It has taken me so long to get used to being out of the classroom, to be used to being able to use the bathroom when I want and not during passing period…to be able to actually enjoy my weekends rather than planning or grading for them. Teaching can be a selfless profession, for sure, but the costs are mounting for the new generation of teachers as veteran teachers leave the profession in droves.
I have left the classroom and just learned last week that a friend of mine has also left the classroom this year. She is now a banker. I feel like some of the problem is that the industrial model of education is not working…because we have made our days so rigid in the school year. We really need flexibility and grace, and that is just not possible right now.
But our children demand it. With the rising mental health challenges in our youth (and amongst our teachers) today, we have to be able to see the similarities between what we are going through today and what people were going through in the 50’s that led to the 60’s sexual revolution. And yet what is going to be the equivalent of that now? The gender revolution?
And what about in all the conservative states where gender identity can’t be taught right now? What about in those cases? The rigidity of male versus female. So strict. So restrictive.
Our society is at a crossroads, and – as usual – it is up to our children to figure it out because us adults are lost as well. No wonder mental health challenges are on the rise.
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