Public schoolteachers’ plates are overflowing

We’ve probably all seen Mr. Overflowing Plate in the buffet line. He can’t make a choice, so he chooses everything. As he returns to his table, he leaves a trail of onion rings, and pizza slices in his wake. His plate is too small, his appetite too big.

Now, imagine, that overflowing plate is filled with items he didn’t choose and even dislikes while those in the buffet line hurl insults and second guess the forced choices tumbling from his plate.

The plates of public-school teachers are overflowing, and it’s causing serious heartburn leading to burnout.

It's about respect

When I was still representing educators, a tearful elementary teacher said, "I told a fourth-grader to be quiet. She told me, ‘daddy says you don’t make much money, so you’re not very important.’”

It stunned me. That daddy could be unique, but if there's a handful or even one parent like him, it crushes a teacher’s soul. Most teachers feel like once a kid crosses the classroom threshold, students are “their kids.” Teachers are invested in their kids’ success. Veteran teachers have kids that are 50-plus.

A lot of teachers tell me they often feel disrespected by students and parents. I'm not talking about “sitting up straight saying, yes, sir, no, ma’am respect.” I am talking about student open defiance, threatening behavior, with verbal taunts and insults. Yes, respect must be earned, but teachers shouldn’t be forced to endure performing multiple shows daily full of heckling and ridicule. Unlike doctors, teachers don't have waiting rooms. They deal with multiple problems all at once.

Teachers who try to deal with defiance are frequently regarded as intolerant, not patient enough, and branded by the parent gossip network as someone you don’t want your kids to have as a teacher. They’re often treated by administrators more harshly than the disrespectful student. Disrespect isn’t an instinct. It's a learned behavior through observation or because it’s ignored.

It's also certainly true that not everyone should teach. I had some painful conversations with teachers about finding other work. The idea that schools can’t fire bad teachers is a lie spread by lazy administrators.

Other duties as assigned

Teachers are hired to teach academics. But here’s the rest of the story. Teachers take tickets, run carnival booths, operate the scoreboard, work track meets, chaperone dances, monitor parking lots, do lunch duty, and referee fights all without pay. Teaching is the profession that makes other professions, but at the end of the day, some of those teaching professionals don ugly orange vests and become crossing guards.

That’s an overflowing plate.

Second guessing crushes creativity

Public education has some gifted administrators and then there are some that thought it would be easier than teaching. Those administrators drive teachers crazy by not supporting them when needed and second guessing them every minute. Those administrators smother the joy and magic of teaching.

They’re political pawns

No profession wants a political target on its back. Teachers especially hate being used as political wedges so politicians who haven’t been in a third-grade classroom since they attended third grade can raise funds by pretending teachers are politically indoctrinating students. The only indoctrination going on in the classroom is trying to get kids to come to school ready to learn, pay attention, do assignments, and stop interrupting by yelling 6-7.

I can hear critics now. “You’re just whining for teachers.” The next time you think teachers are whining, spend one day helping in a classroom. My guess is you’ll come away thinking they’re heroes with plates too full.

Bruce Lear taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until he retired. He lives in Sioux City. BruceLear2419@gmail.com