The title of the Chicago News Tribune article by Heidi Stevens is “We need to stop demonizing our food.” (Dec 5) Here’s the paragraph that inspired this post:

“Eating disorders skyrocketed during the pandemic. Since March 2020, when lockdown orders went into effect in most states, the National Eating Disorders Association helpline has reported a staggering uptick in calls — a 78% year-over-year increase during some months. Teenagers account for up to 35% of the calls.”

Let’s extend this thought: Girls and women form the majority of persons diagnosed with eating disorders. Research varies on the extent of differences and, just as I believe girls are underreported for ADHD, I suspect boys are underreported for eating disorders. Recent studies back up my view. But eating disorders remain a heavily female category in a stressful time. Anorexia sufferers are about 90% female and a recent study in Pediatrics showed “cases of adolescent anorexia increased 65 percent in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Adolescent Anorexia Up 65 Percent in Canada During First Wave of Pandemic, Study Finds (msn.com) My two previous posts about the dramatic increase in suicide attempts among adolescent girls highlight a mental health crisis.

I think back to my children and other little kids I have known. Food is one of the first great comforts we discover in life, as any parent knows. Fwench fwy, anyone? Cad I ‘ave a gookie? Even as adults, many of us are attempting to duplicate mom’s macaroni and turkey stuffing,

Eduhonesty: This will be a short post. As Heidi said, we need to stop demonizing food. Because sometimes right now, it seems all the news is bad. Gas prices are scary, the weather is wrong, supply shortages have knocked favorite foods off the shelves, school shootings keep coming, adults and kids are putting schools on soft lockdown with rumors that sometimes turn into credible threats, and, all the while, omicron is surging.

If parents and teachers want to encourage healthy eating right now, that’s great. Pushing clean, fresh vegetables and fruits hurts no one. I am making daily fresh fruit smoothies, a fun activity that encourages eating melon pulped into juice.

But discussions revolving around fat, calories and weight have the potential to do harm, especially since weight gain has been one part of today’s COVID misery. According to Harvard University, “39% of patients gained weight during the pandemic, with weight gain defined as above the normal fluctuation of 2.5 pounds. Approximately 27% gained less than 12.5 pounds and about 10% gained more than 12.5 pounds, with 2% gaining over 27.5 pounds.” (Did we really gain weight during the pandemic? – Harvard Health).

It’s natural to want to attack our weight gain problem, but I’d like to suggest that maybe, in most cases, issues of weight gain should be left mostly alone. As a teacher, I have watched girls freak out over added pounds, cinching in waists with impossible belts and cutting out breakfasts and lunches. Then I have dealt with midmorning and afternoon eruptions, inspired by light dinners, few or no snacks and no breakfast. Those girls get hangry from lack of food. Sometimes they break into tears. Then they often binge eat as a consequence.

We can worry about fat calories later. I recommend treading lightly. Melon is a great snack. But if Ava wants a Candy Cane Chill Blizzard from Dairy Queen, I encourage parents and teachers to support her. Encourage her to go out safely with friends and then watch a fun movie (preferably not Night of the Dying, Sloppy Corpses Trying to Get Into the Mall, though if that’s a feel-good movie for her, I take back my last statement). Eating soft serve ice cream filled with candy chunks while relaxing at the end of the day may be exactly what Ava needs. Blizzards are cheaper than Prozac. They are low in sodium, have some useful calcium, and may not be high in fat, depending on what candy treat is mixed in.

Not that I’d necessarily share that nutritional information. Let’s take body image, weight gain and related topics off the table for now, while approaching nutrition and exercise carefully. Our kids have more than enough to manage.

I blogged on a crisis almost two weeks ago that the Surgeon General has just taken on. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy warns of youth mental health crisis worsened by pandemic – The Washington Post

From the CDC (Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts Among Persons Aged 12–25 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–May 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)):

“During 2020, the proportion of mental health–related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31% compared with that during 2019.”

…

“In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019; among boys aged 12–17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7%.”

ESPECIALLY GIRLS. Astoundingly, suspected suicide attempts were a remarkable 50.6% higher among girls compared to boys at only 3.7%. On a normal day I might let that 3.7% pass unremarked. With COVID and other changes between 2019 and 2021, a slight uptick in attempted suicide rates seems understandable.

But an increase of 50.6% — that number blows up the charts. That number is a nuclear bomb. If I were to pick a leading indicator to document a group’s emotional breakdown, I doubt I could find a better choice than suspected suicide attempts. Any group that shows a 50% increase in suicide attempts is absolutely in crisis.

Eduhonesty: The toxic emphasis on testing has been attacked repeatedly in this blog, but repealing unnecessary testing right now seems like putting a band-aid on a third-degree burn. We have to do more than reclaim our classroom days for teaching. We have to reclaim our children. When death seems like the best option to a physically healthy adolescent, in a country that has seen 28 school shootings this year, we need to slam on the brakes. IMMEDIATELY.

Discussions related to curriculum and test deficiencies need to be thrust onto the backburner. State standardized tests should be cancelled for at least a year or two in order to work on more urgent problems — such as those many girls who are obviously buckling under the strain of everyday life in 2021. What is happening?

I’d like to ask readers for help me. We have to discuss those girls. What is happening to our girls? Why are they falling into such depths of depression? What are we doing wrong? Or what are we not doing? We can’t leave this to the Surgeon General and US health bureaucracy. We can’t leave it to the schools. Please share this post. The mental health of our girls needs to be at the top of today’s confused agenda.

These are suicide attempts.

I am glad we are finally hearing more about this crisis — and I hope there will be more focus on the astounding difference in effects by gender.

*Note to parents: If you have a child who is slated to receive special services, I would check to see that those services are being delivered. If they are not, please don’t simply demand compliance. The district may be UNABLE to comply with last year’s plan. Instead, work with your district to find a workable solution for support.

“Kristine” chants, fiddles, breaks her pencil lead.

Ignores the latest test.

Looks sad.

Her mechanical pencil will not survive this test.

I give her a yellow pencil.

The pencil is so not the problem, though, as a middle school student might say.

_________________________________________________________________

Tension is baking off of Kristine in silent waves, as she kills graphite threads. The administration wants this latest writing test. But it’s another test. Test. Test. Test.

One way I know that our relentless measuring of knowledge has gotten out of hand: I am grateful Kristine is breaking her pencils instead of herself. It’s a teacher thing. When I see long-sleeves and pants on hot, muggy Illinois days, I wonder if a student is a cutter. Are there scars below those sleeves?

The tension out here has ratcheted up too. They are not OK, these pencil breakers.

Here are a few sobering facts from the CDC (Emergency Department Visits for Suspected Suicide Attempts Among Persons Aged 12–25 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–May 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)):

“During 2020, the proportion of mental health–related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31% compared with that during 2019.”

Stress levels in some areas have become meteoric, especially among girls. I’d like the CDC or someone to explain this latest gender disparity, too:

“In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019; among boys aged 12–17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7%.”

Eduhonesty: I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how to explain what is happening to the girls.

I know Kristine is barely making it through the day and we have lots of Kristines.

I know it’s time to stop measuring so much and start nurturing our students more. Students can make up learning loss over time — but first they have to be peaceful and enthusiastic enough to engage with new material and optimistic enough to believe they should invest in their own futures.

Have you ever watched “Extreme Hoarders,” reader? Forget that “lost in the closet” header above. Sometimes the closet itself gets lost. My late aunt had a third bedroom that disappeared from view. The contents of that room’s doorway blended into the wall on either side, except for a few suspicious gnaw marks at the top of doorway moldings.

Education today sometimes reminds me of a hoarder’s house. How can you locate what matters? How can you find anything when the shelves have become so packed, when objects in view start flowing out doors into hallways, and out hallways onto hard-packed ground outside? The issues stream out from all sides, so many articles attacking so many problems, leading to so many prescriptions for improvement. Some of these touted solutions are vetted, while many others just spring into being, wild inspirations by people who never spent a week teaching in a classroom. If Bill Gates decided students required mid-morning energy bar breaks and afternoon yoga, would we all start accepting energy bar shipments while buying yoga mats?

I can easily visualize a staff meeting sucking up another afternoon as we all discuss yoga mats.

Eduhonesty: Just a wisp of a thought that I decided to share. Meanwhile:

As of 2017, the National Center for Education Statistics reported the percentage of persons 3 to 18 with no home internet access by race: white 16.5%, black 24.0%, Hispanic 21.4%, Asian 14.5%, Pacific Island 15.4%, American Indian/Alaskan Native 35.8%, and Two or more races 11.9%. During COVID-19’s time of remote and blended learning, that lack of access guaranteed the racial achievement gap would widen.

In the end, it’s all about time. How long to get and issue new laptops to students who never had access to home devices before? HOW to teach students to use the new technology when they are not in school to watch and learn? How many days will be required to teach students to use the new technology? What about the damn internet connection? Lack of connectivity dogged many areas, and photos began turning up of students working in fast food parking lots.

The process of getting technology into student hands jammed early on. Suddenly, many districts wanted new technology all at once, some of it sourced from overseas. Principals sat waiting for laptops that had been promised but were delayed.

From First toilet paper, then yeast. Now laptops are hard to find – CNN: “But with districts across the country all placing big device orders around the same time — and with many universities and companies also reliant on remote work — the unprecedented demand for laptops has strained supply chains. As a result, schools and families are dealing with shipping delays, limited selections and higher-than-usual technology costs.”

Eduhonesty: You don’t need a weatherman to see how this particular wind blew. Schools that were already 1:1, with each student possessing that laptop or notebook, were able to start remote learning immediately. Their students already knew how to use that technology. Technology was in the background, not the foreground.

A question too often ignored about our many remote start-ups: What were the opportunity costs of teaching technology — that is, what were students not learning while catching up on urgent new technology requirements? Almost all US students had around 180 days, but only some students had to learn how to use new laptops. While those students were learning their tech, what curriculum items had to be sacrificed?

This short post discusses a topic that’s received regular attention since early in the pandemic, but that attention has often focused on poor vs. financially comfortable schools. I thought I’d make a connection that’s sometimes lacking. That loss of learning that has resulted from COVID-19?

Tired of discussing this issue? Here’s today’s story: Florida second-grader suspended 36 times over mask mandate (nypost.com). It’s no surprise that this particular story comes out of Florida. Mom is outraged that her girl may have to repeat the grade, despite a teacher’s report that she has fallen far behind due to missed class time. I’m just sorry for the kid who has a mom who is proud of her girl for getting regularly thrown out of school. There are additional in-school suspensions too. Time after time, little Fiona lost learning opportunities. What did mom expect would happen?

Amazingly, we are still doing “The Battle of the Masks.”

Let’s start this post with an observation: Not all the anti-mask information is bogus. From the CDC itself at Effectiveness of Cloth Masks for Protection Against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 – Volume 26, Number 10—October 2020 – Emerging Infectious Diseases journal – CDC:

Abstract

“Cloth masks have been used in healthcare and community settings to protect the wearer from respiratory infections. The use of cloth masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is under debate. The filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly. Multilayer cloth masks, designed to fit around the face and made of water-resistant fabric with a high number of threads and finer weave, may provide reasonable protection”… In community settings, however, cloth masks may be used to prevent community spread of infections by sick or asymptomatically infected persons, and the public should be educated about their correct use.”

Unfortunately, this mask guidance has been twisted around to say simply that cloth masks don’t work. That’s not what the abstract says. That’s not what most of the studies out there say, although I am sure if I dug I could find contrary information. I could probably find a story detailing how the aliens who took over the US government in 1964 have been placing special chemicals on our masks to brainwash and subjugate any men or women foolish enough to cover their faces. You can find almost anything and everything in cyberspace if you are willing to look long enough.* If you can’t find it, you can create it.

There’s an important kernel of information for parents and teachers in that CDC abstract that deserves attention, though. The CDC acknowledges that the “filtration effectiveness of cloth masks is generally lower than that of medical masks and respirators; however, cloth masks may provide some protection if well designed and used correctly.” The key takeaway here is that certain masks are better than others. A few helpful articles:

1. When and how to use masks (who.int)
2. 7 tips for making masks work in the classroom

I’ll ignore the many people wearing a mask below their nose. Those masks are pretend masks, of course. But other masks may unintentionally not be serving their purpose. A single layer of looser-weave cloth, especially one that does not fit well, may also be a pretend mask. If your glasses fog, the mask fits poorly. If the mask gaps anywhere, the mask fits poorly.

When someone says, “cloth masks don’t work,” the rebuttal is in the above CDC article on the effectiveness of cloth masks. They do work, if you do them right. They are not perfect. The N-95s and medical-grade masks are better, if you can find them in the correct size. But that cloth mask is a viable option.

Eduhonesty:

I created this post for another reason, too. I believe mask burn-out has been mushrooming lately. Aside from masks riding on chins, I see many other masks that I know can’t be working well. That bulging cheek pooch may be nothing but a big air canal in the middle of a mask. A few well-placed staples take seconds and can render a mask much more protective.

Masks work. Not perfectly. Nothing works perfectly, but we have entered a time of trade-offs. Saturday evening movie? I decided to take a pass in favor of a Tuesday matinee or even HBO+. We are making our trade-offs, many of us, while others are just trusting their parachutes.

As part of these school mask discussions, it’s vital to remember kids are a special category of problematic. A sad friend with MS will be skipping his family Thanksgiving this year due to nieces and nephews who are out in the world, going to school and not yet vaccinated. He’s not happy. However, he is immunocompromised and he is sensible.

Tired of battling face coverings, reader? Me too! But it’s not time to give up yet — because it’s not over yet. Kudos to that school in Florida for holding its ground. We can’t let COVID fatigue stop us from trying to make the world safe for as many people as possible.

Hugs to my readers! Jocelyn Turner

*For fun, I put ” detailing how the aliens who took over the US government in 1964 have been placing special chemicals on our masks to brainwash and subjugate any men or women foolish enough to cover their faces” into Google. The fourth entry that came up from this search was “Time traveller WARNING: ‘Man from 2030’ says aliens will INVADE Earth in 2028.” Apparently this fellow Roman has been on YouTube explaining that “the greys” are on their way. What I Ioved about this article was that the author did not reject the idea that a species from a destroyed planet might be already here and coming soon in much greater numbers. However, the author did imply that Roman’s claim should be viewed skeptically since the evidence suggested short-term travel back in time was impossible.

This post is for teachers, paraprofessionals and others who have recently started new positions in education. Readers, please forward this to anyone you know who might be questioning whether or not to add union dues to their paycheck.

I have been seeing social media posts from new hires asking whether they ought to join the union. Yes, union dues cost more than mere pocket change. However, paying your dues is exactly like purchasing homeowners insurance. You may never use that insurance once in your life. But if the house burns down, your homeowners policy will be invaluable. Insurance can save your retirement funds and, in a larger sense, your future.

Not all educational administrators are trustworthy.

Not all evaluation systems provide an honest reflection of an employee’s performance. I have seen numerous people whose entire year’s performance was assessed based on less than a half day of actual in-person observation. Not all evaluators know what they are seeing in those scant hours of observation. And teaching has its own unique hazards. Students and others have been known to lie about teacher performance, for example. Early on, adults are usually warned not to be alone with students in closed rooms. I know one woman who essentially had a group of girls gang up on her to deliberately sabotage her evaluation, too.

Added to the above, every so often, the wrong administrator or teacher simply takes a dislike to someone. The wrong teacher can make a parapro miserable all year, acting as a stream of negativity and a source of unfair evaluations. The wrong principal may try to push a teacher out through harsh evaluations and other dubious tricks like assigning his or her target the too-hot room over the noisy boiler. Education is not free from nepotism and favoritism either. Sometimes when Ed just doesn’t like Harry, Ed may decide to get Harry replaced with someone more to his own taste, such as his golf buddy’s newly graduated son.

Reader, maybe you will never encounter any seriously unjust treatment in the your workplace. Ever. You may be lucky enough to work for “Mike” or “Carly,” who are trying to build their best team possible and who only want to provide a school where you can learn and grow to become the best “your-position-here” possible.

But I believe fiercely in the old proverb, “Trust to God and row for the shore.” Sometimes I’ve heard, “Trust to God and keep your powder dry.” You have to take care of yourself. Your union is part of that self-care. If ever that kid does lie, or Ed decides he needs to open up a social studies position for his golf buddy’s son, or any of the many, many reasons why good teachers have found themselves fighting to hold onto their positions, having a union rep in the room can help you keep your position. Union reps remind districts of their promises and ensure due process does not get ignored.

The alternative to the union is trusting your administrators to be wise, honest and fair, even when under heavy pressure from outside forces such as angry parents, angry or frightened* students, other teachers, social media campaigns, and inadequate budgets.

Hugs! I wish everyone a great day. Jocelyn Turner

* Those lying students may have absolutely nothing against their teacher. But let’s say “Marigold” has a “D” or “F” to explain to her scary parents. The blame has to be placed somewhere away from Marigold. Once a lie has started, too, a child may not know how to walk away from the lie due to fears of embarrassment or punishment.

I felt sorry for that principal. One assistant principal down. Five teachers down. How do you even begin to hire all those replacements in October? I felt sorry for the principal who had three teachers quit together midday last week, a fact proudly proclaimed in one of my social media feeds. I feel sorry for the teachers who do not have enough paraprofessional help and for the paraprofessionals are are NOT happy to serve as substitute teachers — sometimes in violation of the law — because there has to be an adult body in the front of that classroom; the number of qualified bodies in too many places now sometimes totals less than the number of classrooms. I feel profoundly sorry for the kids who are being impacted by this educational game of musical chairs, the game where some classrooms end up being “out” — out of luck, out of teachers and out of learning time for that day or longer.

Can I make a suggestion? Let’s go Back to a Better Future. In that future, evaluations will not be long streams of demonstrated inadequacies (Yes, Charlotte Danielson and others meant well, but what they produced with their lengthy rubrics on pedagogical effectiveness has been senselessly demoralizing. I remember going upstairs to comfort the woman on the floor above me, who after the students left was simply wailing in despair after reading her evaluation — and she was one of the best teachers in my school in my personal view. Other teachers and I kept reassuring her that, yes, she did her job well even as she talked about the fact that maybe teaching had been a mistake and maybe the evaluation was proof that she ought to move on.

She was a great teacher. The whole scene was surreal. But it happened and I was there to watch the equivalent of handing a straight “A” student a straight “C” report card.

Eduhonesty: We would never do to students what we do to teachers. We point out all the areas where teachers should work to improve, but once the rubric got long enough those evaluations proved toxic. In the year before I retired, Danielson’s rubric contained “4 domains, 22 components, and 76 elements. In one class period, no one can observe all of that and a regrettable number of evaluators will likely infer or even make up numbers to fill out the requirements.” (Danielson’s axe with details | Notes from the Educational Trenches (eduhonesty.com))

Teachers understand that criticism must be handled with care. A laundry list of comments on mistakes frequently ends up in a trash, those comments unread. Too much criticism and students stop listening. I always picked my most important corrections and put the big ones on a paper or test, and then left the nit-picking alone. “Remember to capitalize the names of cities! :-)” I would write, before deciding to worry about commas later. Then I would bundle compliments into the mix of observations.

Too much criticism makes students feel … sad, angry, hopeless, demoralized, tired, anxious, agitated, and many other words for feelings that hurt. That criticism makes those students understandably want to avoid school, or at least the parts of school associated with all the put-downs. Why should teachers be different?

Eduhonesty: I am reminded of Shylock: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”. – (Act III, scene I).” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

I repeat: We would never do to students what we do to teachers. We are years past due at looking at coaching and evaluation systems that hack away at teacher’s independence, pride, happiness and self-esteem. Yes, we must evaluate and coach teachers, but I believe we should look backward in time.

Job satisfaction in teaching was vastly higher 25 years ago than it is today. The reasons are multifold and changing, but part of that change comes from evaluation systems. Most teachers take grades pretty seriously and year after year of getting a “C+” report card wears them down, especially when they are working nonstop to produce “A” quality instruction — and especially when they sense that they have frequently succeeded but somehow they can never get the high grade they sense they deserve.

The rubrics have become too long, the micromanaging too ever-present. When an evaluation system demands that a person do 60 impossible things before breakfast, then penalizes that person for only doing 48, that rubric is killing enthusiasm, not improving pedagogy. When the work becomes too hard, people give up. That throwing-up-the-hands response is actually healthy, a natural form of psychological self-defense.

Positive reinforcement: Not just for students and children. Adults can use kind words, praise and extra credit points too.

Resigning can be a form of revenge. Those autumn job fairs? Revenge has fueled the resignations and retirements that created those job fairs. COVID is getting much of the blame for teacher flight, and COVID is unquestionably in the picture, but I thought I’d write this post today because I strongly suspect COVID is becoming an excuse. “It’s COVID” can’t be allowed to become a justification for ignoring the sprawling rubrics and punitive messages sucking the joy out of teaching.

Wishing you all a great week, Jocelyn Turner

My Twitter feed is filled with exhausted, exasperated nurses who are getting hammered by long shifts and lost patients. Sometimes those patients ask for vaccinations, not understanding that they are asking too late. Vaccinations are preventative measures that help prepare a body to fight off a future microbe. Amazingly enough, many people remain unclear on the current research to protect themselves.

That doesn’t keep these sick people or members of their families from getting angry at healthcare providers. Aside from the sheer workload recently, nurses get blowback or worse from frightened and/or angry patients. Nurses are even being warned to change out of their scrubs before leaving work because of unprovoked attacks at gas stations and other public venues.

“Now’s the time,” Dr. Jeffery Elder, Medical Director for Emergency Management at LCMC Health in New Orleans said (Emergency care becoming a ‘balancing act’ with hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 (msn.com). “Masking and getting vaccinated, that’s what’s going to get us past this.” 

But many people don’t seem to believe Dr. Elder. The ivermectin bandwagon still has people jumping on and off. Reader, if anyone you know is an ivermectin proponent, ask them to look up side effects/dangers of antiparasitic drugs. A drug designed to kill worms in your body isn’t going to slide through like Metamucil. That drug is meant to create a killing field of dead little critters.

In any case, we are not past “this” yet. In some areas, the light at the end of the tunnel still signals an oncoming train. And our nurses keep stepping in front of this train, day after day, night after night.

Eduhonesty: This is a great day to thank a nurse friend. Maybe even send a card? If he or she is good friend, why not send some chocolate to express appreciation? Or drop by with a bouquet of flowers. Nurses are the bedrock in America’s healthcare system. They could use more than a few kind words right now.

Hugs to my readers, Jocelyn Turner

Teachers and others working in schools — do you feel safe? Or safe enough? Do you have enough support, both literal and figurative? Are there subs? Paraprofessionals? Do you have the supplies necessary to make classes work, including personal protective equipment? When COVID cases are identified, does your district policy protect you? Does it protect the children in your care? Is your administration listening to your concerns?

If no one seems to be listening to you, fellow teacher, if your situation genuinely feels hazardous, especially if you live in a rural area with limited healthcare options, consider quitting. Consider retiring. Consider seeking alternative employment. You won’t be the first person to quit in October. I am getting emails telling me about job fairs, job fairs for teachers in early autumn.

We are guaranteed a wild year of quarantines and closures. That wild year has become inevitable. We can’t put COVID back in the box because too many humans are now serving as disease vectors.

Eduhonesty: The short window when we might have extinguished COVID closed a long time ago. Only you, reader, can determine your risk profile and your risk tolerance. Only you can assess whether or not the stress of your daily work is causing you to crumble around the edges. Are you still having fun? Are you just holding together? How much glue, spit and bailing wire is it taking to keep you together? How much do you dread your morning drive? I am going to suggest you read the following article as you consider your personal emotional state:

Nine Ways Stress is More Dangerous Than You Think (healthline.com)

The decision to quit should factor in your retirement posture, available family and friends who might be asked for help, and any strategies which might get you through the school year. Walking away from your students should be a last resort.

But you CAN walk away. You don’t have to die on this hill. If your stomach lurches as you drive to work, if you are having panic attacks or just going on occasional drinking binges to forget the day — if you cry regularly, if you dread your email, if everything coming out of the front office feels like another five pounds added to a 75 pound backpack you are already carrying, if staff meetings are never fun now, if angry parents make you want to hide in your basement in your pajamas, watching Netflix while the world goes on without you…

The world will go on without you. That’s the big truth we teachers sometimes avoid while looking at all the good we are doing in our classrooms. Yes, if you quit, you will inconvenience and hurt people, but your administrators will replace you as quickly as possible and they may never even look back. Your students will be forced to process one more change in a stew of recent changes, but students regularly change teachers throughout their academic lives. Showing them they don’t have to put up with piles of crazy because it’s expected of them — that may be doing them a favor that will help them enormously down the line.

Despite today’s difficult conditions, I hope many readers are thinking, “Why would I ever leave teaching?” But reader, if you are taking Xanax just to get through the day or simply breaking into random tears, this post is probably for you. And happy or at least reconciled teachers? Please send a link to this post to colleagues who keep crying in the breakroom or who otherwise just don’t seem to be… making it.

Is it time to leave, reader? Why not go online and start planning an exit strategy? Stress makes people physically and mentally ill. PTSD is not only for soldiers who served in Afghanistan or other bloody global conflicts. See PTSD in Teachers: Yes, It’s Real! – The Educators Room.

How much stress is too much stress? Here’s the thing: You don’t want to find out by making yourself sick. This post is written in memory of a colleague who died on the table despite the best efforts of her surgeon. It’s written for all those teachers and ex-teachers who are discovering that PTSD is a chronic and fluctuating disorder. Every teacher who is struggling, struggling and struggling while trying to hit all the targets and simultaneously pacify all the stakeholders concerned with the classroom happy should actively read PTSD is a chronic, fluctuating disorder affecting the mental quality of life in older adults – PubMed (nih.gov).

You only have one heart. You only have one mind. Your inner child deserves your protection, as much as any other child anywhere. And if your inner child is hurting too badly, you need to carry that child to safety.