You know how they say childbirth is like stretching your bottom lip over your head?  Having had a child without anesthesia, I can pretty well vouch for that analogy, but it’s usually used to try to help men understand what it’s like for women to have children because they will never experience that pain.  I read an article the other day about how people outside of teaching think teachers are always whining about how hard teaching is, saying things like, “you knew what you were getting into”.  Well, for those of us who have been teaching for awhile, teaching has definitely changed, and not for the better.  Besides, that’s like telling the mother who’s in labor “well, you knew what you were getting into!”. That would be the last thing you would ever say, I’m afraid. As teachers, we’re still here because we love to teach and we love kids, but it’s those added things in teaching that now bring more stress to our lives and take away from actually teaching children.

So, I was trying to come up with an analogy for what teaching feels like today that just about everyone would be able to understand and I think I’ve got it.  I would love to tell you that this analogy only pertains to the time around the holidays, but I think it speaks to the entire year now.  Let me talk to those of you who worked at some point in the food service industry, whether fast food or otherwise and I think you’ll understand more of where teachers are coming from.

I worked at McDonald’s starting in high school and into college.  This was in the dark ages when I had to memorize the menu and the prices, ring them in correctly (no computer here), figure out the taxes and add them up to put into the cash register.  I was actually trained there for the very first drive thru window in my hometown.  It was a big deal using that white board and grease pencil, let me tell you.  Anyway, I digress.  The part I think we can relate to here is the “rush”.  That time of day when everyone decides to show up for lunch or dinner, or a bus or two shows up and it’s insanity for an hour or so.  I remember dropping fries for an entire rush and I think I smelled like fries for the rest of the week.

Think about what it takes to handle a rush.  The teamwork so that everyone has a job that fits together like a well oiled machine as well as having ENOUGH people to handle the jobs. The leader who tries to anticipate what’s going to be needed and gives instructions as to how much food to cook and when to cook it.  The people taking orders as quickly as possible with a smile on their faces, even when customers are impatient and disrespectful.  Others cleaning up after customers who don’t always help take care of the building in anticipation of new customers who will need a place to sit.  It’s exhausting and by the time it’s finished, you feel like you have to sit and regroup.

So, for those of you who have experienced this scenario, imagine now a rush beginning the minute you walk in the door at 8:00 that lasts until you finish with your last customer at 3:30.  Five days a week, 185+ days a year.  And yes, there is time to “regroup”, but there is also preparation for the rush tomorrow to take care of, all the supplies ready to go, clean up from those who didn’t put things away today.  Knowing how exhausted you are after a rush of an hour or so, can you imagine doing it day after day?

Isn’t this what we signed up for though?  We knew it would be hard, right?  But, being public employees, relying on the kindness of the government and taxpayers, there are many duties and responsibilities placed upon us that were not taught to us in college or during student teaching that have been accumulating for years.  Nothing is ever taken away from the pile, the pile just keeps getting higher.  So, imagine having to deal with the day long rush and now you have to fill out surveys for the company, take training in things like trauma or CPR in case one of your customers has an issue, documenting everything you did for all of your customers that day and how your work has improved.  On a daily basis you have to display your target goals so that customers can see them and you must achieve and document those goals for your manager.  Sure, you have a little time during the day, but to get it all done, you have to take it home or stay at work longer.  And all you want to do it get away from the smell of the french fries you’ve been around all day.

Am I exaggerating?  I think most teachers would agree with me.  At least the ones still doing everything that is expected of them.  There are those I’m sure who have given up and are just waiting for retirement or looking for another job.  We’re looking at a teacher shortage across the country and it’s not because teaching isn’t what we expected, it’s all the OTHER stuff that’s not teaching that wasn’t expected that is chasing them away.  Enough already! We need teachers who are healthy and rested and excited to work with the most important customers we’ll ever have – our children.  Let’s stop turning our educational system into a fast food world and go back to a place of quality, taking the necessary time for a fine dining experience, time for thoughtful discussion, time to get to know our customers better and help them see the benefits of this type of experience. After all, these are the customers who will one day be taking care of the rest of us.