Teachers deserve a life.
It’s that plain and simple. They work so hard. They care very deeply about other people’s children. Teachers work tirelessly. And the reason is usually that they are expected to.
History of Being a Teacher
The history of being a teacher sounds like it’s out of some twisted dystopian movie, but it’s true. Teachers were expected to be single women. They weren’t allowed to date, or go out socially. Teachers were expected to be the most upstanding of citizens twenty four hours a day and seven days a week. You’d never find a teacher doing much of anything outside of her classroom, or her church. And that was it.
And while that’s not so much the expectation any more, a lot of it lingers. Yes, teachers should be upstanding citizens. We teach America’s youth – we want them to model our upstanding behavior. Yes, teachers should be kind and respected community members. But somewhere between teacher beginnings and now, some of the wrong stuff has stuck.
The Big Lie We Tell Teachers
I’m specifically talking about the twenty-four seven aspect of the job. Somehow it seems as if we’ve all been told this great lie. The more hours we work, the better teachers we are. Teachers who work bell to bell are bad teachers, who don’t care about the kids. I don’t know who started this preposterous lie, but it’s got to go.
There is absolutely no data to suggest that teachers who work late hours and weekends are better teachers. In fact, some of the most influential teachers in my life are ones who worked bell to bell and went home to their families as soon as they could.
I know, it’s a hard job. There’s never an end to the to do list. But that’s just it – no matter how hard you work, there will always be more to do.
What Makes a Good Teacher?
Good teachers are happy teachers. Happy teachers are happy people. Happy people have time to unwind each day, deal with their personal matters, and enjoy time with the people important to them.
My first year of teaching I struggled with boundaries. I would stay at work until 5 or 6 o’clock. I would continue working at home through all hours of the night. When I complained to the assistant principal that I was working so many hours, and didn’t feel like myself he assured me it wouldn’t be like this forever. Probably just seven years.
Excuse me?
I took the next month to figure out exactly what was going wrong. What was the difference between me and somebody who had been teaching for seven years? Since the amount of grading, parent calls and report cards would never change, I figured it had to be the lesson plans.
I knew that I deserved better. There was no reason that I should have to sacrifice my twenties for a job. Nobody else in any other job would have to make sacrifices like this. And here, I’m talking about comparable jobs. Those in the private sector that have an opportunity to get a promotion or a raise, are obviously a different situation. Teachers shouldn’t have to grind, just to make the same paycheck that we would if we just skated by.
What Teachers Deserve
Teachers deserve to wake up at a reasonable hour and feel good about the day coming at them. They deserve to have a reasonable amount of stress that ends at the end of the work day. Teachers deserve to feel accomplished at the end of each school day. They deserve to have free nights and weekends to do what they please. Teachers deserve to have happy lives that don’t revolve around their jobs. And honestly, I don’t think that’s asking too much. In EVERY other job you’d either receive overtime pay, or some kudos that could be put toward a promotion or raise.
Why is it that not only do other people expect us to work for free, but we expect it of ourselves. It is truly a sick lie, perhaps the worst one we’ve been told. “Good teachers work themselves to the brink, and those who don’t are terrible teachers.
I’ve been working to the bell (no more than 20 minutes unpaid) each day for the last few years. And it has been a life changer. I actually enjoy my job. I don’t feel stressed out. And best of all, I get to spend my after work time doing whatever the heck I want. With no guilt.
If you want to learn more about how I keep my time my own, I urge you to check out the All Star Planning Masterclass.
