Teaching Has Never Been Harder, But I Refuse to Quit

Originally published on Teen Vogue on August 1, 2023

New piece out in Teen Vogue! Make sure to read here and on the original website :)

“…Millions of us are planning to return to the classroom in the fall (with the real masochists like myself also working summer school). As a third-year teacher who began her career teaching through distance learning during a pandemic, I’m often astonished that I am still here. More so when I consider that it is new teachers and teachers working in “high-poverty, high-minority, urban” districts like mine (as well as those in rural public schools) that are most likely to leave. But I also know that I am not the exception. At a time like this, when the work is so hard and the demands only continue to grow, it is not only understandable, but completely reasonable that so many teachers are leaving. The real question, I wonder, is why are so many of us staying?”

“…As a kindergarten teacher, I have had the privilege of seeing the glow in a students’ eyes as they sound out the amalgamation of symbols in front of them and realize that they have just read a word. I have watched in real time as students take deep breaths in the middle of conflict, to calm themselves down and prepare to use their words to vocalize their feelings when feeling stressed. I have gotten hugs and cards from babies who have no idea about all the threats coming against their education, but who are just ecstatically overjoyed to be at school with their friends, learning something new that they didn’t know before, like how syrup comes from trees or how hearts aren’t actually shaped like they are in cartoons. We’re staying not just because our kids need us, but because we need our kids, and we’re going to stay with them as much as we can.”

Continue reading here: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/teachers-quitting-education-students