I will start by sharing an excerpt from a blog post I read this morning: Return To School Or Retire? Pick Your Poison by Dr. Michael Flanagan
“Contemplating retirement is difficult under the best of circumstances, but now that decision has become immensely more complicated. Covid-19 and the economic collapse have created a life and death dilemma for older teachers. Should we retire from teaching and trust in our evaporating pension funds, or return and risk our lives to teach our students again?”
I strongly suggest reading Dr. Flanagan’s article which lays out the tough choices facing educators today. Those choices are the reason why I suggested this might be a good year for the bold to go out on a job search. This might be your year — although I suggest you read my caveats as well. Funding is about to fall through the floor, and if you have tenure in a safe spot, staying put makes sense right now.
But it’s time to begin thinking about your choice if you are nearing retirement or simply reaching a point where you doubt you wish to continue teaching. Making that choice sooner would be the kinder, more responsible action since your district will likely struggle to replace you.
You might want to make a T-Chart. What’s good? What’s not good? I will note that “possible death” is it’s own category of “not good,” in a wholly different league than underpaid, overworked or angry about extreme testing.
Eduhonesty: I don’t have a recommendation, reader. YOU have to make that choice for your own situation. I can tell you that I personally would not find this choice much of a dilemma. In fact, it’s a personal no-brainer. If I had not already retired, I would retire now. I am older, my tricuspid valve leaks, and I frequently catch la maladie du jour. I would be done after this year.
Who would have thought something even more ugly than extreme testing could be lurking in education’s future? But it was. The coronavirus might be a distant memory in ten years, but there probably won’t even be a vaccine in 2020. I think I’ll let other people test that warp speed vaccine for me in 2021, at least for a few months. I definitely do not plan to be one of the first people to test out the new transporter beam.
So reader: Is it time to retire?