Yes my friends, I’m going to admit it.  I’m suffering from…Teacher Schedule Withdrawal or TSW.  Everything has to have to have it’s own acronym, right?  Anyway, let me describe the symptoms as you too may be suffering from this particular syndrome.

It begins first with complete exhaustion.  You’ve pushed through the very end of the year and on the last day before summer, when students are celebrating, you go home and crash.  This usually lasts for about a week, unless your expanded sleep schedule is interrupted by your music supervisor scheduling professional development beginning at 8:00 a.m.  It was great, but, really, 8:00 a.m.?!?  If this happens, the exhausted phase may last a bit longer.

During that first week, especially if you teach elementary school, you might find yourself holding your bladder for long periods of time, forgetting that you can actually go to the restroom whenever you want.  The only drawback to this temporary freedom is that you have to retrain yourself in August, but for a brief, shining time period, you are free, like other professional adults, to use the restroom whenever you need.

Eating becomes a pleasure again in the fact that you can actually chew your food and taste it instead of inhaling it in fifteen minutes.  Sure we’re contracted to get 30 minutes for lunch, but that doesn’t take into account that you’ll probably have to use the restroom, get your lunch, possibly heat up your lunch after waiting in line for the microwave and get set up for the next class, so yes, fifteen minutes.  It’s a real pain to go out to eat with your spouse on a date and you realize your plate is empty and he’s only taken a few bites.  You then realize that, just like using the restroom you can be a grown-up and take your time with meals now.

However, about two or three weeks in, the real withdrawal symptoms pop up when I realize I have no schedule.  At least one that hasn’t been created for me.  I mean, every single minute of the day where someone else has decided what I need to do, where I need to be and who I need to be with.  It extends into the ride to and from work – certain time, certain route.  And then this summer thing begins and (GASP!) I have to decide my own schedule!  There are just so many things I want to do!!!  I only have so much time to do them, and I don’t know how to schedule because someone always does it for me!  What do I begin with?  Rearranging the furniture?  Planting flowers, reading books that have gotten dusty on the coffee table?  Lunch with friends?  Traveling, visiting family?  So many things I want and need to do that I’m too tired and busy to do during the school year and so I get overwhelmed and I end up sitting in one spot, afraid that I’m going to once again let summer get away from me because I can’t make a decision. Did I mention that depression can creep back into the picture?

Thank goodness for meetings that just seem to keep popping up during the summer so that I have something to put on my calendar.  An empty calendar is a scary thing for me, causing anxiety, another symptom of schedule withdrawal.  Sure, I could schedule the things I need to do just like school, but here’s the irony – I don’t want it to feel like school.  The obsessive schedule is the thing I want to get away from during the summer, but then I don’t get things done.  I’m pretty sure I need therapy for this.

You know, the remedy for this would be as simple as finding a way to allow teachers to be adults in the workplace, to have enough time to use the restroom and eat without being uncomfortable.  The students have more freedom to use the restroom and more time to sit down and eat than teachers do. To allow teachers more say in their scheduling and not have someone in another office in another building decide just how many minutes they need to teach a particular subject in a particular way and how many minutes they can go out for recess, not taking into account time needed to put on coats and boots in the winter or using the restroom or getting a drink….

But I digress.  I believe this syndrome could be eliminated in our lifetime if teachers were just considered by others to be the professionals we are, treated like adults and treated with respect.  Some teachers have begun taking things into their own hands, deciding that the effort isn’t worth the stress and strain anymore and they are quitting in droves.  Maybe they’ve decided that life is just too short to suffer some of these indignities, even if it means not working with our most valuable resource – our country’s children.  It’s a shame.  All it would take would be to treat teachers kindly and with respect.

Tonight I’m counting my blessings because I happen to be married to someone who gets it when the withdrawal sets in and he makes me get out and do “summer-y” things.  Like driving in the convertible to get ice cream close to bedtime because we CAN.  Or sitting on the balcony late at night with a glass of wine while we talk and look at the stars.  Summer can be a magical time for teachers.  Here’s wishing my fellow teachers a quick passage through the withdrawal into their dream for summer.