooner than they'd originally planned. CONSIDER THIS - teaching is harder than ever, and some educators are at the breaking point. We check in with a group of teachers to see how they are doing and what they need after a very long year. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Monday, June 20.
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SHAPIRO: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. Six months ago, Iowa teacher Michael Reinholdt told us how he and his colleagues were doing.
MICHAEL REINHOLDT: The teachers are - they're just feeling overwhelmed, and they're breaking down underneath. I find people crying in the bathroom.
SHAPIRO: Schools were trying to return to normal after two years of pandemic closures and disruption, but a lot of things were not normal. Many kids were behind academically. There were social and mental health challenges, too. And Reinholdt, a teacher coach in Davenport, Iowa, said the people he works with were drowning.
REINHOLDT: These people are just breaking down under the pressures here because of how much responsibility they're expected to handle. And then simply they're just not given enough time to deal with all of the things that they have to do.
SHAPIRO: As the school year came to a close, my colleague Ailsa Chang talked to Michael Reinholdt and two other teachers - Suzen Polk-Hoffses, a pre-K teacher in Millbridge, Maine, and Tiki Boyea-Logan, a fourth-grade teacher in Rowlett, Texas. Reinholdt says now at the end of the school year, things are a little better but still not great.
REINHOLDT: I'm really glad that you were able to play that clip because it reminded me of what it was like at the beginning of the year. And honestly, I feel like we've been thrown an inner tube. So we're floating, but we're only halfway back to the ship. We have a lot of work to do.
AILSA CHANG, BYLINE: What about you, Suzen? You joined us six months ago. How has it been the last few months?
SUZEN POLK-HOFFSES: It's been very stressful. We did a lot with anti-masking. We had anti-masking parents, community members. After that kind of died away, we then ramped up to critical race theory, which we're not doing in our school. But it was really rough because people in the community were feeling that we were doing critical race theory. And that then became a hot topic - hot-button topic for us to deal with.
CHANG: And, Tiki, you're the new one in this group this time around. What have the last few months been like for you?
TIKI BOYEA-LOGAN: They have been extremely stressful. I thought last year - last school year was stressful. But this year, for some reason, it's just worse. I mean, there are just so many deficits. There's so much pressure on us teachers to meet scores. And it's just a lot. It's a lot.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, all of you are dealing with so much now, but I think one thing that is probably at the front of everyone's minds is safety in your classrooms, on campus after this shooting in Uvalde. Tiki, what is it like being a teacher in Texas right now?
BOYEA-LOGAN: I'm in an elementary school, and so we are always kind of paying attention. And, you know, you see something; say something. But this current shooting, you know, brought it all back. And I was telling the producer that my husband, a couple years ago, bought me a bulletproof backpack, I mean, for my job as a teacher. I just...
CHANG: Wow.
BOYEA-LOGAN: Saying that out loud is just so ridiculous.
CHANG: He bought that for you...
BOYEA-LOGAN: For me...
CHANG: ...A couple years ago?
BOYEA-LOGAN: ...A couple of years ago. And so it's like, man, I need to make sure it's in there, bring it in the classroom. And just thinking about saying that in an elementary school setting is just so ridiculous. But, I mean, that's just what we're dealing with right now, unfortunately.
REINHOLDT: Teachers already have so many social responsibilities - taking care of students' educational needs but also their emotional health, their social-behavioral health. We don't need to add yet another piece to what teachers have to do, which includes their safety as well. I mean, that's just not the answer. We can't expect teachers to be willing to shoot and potentially kill one of their own former students or current students, for that matter. That's going to create a divide in how teachers can correctly and passionately do their jobs from kind of an emotional standpoint.
CHANG: Yeah. I mean, it is just one more thing on top of a pile of things that teachers are worried about. And the last time we spoke, there was a lot of struggle. We talked about the fact that kids were not just behind academically, that they were behind socially and emotionally as well. Tiki, I'm curious because you're a fourth-grade teacher. Is this something you were also struggling with in your classroom?
BOYEA-LOGAN: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like at the beginning of the school year, I basically got second-graders because that's when they were, you know, the point where they were in school full-time. And so...
CHANG: So even though you were a fourth-grade teacher, you were teaching kids who are emotionally at the second-grade level, you felt.
BOYEA-LOGAN: Yes, and academically. And so, you know, we're back to working miracles. Like, hey; we need to get these kids caught up. We need to, you know, fill these gaps.
CHANG: Yeah.
BOYEA-LOGAN: Again, just more and more pressure. And we're like, hey; these kids have been through a lot.
CHANG: Well, it's not just delayed development that you've been dealing with. There are kids right now who are struggling with serious mental health challenges. We're talking depression, anxiety. How much of this have you all encountered in your own classrooms the last several months?
POLK-HOFFSES: I teach pre-K, so for me, the children are just coming to me fresh. But I have seen my former students. I've heard from my colleagues who have said that they're very worried about the students that they had this year because they saw a lot of depression. Someone even brought up cutting, that they were afraid that a student would begin cutting again. Students were learning in isolation. Then they came back, and they're overwhelmed and they've experienced a trauma. And unfortunately, all schools aren't equipped to deal with the trauma that these students have experienced during the pandemic.
CHANG: We've been talking about how the kids have been doing this entire conversation. Can I just check in with each of you? How are you doing? School's out now. I mean, how are you feeling at this moment?
REINHOLDT: Well, I'm glad you asked because I mean, you know, it's a relief to be on summer vacation. It's a time to recharge. It's a time to reflect on what works and what doesn't work. What do we need to bring to the table in the fall and how do we regear and be ready to go for all of our students needs in the fall? However, teacher burnout is a real thing. The amount of pressure being put on people, the lack of resources and funding for people to be able to do their job correctly, micromanagement that comes from everywhere, from local administration all the way up to our legislature, is turning our very - I'm going to call it a passion job because nobody goes into teaching for the money. But it's a passion job. It's turning it into a job that people who are passionate about that work don't want to deal with it anymore because of all the stress and the challenges and the problems.
It's not that they don't love teaching. It's not that they don't love the kids. It's not that they don't love what they do. It's that it's all the additional things that are being asked of them. And they just can't - they just can't handle it. I mean, I told a story back in December about a teacher breaking down and crying almost on a daily basis. And although that has gotten better, I don't think that's because the situation is better. I think it's because people have been able to cope with those feelings and not outwardly show them as much. I mean, I think the pressures are still there, the challenges are still there. But, man, people are having a lot of challenges and burning out as a result.
CHANG: Suzen and Tiki, how are you holding up?
POLK-HOFFSES: I'm holding up better than I expected. I just worry about our young educators who haven't been in the field as long as I have. I've been in the field of teaching for 21 years. And I just want to let the young educators know, please don't leave the profession. That's my fear, is that during this summer, they'll just say, I just can't do this anymore because it was just too hard.
CHANG: Tiki.
BOYEA-LOGAN: Well, right now I'm great, right?
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CHANG: You're on vacation.
BOYEA-LOGAN: I'm in Spain. I'm on vacation. But this year has been tough. I have thought many times, you know, not even do I want to do this - because I do; I love it - but can I continue doing this? You know, I feel like they expect us to juggle, you know, 18 different balls and hop on one foot (laughter), you know, while saying our ABCs backwards. I mean, that's how it feels. And, like, it doesn't seem like there's any relief in sight. Everybody wants to come up with a way to fix these gaps. And their solutions - I feel like they don't necessarily ask classroom teachers. They're coming up with these ideas that are just causing more and more work, and it is so hard.
CHANG: So at this point, a question to all three of you, how committed do you feel to sticking with your profession, with your careers?
BOYEA-LOGAN: I'm very committed. I don't want to leave education on a sour note. You know, like, I feel like for the most part that it'll get better. Hopefully this year has taught these legislators and upper management of these school districts that there are different ways that we can get these students where they need to be without stressing their teachers out. I'm hoping they look at the data and see that massive amounts of people are leaving. And I hope they really look at that and really ask these teachers and really pay attention to their answers about why they're leaving. You know, what can we do to fix this? - because if they don't, I mean, they're just going to be hemorrhaging really good teachers for the foreseeable future.
CHANG: Michael.
REINHOLDT: Yeah, I think teachers are naturally eternal optimists. They have to be. They have to believe that every student can achieve. They have to believe that they can move that mountain. So, I mean, I'll be back next year because I'm a glutton for punishment. But I truly think there are a lot of my colleagues that are not going to be returning.
POLK-HOFFSES: And we need teachers. We need teachers. Please, people who are listening to this right now, understand how can you help support your local schools. You need to because, again, these children are our future. We need them educated. Help us educate them, please - a call to arms, a call to action, please.
SHAPIRO: That Suzen Polk-Hoffses, Tiki Boyea-Logan and Michael Reinholdt, three teachers talking with my co-host, Ailsa Chang.
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SHAPIRO: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.
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