Do teachers get to “quiet quit”?
Old job, new game plan
On the Daily
- Scripted daily lesson plans (down to the minute) for each class that may be randomly checked by the principal for adherence to Common Core Standards and coherence between skills and increased literacy all to prepare students for THE TEST
- The objective, homework, utilized skills, and Do Now written and re-written on the board as students switch classes and some teachers escort students to their class at the same time
- Conduct 4–6 classes per day, remember all students’ names, maintain some semblance of order, monitor trends in behavior and understanding of material for each child, make sure you complete the scripted lesson plan each class period, and evaluate students’ work for the day
- Assess all students’ work, including areas of improvement and weakness as well as grades, which are inputted into a database and to be discussed weekly with administration and students individually at least twice per grading period
- Organizational tasks: copy worksheets or texts, make sure your outside bulletin boards look hella nice in case parents come, decorate your classroom to encourage learning, be sure to update the vocabulary board, and prepare for the lessons and read the texts to come
- Meeting with or calling parents after school about downward trends in academia or behavior as well as good trends; always answer parents’ calls even during school and night hours because they must have access to you via email and phone at all times
- Go to professional development meetings until 5 pm once a week
This is everything teachers do in a day and pretty much maintain over the course of the school year until they become robots or slowly begin to hate themselves as they melt into a frenzied puddle of bad teacher’s lounge coffee.
For about 9 months out of the year, they do this. Perhaps after ten years of teaching, they take the summer off, but if you have student loans, high rent in a city, a mortgage, hospital bills, etc., teachers often volunteer (paid) to work summer school, where they may teach in a different school to a bunch of kids transitioning from another country or state and students who failed classes for one reason or another or who may need to take a class to graduate. I have yet to hear one good thing about teaching summer school other than the extra pay that isn’t really extra because you’re working.
Maybe it seems self-explanatory, but I have yet to throw in the bureaucratic BS and politics of it all. And this isn’t just office politics; it’s a matter of whether or not your contract may be renewed next year or maybe there’s a lack of funding and you just got fired two days before classes started, it’s a matter of punching in and out correctly so you can get paid on time, trusting no one because people rather do the wrong thing over doing the right thing when it comes to their jobs, it’s a matter of burnout.
Burnout and Quiet Quitting
As a 31-year-old professional student, who had to change careers twice for reasons I won’t talk about in this piece, I feel like I’ve hit burnout. I’m starting a new job at a charter school in a week. I’m excited but freakin’ tired. I worry if this job will get cut short after four months like my other 2 careers because of something that was not my fault. It’s partly this probation period of one year, in which you can be let go for absolutely anything or nothing, is widespread.
Poof! No job. No income.
I worry if I’m too jaded to be a teacher and can handle all of the BTS responsibilities non-teachers do not consider or even know about. The expectations of student performance on THE TEST every year rests on our shoulders and we are to blame if students don’t show up or don’t try their best or just didn’t understand the passage on the exam. In a school I worked at before, there was a countdown to THE TEST from day 1 of the school year; this is anxiety-inducing, almost threatening, and disappointing. Our lesson plans revolved around THE TEST, not content and skill building. Students would be unable to utilize these skills to any other text they read because everything is about THE TEST. The only thing that matters in life is THE TEST!
The higher students perform, the more funding that school receives. Supposedly. Another way of rewarding those who already have money and benefits. But I won’t get into those politics here.
Teachers are constantly inundated with their performance, being “on” all the time; coming to work at 6 am so they can use the copier first; and placating administration, parents, and then students — in that order. Why are students last when they’re supposed to be the focus of schools? More politics for another time.
The point is that teachers don’t punch in at 8:00 and punch out at 2:45. No. Come in at 6, leave at 6. Do more work at home. That brings me to “quiet quitting.” I put this newly coined term in quotes because, from my understanding, “quiet quitting” is simply doing your job at the time period for which you are being paid. This doesn’t only include wages but also salaries. In your contract, it may say a 35–40 hour work week. If not, a period of time is well-known in that field, such as the ol’ 9–5 or a 12-hour shift for a nurse. Regardless, there is a time a worker is supposed to be at work or doing work they are compensated for, and that should be the only time they are doing that work, aside from obvious emergencies.
A parent calling at 8 pm is not an emergency. Work is over. This is my time. “Quiet quitting” is simply enforcing work-life balance and pushing back against companies that take advantage of their employees, especially ones on a new-hire probation and interns.
The last time I was teaching, I slept about 3 hours every night because I would have to wake up at 4:30 am to get to that copier on time. I got to school at 6 and left at 6. I had meetings until 7:30 at times. I had a meeting that was scheduled and started at MIDNIGHT! What? No. Not this time. There are boundaries I am choosing for myself this time around. I will not be a robot slave to THE TEST or administration. A lack of boundaries between work and the rest of a person’s life creates burnout.
“Quiet quitting,” or having a life outside of work, is more than fine and should be encouraged. I will go into work when I need to; then after dismissal I will leave an hour for students, meetings, and phone calls; and then I will go home. I have a 3-hour round-trip commute. I want to go home to eat and sleep to be ready for the next day. And on the weekends, I want to go out with friends or watch Netflix all day. I don’t get paid to work weekends, so why do it? I understand that will mean my work will get done at a slower rate than I did before, but it will be better and worth it. Remember when teachers would take 2+ weeks to give back papers and tests? Why do I need to do it in 2 days? I don’t. And everyone and everything will still be okay.
In fact, I will be more okay.
And that’s what this is about. If teachers are suffering, students will not learn, test scores will go down, progress will stop. Like it or not, parents and administration, teachers are the foundation of children’s education. If we are not okay, your children’s education will not be okay.
