In recent years, data has shown that the need for teachers is growing, while the amount of teachers joining the workforce has plateaued. Many teachers on online forums and social media label one reason why they canât handle the stress of being a teacher: the students. Whether it be one or multiple, many teachers have shared their stories about how disrespected they were on a daily basis. This, coupled with the fact that they work extremely hard for a disproportionate amount of money, means that even passionate teachers are leaving the field. The main issues that teachers face on a daily basis are their work-life balance, the work environment, and budget cuts that limit resources.
The greatest challenge even the most seasoned teachers face is the meticulous balancing act of their life outside and inside the classroom. Throughout the day, teachers pile up work that they have little time for during their work day. As the PEW Research Center found, âSome 84% say they donât have enough time during their regular work hours to do tasks like grading, lesson planning, paperwork and answering emailsâ (Lin et al.). As a result, many teachers have to spend time outside of their work day to complete these tasks, eating away at the time they have to spend with their families and friends. Not only this, but most of the time, teachers are required to do a certain amount of volunteer work for the school that is unpaid and outside of their work hours. The PEW Research Center reinforces this, stating that âShares ranging from 51% to 72% say each of these is at least a minor reason they donât have enough time to get all their work done during regular work hoursâ (Lin et al.). In spite of the large break they get in the summer, they still spend a large portion of their time planning ahead for the next school year. The only time in which they get a true break is still riddled with work, and that can cause teachers to be stressed, overworked, and worn out.
With all of this added responsibility and stress, teachers should be given time in which they are free from their teaching duties. In some schools, teachers have preparation periods in a period that they don’t teach in. During this time, they can mitigate or even finish any extra work that they have. This would allow teachers to have more time to spend with their families, allowing them to destress and mentally prepare for work the next day. The quietness of their empty classroom could also help them relax from the usual banter that comes with the students, which would help them to work effectively and efficiently in the classroom without many outside distractions. Even with schools with preparation periods, the teachers may have other responsibilities that get in the way of this precious time.
In accordance with the hard balance of work and life, the work environment is ever changing, which causes an even bigger set of challenges to teachers on a daily basis. One reason why their work environment is so challenging is due to the fact that a handful of misbehaving students can make them have to find a workaround. One study found that âDuring the 2020â21 school year, 32 percent of public school teachers agreed that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching, and 37 percent agreed that student tardiness and class cutting interfered with their teachingâ (Teachersâ Reports). Without students that come to school and behave well, teachers have to put in more missing or late work, dropping the collective grade of the class. Trying to work with these students just adds onto the extra work that they need to do, which makes their lives more stressful.
However, a way we could mitigate the effects of student misbehavior is by teaching teachers how to deal with those children effectively, as well as teaching them to not take the misbehavior personally. Although teachers go through the training of becoming a teacher, most of the time it is inadequate, which is why they need proper time to be trained and ready to teach. To add onto this, many teachers are expected to act as babysitters, police, and consolers. This extra work that they are untrained in digs into them and becomes a constant source of discouragement to continue teaching. Many teachers are empathetic, and do care about the children that they teach, which would only make them regret it even more if they were to quit. This constant cycle of hardship and guilt only perpetuates itself until the teacher either learns how to deal with it effectively or gives up and quits.
Teachers tend to find it very difficult to truly teach their students as budget cuts quite literally cut into their ability to teach effectively. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, unfunded schools did even worse than their funded counterparts. Teaching without the proper materials, in classrooms that are barely held together multiplies all other problems tenfold, crippling already crippled communities. With the pandemic eliminating schoolsâ options of teaching, the U.S. Government decided to spend billions of dollars for grants, allowing the schools to hire new staff, replace broken materials, among other things. An article totalled the amount of money spread across schools. According to this article, âIn total, schools received nearly $200 billion in increased federal education dollars over the course of the pandemicâ (Lefebvre and Master). However, most of this money was unused.
In short, there were many rules and regulations on how schools could use the money. To add onto these harsh regulations, the deadline for the last and most plentiful grant, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) III, was for September of 2024. The article rearticulates this point; âIn addition, while most school districts are on pace to spend their ESSER money, some have spent less than 10 percent of their funds. If school districts fail to obligate their ESSER III funds by the end of September, they will lose them entirelyâ (Lefebvre and Master). The most optimal solution would have been to extend the amount of time schools had to use the grant money, but the deadline had been set for a while. This was taxpayersâ money, after all, and the government only has so much money to give. As a result, many schools suddenly were cut off from a large source of funding, which caused some schools to fire people out of necessity.
It was clear that the grants were helping, but suddenly cutting them off caused damage in some communities. To combat this, what the government shouldâve done is slowly let the grants drain, so that schools could have the time to manage it all before the grants truly went away. This slower approach could’ve helped lessen the impact of the deadline on the grant, allowing schools to ease into it. Schools wouldnât have had such a quick change, and wouldnât have to go through as drastic measures as firing staff to meet their budget goals after the removal of the grants. More teachers would stay in the workforce, and their work environment would also improve with less struggles in resource management. Even so, these grants were just putting bandages on an already damaged system. If schools were being funded well enough, most of the aforementioned problems would be nonexistent. Because of this, many teachers have to apply for grants for their work
All together, these constant problems of work-life balance and challenging work environments cause many teachers entering the workforce to doubt their choices. Most teachers work very passionately to teach their students, and they have lots of grit to do such a demanding job for disproportionate pay. Teaching is an integral part of society, and it shouldnât be thrown under the bus by other issues. Itâs like a small fire in the woods, threatening to become a wildfire, as it would cause more fires to emerge. However, with the solutions that this essay provides, it would encourage more young adults to take teaching as a profession, allowing the recent plateau to start rising up again. They are the backbone of society, and they should not be overlooked or underappreciated.
Works Cited
Lin, Luona, et al. âWhatâs It Like to Be a Teacher in America Today?â Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 4 Apr. 2024, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/04/04/whats-it-like-to-be-a-teacher-in-america-today.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Teachersâ Reports of Disruptive Student Behaviors and Staff Rule Enforcement. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved 25 Nov. 2024, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a11.
Lefebvre, Joanna, and Sonali Master. âExpiration of Federal K-12 Emergency Funds Could Pose …â Expiration of Federal K-12 Emergency Funds Could Pose Challenges for States, www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/expiration-of-federal-k-12-emergency-funds-could-pose-challenges-for. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.