How Do We Destress the American Educator?

When I say that I’m a teacher, I think that most people think my job simply entails standing in front of a classroom.  Sure, there might be some grading in there periodically and maybe some occasional paperwork, but really, I can hear them thinking, how hard can it be?

My answer: much harder! Teaching is a highly demanding career that is not for the faint of hearted.  It requires us to wear numerous roles each and every day beyond that of “teacher.”  It takes thousands of hours of practice and repetition both inside and outside of the classroom to perfect our craft and to maintain it for our kids.  If you’re looking for a challenge to sink your teeth into, forget law, medicine or wall street.  Look no further than teaching!

While teaching is a challenging career, I also believe it is one of the most fulfilling jobs a person can do in part because of the challenge but also because of the potential impact.  Very few other professionals can claim to have as great an influence on as many individual lives as teachers do throughout their careers.  Few things are more rewarding than guiding students through struggling concepts at the beginning but come out with mastery on the end!

But working in such a challenging and rewarding profession comes at the price of high stress.  Studies continue to find that American teachers continue to experience high levels of pressure at work.  The latest MET life teacher survey found that stress on school teachers has increased over the years.  Over 51 percent of teachers reported feeling high levels of stress at least several days a week.

Perhaps more disturbing is that these numbers continue to climb.  For example, elementary school teachers reporting great stress in their day to day work has risen from 35 percent in 1985 to 59 percent in 2012.

All this matters because these levels of stress directly correlate to teacher job satisfaction, which directly influences whether or not educators remain in the profession.  The same MET survey found that teachers reporting frequent stress are twice as likely to report low job satisfaction.  And, when job satisfaction is low in any profession, workers are more likely to leave.  We see this in statistics such as the fact that between 40 to 50 percent of new teachers will leave the profession before year 5.

If we can’t find ways to help teachers reduce their stress levels, we will likely continue to see an exodus of early career teachers from our profession.  This is the exact opposite of what we should want.

But what can policy makers do to address this?  What is causing teachers to report such high levels of pressure?  In my experience the stress comes from all quarters, but we can condense it down to four key areas

Stress comes from the sheer quantity of responsibilities our job entails. Most of us wake up at 6 am or earlier, get to school and spend considerable time preparing for our students.  We then spend a whirlwind eight hours executing carefully planned lessons and planning for the next day.  After school we have lessons and units to plan, papers to grade, grades to enter, parents to call, professional emails to answer and papers to fill out.  Many of us are lucky if we make it home before 5, and many nights it takes until 6-7 and many of our duties require us to also work on the weekend.

Stress comes from the additional activities teachers often participate in outside of but related to school.  Many of us coach or sponsor clubs.  I myself co-coach the debate team at my school and I’ve also worked as the advisor for student council and assistant coach for my schools girls’ basketball team.  Most teachers do some sort of coaching or club as an after school program.  I wouldn’t trade these opportunities for the world, but never the less they do provide an additional stressor on the American teacher.

Stress comes from the professional demands placed on teachers.  Teachers these days need to document every interaction to the smallest detail.  We need to keep up our professional credentials and work to ensure we fulfill the needs of the school and system within which we work.  We need to fulfill our professional development requirements for the year.  And we need to keep up with the increasing demands made on us by states and districts regarding evaluations and state testing requirements which, while intended to help us improve, never the less add yet another layer of stress to our plates.

Stress comes from the emotional strain that teaching entails.  Because educators invest themselves in their students day in and day out, we come to care deeply about them and their futures.  Nothing is more disheartening than seeing a student squander their potential.  Working with these students and coming up with creative ways to invest dis-invested students adds another layer of stress on top of everything else.

So what can be done to mitigate the teacher stress level currently experienced by the American teacher? Fortunately, several solutions exist from both a professional and policy standpoint that can help mitigate these high levels of stress.  Check back in the next couple weeks for some additional posts on how to help alleviate the stress faced by the American teacher!

By Jon Alfuth

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