You’re tired. You’re frustrated. You don’t feel your best. Trying to figure out how to pay for new tires for your car is another reminder that you’re underpaid. Today, it’s especially tempting to just turn your class over to a substitute. Alas, you don’t have any sick or personal days left. Do you still call out?
More often than ever before, the answer is “yes.” According to a recent article in The New York Times, teachers in some districts are taking more unpaid days off from the post-pandemic classroom. The numbers are worrisome. In New York City, almost 20% of teachers missed at least 11 school days, an increase from the previous year. And in Michigan, about 15% of teachers were out during an average week last year; in 2019, the weekly average was closer to 10%.
Could it be worse? Of course. But to the students, parents and fellow teachers affected by these call outs, the absences are more than just statistics. Consider: Teacher absences forced one Ohio school to close entirely for a day. Meanwhile, some high school students in Massachusetts were left largely unsupervised in the school cafeteria because there weren’t enough teachers to hold classes. In both cases, students paid a price; research has shown that a large number of teacher absences can have a negative impact on student learning.
“Many people have exhausted their leave and are asking to take days off that are unpaid,” Jim Fry, the superintendent of a small district in Washington State, told the Times. “That used to be a really rare occurrence. Now it is weekly.”
The problem is exacerbated because the traditional safety net – substitute teachers – is severely frayed. In Des Moines, for example, school officials can typically find only enough substitutes to cover for about half the absent teachers. “Exhaustion is hitting them,” said Ian Roberts, the superintendent in Des Moines. In districts serving students from low-income families, the problem is often worse.
It’s true that since the pandemic, work absences are up across the economy — not just in teaching. Student absences are also up, which leads to more parents (overwhelmingly, mothers) taking time off to care for their ill children. That said, teaching has been especially hard hit. Fewer people are becoming teachers in the first place, and fewer still are staying in the classroom after the first couple of years.
If you’re a teacher, you know why: Increased pressure, heightened politics, security concerns and – in spite of all that – salaries are often less competitive than ever. And I think there’s another reason: Many teachers find their work less rewarding than it used to be. You are tired of students who are disengaged or unruly. You are tired of being challenged, tired of making the same requests over and over, tired of low-level conflict with students that never ends well. In short, you are tired of not teaching.
So, let’s get back to teaching. Although there is no magic wand to create an optimal learning environment, there are proven classroom management strategies that will allow you to devote almost all of your attention to instructing. Ultimately, these strategies are about going back to basics: Setting clear expectations for students and then teaching to those expectations.
Teachers using these strategies are energized at the end of the day. And calling out sick? They would only do that in a true emergency.
