Some kids are so dysfunctional…it takes all of our efforts and I don’t see it getting any better. That’s why people don’t go into teaching. They are not paid well, they’re not appreciated, and it’s stressful.
(Weston, Ott & Rodger, 2018, pg. 108)

When it comes to the profession of teaching, people have many opinions about our jobs. It’s known that we aren’t paid well, but people tend to obsess over our schedules, specifically our summer breaks. If you’re focusing on just one component of the teaching profession as an isolated entity, you’ll miss the point completely. I think this quote sums it up perfectly. Sure, we aren’t paid well, but we also aren’t appreciated. That’s obvious in how people simply discredit our complaints about our deficient wages with the argument that we have multiple days off. They are unable to factor in what our day even consists of, nor what our free time requires of us in order to get everything done to continue providing learning opportunities for all students.

I have an off-topic anecdote, but I think it fits this situation perfectly. I had a conversation with my partner the other day about rush hour. I asked if he rather commute home during rush hour or if he’d prefer to stay late at work, work another hour or two and then head home when it’s not as busy. Of course he rather stay late to avoid traffic, noting that, “I’ll just leave earlier on Fridays.” It’s no fault of his own to think this way; it makes perfect sense. The issue arises when people forget that, as teachers, we may have summers off, but our job lacks a lot of flexibility. Our 7th period classes will always need us to be there on Friday afternoons, for example. There will never be an option to leave early sometimes, or show up later other times. Not only are we underpaid for what our work actually entails, people don’t really appreciate the work we do…then, add in the component of stress. I haven’t even touched that yet. Our jobs are stressful! We all could give 100 examples of the stress we endure in our jobs that are not present in other professions, but people, unfortunately, continue to undermine our experiences. Only when people are ready to acknowledge the work we actually do and the stress it places on us as professionals, but also believe us when we tell our stories, will we be able to reverse and fix the rate of teacher burnout due to mental health issues.