Call me crazy.  Call me naïve.  Call me hopeful, but an idea popped in my head today that I’ll definitely be testing out this coming school year.  For the first time in a long time, while feeling slightly anxious about the coming year, I’m actually feeling a sense of excitement.  A new room, new kids and another opportunity to see if I can improve on what I do for those kids.  Priorities have changed as I’ve worked through a pandemic and observed what others have done.  I’ve had a bit of a break from something that I loved but had me burning the candle at both ends. It feels like a brand new start.

What I’m a bit apprehensive about are those things outside of actually teaching – meetings, technology, hours of professional learning, etc. Developing relationships with new colleagues, parents and the community is always scary as an introvert.  I’ve always thought that if I could just walk in, teach and leave I would be very happy. But I digress.  Let’s get to the idea.

For most educators, teaching is a calling, but when those teachers are unappreciated and disrespected by seemingly everyone, we’ve seen what happens.  Teachers are leaving in droves, leaving districts in difficult positions.  Some of those districts are trying to throw money at the situation, and while that’s nice, it’s not sustainable and it’s not the answer.  Unless the attitude towards teachers changes and people begin treating them as the professionals they are by everyone involved, the situation will only get worse.  I believe, like me, most teachers want to get back in the classroom, and, if things change, they’ll come back.

It occurred to me that if I’M ready to get back into the classroom after a couple of years, I bet other teachers are too.  This is where school districts, administration and those invested in local public school education have a real opportunity to change things. Schools must become safer, both on the inside and from the outside, teachers need to be listened to in terms of what students need and parents/guardians need to work in partnership with teachers for the success of their students.  Districts and schools need to understand that if all they do is math and reading, no child will ever want to go to school.  It’s things like the arts that keep students coming to school and graduating.  As research tells us, young students need more time playing at recess, not just one minute “brain breaks” distributed during the day.  And while technology is a great tool, we’re learning that that too much screen time, especially for young children is not a good thing.  As a teacher, I can always tell the classes where the students have been pacified with screens by the adults in their lives because no matter how squirrely they normally are, they literally freeze in place when you begin a video.  We need to have time to lead students to love learning to where they will begin to seek things out on their own.  This is when they become lifelong learners.

About five years ago, I wrote several blogs on how we could see this teacher shortage coming.  As I re-read those blogs recently, my thought was that surely I wasn’t the only person to see this.  Surely someone else in a position of authority would see it and work to bring about change.  But no.  Then the pandemic hit and everyone was saying how great teachers were and I thought, wow, here comes the change!  Then, as people tend to be, they grew impatient with those same teachers because they weren’t doing things the way the community wanted, whether it was wearing or not wearing masks, or not doing hybrid teaching well enough, or whatever was the latest inconvenience.  Nevermind that the teachers were not making the decisions because they have no control over anything.  So, just as I and others said they would, teachers have left and are leaving.  Schools can’t find enough teachers to fill the void and we’re not getting enough future teachers enrolled in teacher prep programs because why would you want to teach?  The only ones hurt are the students. 

But here is where I’m hopeful. I believe that if enough teachers leave, and enough people call for real change in the system, that teachers will come back, just like me.  Teachers want to teach.  It’s in our blood.  It breaks teachers’ hearts to leave the profession, not because they are leaving a job, but because they’re leaving what really matters – the kids.  It’s why some believe more teachers haven’t left.  While other professionals don’t get attached to a particular place or job and can move on, most teachers stay in the same place for years because they build relationships with kids.  I have left a couple of schools where teary eyed kids asked me why I was leaving or asked me not to go.  It was heartbreaking.  I’ve walked back into schools I’ve left and had kids rush me for hugs and it was simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking.  I didn’t go home and cry because I left a building, I cried because I was exhausted and sometimes angry but mostly because I was left the kids.

So now I’m in a position to teach again half time for a year and I’m excited.  I’m betting that if there was meaningful change in our nation’s school systems, teachers would come back.  All teachers want is a safe place to teach, where they have a voice and have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of kids. Where there is no change, things stagnate or die.  We can either update/change our educational systems for the better by choice or it will continue to change on its own, chances are for the worst.  Let’s make our educational system a place where teachers want to return to the classroom.  I know I would. For the kids.