Respect Our Teachers
It’s 7:30 am and you just got to school for another day of teaching young minds. You unlock your classroom and turn on the bright fluorescent harsh lights and set your things on your desk. Just another day of trying your hardest to teach kids so that they have a successful future, but you are starting to feel drained and it’s not fun anymore.
Teaching is one of the hardest jobs to do, why you might ask. Well, as a teacher you must have your whole heart into wanting to teach kids so that they can grow up and become successful, but you also must deal with parents, administration, the school board, and even your fellow colleagues. So, when you hear about teacher burnout, just know it’s true.
There have been so many new stories about “teacher burnout” and why this is happening in our country so rapidly. According to, Psychology Today they describe burnout as “a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism,, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishments.” For a teacher they are working 5 days a week for over 8 hours, due to always going over their contract hours. Teachers put in so much effort for kids to get an education, so why is burnout such a huge deal right now?
I interviewed a few different people within the education system to get their opinions on why teacher burnout is so popular right now.
“Teacher burnout is 100% a real thing and anyone who would say otherwise does not have a good pulse on public education.” Jennifer Brinker said.
Jennifer Brinker is an Assistant Principal at a public middle school in Indiana and has seen many teachers go through burnout as well as herself. Mrs. Brinker told me that there are four factors she believes someone needs to feel good about their jobs.
Those four factors:
“1. Decent pay (that isn't there for teachers) 2. A sense of respect and pride in your work (teachers are spoken to in ugly and hateful ways so often by kids and their parents) 3. Support from their bosses (many administrations just let responsibilities roll downhill and stack all blame on teachers, mislabeling it "teacher efficacy" and 4. A feeling of making a difference (this is the one thing I would argue that we all still have). It is tough for a table with one leg to stand, 1/4 isn't good enough.”
The lack of respect that many teachers feel from kids and parents is sadly a high number due to kids thinking that they can talk to adults anyway the want to and there are many parents who think they know what’s best and has no respect hearing from other adults in your child’s life. This is one of the main reasons there is so burnout, the lack of respect teachers get takes a toll on their mental health which then leads to many wanting to quit.
The pay-scale for teachers is very different from state to state, which makes the pay not the biggest factor in teacher burnout, but it is one to talk about. There are many states such as New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Within any job the more you get paid the better you feel about it and want to keep going. For the states that are on the lower end of the pay scale for teachers, then this is a contributing factor to “teacher burnout.” Tanya Garcia, an elementary P.E. teacher in Florida says, “Many people at my school and surrounding areas have left to teach in other states due us being the second lowest paid state for teaching. If we had more respect from parents and kids as well as got paid what we deserved, then there would be less of a burnout here”
Being the daughter of a middle school principal, I have seen the toll it has taken on my father throughout the years. I remember when he was excited to go to work and help kids so they could reach their full potential, but now I see someone who is drained from being in the school system for 29 years. There’s no more excitement from him when he talks about his job anymore. I asked my father, Chris Sutton, what happened that made him no longer happy to go to work?
“Between the kids, parents, even my teachers, there is no more respect that I see. All day long I deal with kids who have posted something onto social media or get into fights due to a snapchat that was sent. When I deal with these kids, they don’t understand what they did wrong because posting everything to social media is the “norm” now to these kids.”
We all know how social media has taken over the world. What’s sad is that this is what’s normal for kids now. It’s normal for them to have a phone in elementary school with either Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. This is one of the most leading causes of kids not doing well in school because they are too busy worrying about what’s going on in the world of social media then learning about math or English. 7th grade math teacher Kenneth Patterson says, “I have noticed that many of students have a very short attention span and often fill any silence or down time by pulling out their cell phones. A lot of students also try to pull out their cell phones during class as a distraction instead of focusing on their schoolwork or the lesson.” This is such a sad reality for kids and teachers because these kids would rather be on social media keeping up with the latest trends instead of enriching themselves into their education. It’s frustrating for the teachers due to their whole jobs and lives being dedicated to teaching kids is worthless when many of them don’t want to listen.
Teachers put in their blood, sweat, and tears to teach kids five days a week and many kids do not put that much effort into their schoolwork due to social media and mental health issues. Jennifer Brinker says, “If we had more resources for mental health within our schools, I believe kids would put in more effort into their schoolwork and teachers would be able to teach everyone and put in all of their effort in as well. Mental health is such a huge issue for kids especially during middle school and High school and there needs to be so many resources for kids in school to get the help they need. Even for teachers that struggle with mental health would benefit from this as well.”
“The number one factor for student success, in my opinion, is support from the home. If a parent is supportive, attentive, and values education – a student will be more motivated to try hard, study, and get good grades. The best teacher in the world will struggle to teach a student whose parents do not value or care about grades.” Says Kenneth Patterson. One of the most important aspects of a child’s life is for their parents or guardians to be involved in their lives and encourage them to do well. Mr. Patterson explains, “If you are invested in your child’s education and future they are going to be invested as well. I think we as teachers struggle with so many kids that don’t have kids with supportive parents which makes them not want to try their best and they don’t mind failing classes and it takes toll on us as teachers because we want everyone to care and succeed.”
What can we do as a society to help lower “teacher burnout?” I believe if we were to respect our teachers like we respect our favorite influencers on Instagram, teachers would feel less of a burnout. Respect is such an important aspect for every human, but when you have someone teaching you to better yourself there should be respect towards them.
With this being said “teacher burnout” is still at its highest right now due to no respect, mental health issues, and the age of social media that we need to recognize what our teachers are going through and shed light on it. There needs to more respect for teacher not just by the kids, but by their own school system as well as the entire education system in the United States. We need to appreciate what teachers do instead of bringing them down.
What I’ve concluded from listening to these teachers and administrators is that we can do better to listen to them and hear them out because they know what’s going to work in the classroom for these kids. We need to take this burnout seriously because who is going to teach these kids if teachers keep getting burnout and tired of having no respect. It’s time to bring light to this subject and help the education system so we have a great education for everyone.