On December 13, 2021, in desperation, I gave a speech to the school board of the district in which I taught for eight years (not including the 20-21 school year, during which I took a medical leave of absence because my newborn baby and asthma were not enough to convince my district to let me teach remotely during the height of the Covid pandemic). Here is what I said:
My name is Katie Niemczyk. I teach English at --- High School. I’ve wanted to be an English teacher since I was in high school myself. I knew it would be an incredibly challenging job, but I never imagined feeling as unvalued as I have for the past three years. I’m not alone in that feeling.
Google “teacher burnout” and read the headlines: “‘Exhausted and underpaid’: teachers across the US are leaving their jobs in numbers.” “Why So Many Teachers Are Thinking of Quitting.” It’s not a new problem, but it’s gotten worse. According to The Rand Corporation’s 2020 survey, “Among teachers who left [voluntarily and before their scheduled retirement] primarily because of the pandemic, 64 percent said they weren’t paid enough to merit the risks or stress of teaching.”
So what are those risks and stresses? Well, according to the CDC, “everyone in --- County should wear a mask in public, indoor settings” due to high community transmission, and our schools should conduct “screening testing at least once a week”--testing for which the federal government "has allocated $11 billion.” Yet District --- has no such mitigations in place.
Many staff members, myself included, have children at home who are too young to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Now early data indicate the Omicron variant is at least twice as contagious as Delta and better at evading immunity; it’s spreading at an alarming rate even in highly-vaccinated countries like the U.K. We need a mask mandate and more testing, or the situation is never going to improve. (Masks would also help with the flu that’s tearing through the high school, causing tons of absences.)
Another stress is huge classes, like my 5th hour last trimester with 35 9th graders in it. Not only is this bad education practice, it also makes social distancing and classroom management nearly impossible. We need more teachers.
Then there’s the threat of school violence. Even before the 2019 lockdown at -HS, during which we had no idea if we were in real danger because of the lack of official communication, a security expert had recommended deadbolt locks for our classroom doors. We had another threat at the high school last week; we still have to use our keys to lock our classroom doors from the outside.
Finally, being treated like glorified babysitters despite all we do is incredibly demoralizing. Teachers are not only educational experts, but mentors, role models, coaches and advisers, unofficial therapists, surrogate parents, and, all too often, first responders… And yet, here we are in December, still waiting for a fair contract settlement.
We’ve been reading Lord of the Flies in my ninth grade classes and talking about how good leadership means balancing short-term desires with the compassion, wisdom, and sacrifice necessary to thrive long-term. Last week, we read an excerpt in which Dr. Elaine Aron explains that successful societies need two kinds of leaders: “‘warrior-kings’ concerned with expansion, freedom, and fame,” must be balanced by “royal advisors,” people who think more about long-term effects, especially on the vulnerable members of society. “Since the adviser class often proves right, its members are respected as counselors, historians, teachers, scholars, and the upholders of justice. Often they have to make themselves unpopular by stopping the majority from rushing ahead.” So here we are, making ourselves unpopular.
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