Success Strategies Developed for Nations Stressed-Out Teachers
by Marli Murphy
Teaching ranked as the second most prestigious job on a recent nationwide Harris Poll, which comes as a shock to the growing number of teachers who're stressed out, burned out and checking out of the profession.
Americans rated teachers as second only to doctors in jobs having prestige," according to a survey released in October 2001 ranking 17 occupations. Yet teachers themselves feel increasingly unappreciated, overworked and unfulfilled, says Jerry King, Hillsville, VA, an author and national expert on "teaching teachers."
In fact, 20 percent of all new hires now drop out of teaching within three years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The situation is even graver in urban districts, where about 50 percent of new teachers give up their chosen occupation during the first 5 years.
Teacher burnout and dissatisfaction, coupled with an aging workforce of teachers approaching retirement, is leading to a teacher shortage that will continue for years. In 1998, the National Center for Education Statistics predicted that some 2.4 million additional instructors would need to be hired between that date and 2009 to serve students in public schools.
Today's teachers: stressed out and under pressure
So why are America's teachers fleeing their profession in such large numbers?
"Our teachers are under an unbelievable amount of stress and pressure today," says King, a former 20-year educator and school administrator who is married to a 30-year elementary school teacher.
Besides being responsible for teaching subject matter, teachers have bus duty, cafeteria duty, after-school activities, papers to grade and grades to average. "They're also expected to observe students for signs of abuse, fight the war on alcohol and drugs, raise students' self-esteem and modify disruptive behavior."
"And then they're dealing with school violence, improving standardized test scores, and meetings, meetings and more meetings," King says. "All this while they're also under pressure to meet the high expectations of what I call the 3 P's - parents, principals and politicians."
"Overall, teachers are stressed and anxious because they have too much to do and not enough time to do it," he explains.
On the front lines of teaching
An example of a teacher on the "front lines" is Sue Easterby, who teaches high school English, drama and journalism in a large suburban St. Louis school district. She also supervises the student newspaper and directs an annual play. Her days are spent in the classroom, her evenings are spent preparing for classes and her schedule is "crammed with meetings, parent conferences, grading and school activities," she says.
"State requirements regarding standardized testing have meant additional paperwork and meetings" for already too busy teachers, Easterby explains. During the summers she takes workshops, reads books and searches the Internet for educational research that will help her find ways to motivate her students - and remain motivated herself.
No. 1 challenge: Staying motivated and enthusiastic
Indeed, "staying motivated and enthusiastic in the classroom" in an increasingly stressful profession is the biggest challenge teachers face today, King says, according to what he hears from the literally thousands of teachers he talks with every year in his role as a professional teacher trainer.
"When teachers are this overwhelmed — overworked and underpaid — it's hard to for them to be motivated to excel in the classroom," King stresses. "Over time, many no longer even try to accomplish the things they dreamed of at the beginning of their teaching careers. They get so caught up in all the paperwork and obligations and demands on their time and energy that it's easy for them to lose sight of what important work they do."
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