On this blog, I have previously outlined some of my personal gripes with teaching recently. While those things still hold true, I believe there is more still to be said.

When I wrote the previous post, I was frustrated–under attack from administrators making baseless accusations about my professionalism and methods. Since then I have done nothing but deliver results–through high-quality instruction and high expectations, and my students are better for it.

When you do your job right as a teacher you are often pushing children outside of their comfort zone–there is even a buzzword for that–and this holds true in Special Education. What also occurs in education is a general misunderstanding about people with disabilities which rears its ugly head in an insidious way: Keep the children comfortable because they can’t achieve as much as their peers. What the system ends up doing is perpetuating a cycle where students with disabilities never learn the skills they need to be successful–academically, behaviorally, or socially–who are then spat out into society where there is very little support for them. While it is important to ensure that students with disabilities feel safe, it is equally important that they are prepared for the world they will live in when they enter adulthood–there is a balance of emotional safety and high expectations for achievement–if students are never pushed beyond their comfort zone, they stand little chance of success outside of the K-12 public education system.

The reason for writing this post, is that once again I am finding myself at odds with a system that seems like it was made to keep people down. I am facing pressure from what seems like everywhere. Coworkers are frustrated, administrators are frustrated, parents are frustrated–I am frustrated. It seems like every year things just keep getting harder and harder. Student Behavior, Teacher Behavior, Administrator Behavior–all escalating. Expectations on me and my staff? Ever increasing. This job is still not sustainable–the public education system acknowledges this–my director last year expressed to me that my frustration makes sense given my tenure, with teacher burnout occurring, on average, after about 5 years for people doing my job. I’m over that 5 year hump, by a few years now.

Something has to change. This system can’t keep burning through teachers–it is ridiculous that I have more experience than most of the other teachers working in my position in my district. Eventually the slow trickle of special education endorsed teachers coming out of our local universities will stop. Additionally if people in my position aren’t given the resources they need to support our students, other teachers–good teachers–will continue to push back against my students and their right to be in their classrooms.

I will never stop doing the most I can to ensure my students are ready for the world they live in–but if the system doesn’t change my ability to do so will continue to diminish. There is only so much of myself I can spend to make up the gap from the lack of resources provided to me.

(✖╭╮✖)