Teachers are carrying burnout symptoms into the new school year.

Educators express a strong need to be treated and respected as professionals in a demanding career. 

  • “I’ve never been a fan of the phrase ‘teachers are superheroes’. Teachers are brave, patient, and caring, but they’re also humans. They have families, feelings, and lives beyond the classroom. Let’s not forget that they need care, rest, and respect just like anyone else.” —Educator in Pennsylvania
    • “Or ‘Teaching is a vocation.’ Nope. I did not join a religious order. This is my career, but not my entire life.” —Educator in Minnesota
  • “Teachers are having a strong negative reaction to [the phrase] ‘Remember your why.’ I would stay away from it.” —Principal in California
  • “They want teachers to be professional at all times but they refuse to treat us as professionals, pay us a professionals’ salary, or seek our professional expertise. At what point do we demand more, because unless we’re fully cared for, we can’t fully care for our students.” —Third Grade Teacher in New York
  • “I love teaching, but in August I think about quitting and doing something else, because my brain and body are far enough away from school to think there must be a slower life out there, and at least partly yearn for it.” —HS English Teacher in Canada
    • “Same here. I love what I do and it’s a great challenge and privilege to work with kids! But, working in public education in America is exhausting!” —Science Educator

Teachers discuss feeling more depleted than during past back-to-school seasons.

 

  • “… If you know anything about me you know there’s nothing I love more than the beginning of the year. The beginning of the year is my jam. I look forward to the potential and the possibility of a learning space that we cultivate and nurture. I’m so so excited about all of the different ways that I am going to engage with students for them to show up as possible. I don’t know what I’m gonna get but I know it’s gonna be amazing and I know it’s gonna be like a good surprise. [This year], there is no excitement, there is no joy, I feel empty and sad and overwhelmed and I am at a loss as to how to find it before Tuesday. I have not felt like this since the school year started in August 2020. That was the only time that I felt this void.” —HS English Teacher in Texas
    • “I also think of the first week of school like the Super Bowl/Christmas/etc. and a few weeks out I am not sure how I can get to that feeling this year…” —HS English Teacher in Oregon
    • “We taught in the time of COVID. Now we’re trying to teach in the time of all the things. Thank you for showing us we’re not alone in feeling numb. The kids will rush in to fill the void and we will rush in to meet them where they are but holy moly. It’s a lot.” —Teacher in Canada
    • “Thank you for naming this. I am having some similar (lack of) feelings.” —Math Teacher
    • “Last June I felt like I was dragging myself to school. I was bored. Counting down. Didn’t care. … I had other things to worry about. Now, I still don’t really care. Just looking at stuff for class now. sigh. I need another month. I’ve been at this for 20 years. Things’ll change.” —Teacher in Canada
    • “We just spent the summer watching human beings getting kidnapped by the state and shoved into concentration camps, among other atrocities. It’s very hard to find our joy. But I think once we actually meet our new young humans, our joy will be glowing…” —Educator in the United States
    • “I’m in LA so whenever I start to think about the new school year, all that I can think about are the students whose parents have been deported this summer. I’m mentally bracing myself for those stories and everything that comes with them.” —High School ELA Teacher in California
    • “Feeling that, for sure. Feeling helpless again (like 2020), but for different reasons. No solutions or suggestions, but solidarity.” —English Teacher in New England
    • “Thank you for this. 💔Feeling the same and hadn’t really even articulated it for myself until I saw your video. Last year was… a lot, I got through it by hoping this year would be better, & now… it’s still a lot.” —ELL Teacher