Photo by Jonnica Hill on Unsplash
Yesterday was a tough one. Luckily, I was in the right mindset to start the day. That’s how it’s been lately. If one of my colleagues has the right mindset, their stability keeps the rest of my team afloat. We take turns, but this situation is not sustainable.
My friend, Colleen, connected with me in the hallway before school began.
“Jenn! I am so stressed already. I hate starting my day this way.”
“Oh no, what’s up Colleen?”
“Well, I volunteered yesterday to take someone’s morning carpool duty outside. Then, I heard from Kate this morning that she has a Zoom meeting scheduled during advisory. She asked me to watch her kids, so I said yes. And I have to get these tests copied before 1st period!”
“I’ll watch your advisory, don’t worry. And I’ll take Kate’s advisory. You do carpool then get your papers copied. I got it, no big deal.”
We are supposed to have small advisor groups in the morning, sort of a homeroom check-in time for fifteen minutes each morning. Instead of managing just my group, I managed all three. Colleen was able to calm her day down, and Kate was able to attend her meeting.
I followed up with Colleen later.
“Jenn, thank you so much! This morning was hard for me. I have a stressful schedule today, and I needed to start my day differently.”
“Yeah, I get it. You help me all the time too, pal!”
“But Jenn, that’s the problem. We are constantly having to support each other. We are pressured to the max, so we have to constantly be helping each other. And when we don’t have enough energy to maintain ourselves, we are stretching to help others. Someone needs to fix this. Jenn, we are bleeding out.” her eyes were wide and looking for solutions from me.
I nodded my head. “Yep,” was all I could say.
Because, what are we going to do? Are we going to stop planning for both students virtual and in-person? Are we going to stop covering each other’s classes when asked? Are we going to stop holding meetings and planning new projects and lessons? Are we going to stop helping students who were quarantined for 10 days make up their work? Are we going to stop worrying about those we know who have contracted covid-19?
Nope, none of those are going to happen. And, there is no 911 we can call.
Our conversation continued, and we got on the topic of students. Several of our fifth graders have had panic attacks in recent months. Some of these attacks have even occurred at school. For both me and Colleen, seeing these occurrences is unusual. We are both veteran teachers and have never had to help students through these experiences at school.
In addition, students are bursting into tears more often during the day. I have had multiple students begin crying in my class for no apparent reason. When I ask why and try to support them, students struggle to explain their outbursts. After our holiday assembly, one of the most joyous events of the year, we had five students break down sobbing during lunch. Not one could articulate what had happened to cause them to cry. As teachers, all we can do is provide support and try to calm them down.
Colleen wondered if we are putting too much academic pressure on the kids. I countered with the fact that we have been intentionally taking it more slowly because the students are not ready for us to increase the academic pressure yet. We are still building foundational skills late in the year which is unusual as well– a blog for another day.
So what is causing the mental health disaster that is occurring with our kids? Let’s start with a worldwide pandemic and living in fear of catching a deadly virus for 2 years. Imagine being a child in today’s world. A mysterious invisible virus lurks everywhere you turn; the world is so dangerous you must lock yourself in your home for months to avoid becoming deathly ill. No one can answer your questions about the situation, and all of the adults in your world are concerned.
Yes, imagine living in a world like that when you are nine years old.
Continue with missing typical social connections for a solid year. While some students returned to in-person learning, others remained at home for their family’s safety. Playground recess was prohibited at many schools until this year. Sharing recess equipment prohibited, and students were encouraged not to come very close to one another. What are you permitted to do as a child? What can you do?
Add to this a normal sneeze or cough in the classroom. In the past, these were completely ignored. In today’s classroom when a child sneezes, the lesson stops. Silence ensues. We all feel it. A sneeze can now be deadly. No matter what a teacher attempts to do, the fear and panic creep in.
In the midst of all of this, we have expected children to maintain normal levels of mastery in academic skills. We have pressured them to continue to achieve high marks, complete homework on time, and work hard. All of this is under the guise of creating “normalcy” for them. I have news for you, nothing about the past two years has been “normal’, and the kids know it. Pressuring them to achieve and do well on standardized tests will not make them feel as though life is normal again.
Once we see a light at the end of the tunnel, like with the vaccine or with decreasing infections, the darned virus comes raging back to remind us our lives are at its mercy. In my classroom, we were moving around the room and sitting in different groups. We were laughing again and working closely together.
With the surge of omicron, my classroom has fallen eerily quiet. Students must remain at their desks and work solely with the students next to them. If someone contracts the virus, I will need to provide close contacts, and we also want to limit the number of people in a classroom who may become ill. I am constantly reminding students to pull up their masks.
What I say, “Johnny, pull your mask up, please.”
What students process is, “Don’t kill us all with your reckless behavior!”
I also coach our middle school swim team. Before the omicron surge, we had become fairly relaxed about the masks on deck, and we had no outbreaks at all. However, now we require students to wear masks until they jump in the pool, and students must bring a Ziploc bag each day to hold their masks while they swim. My colleague and I took pictures of students in their lane assignments, and we require them to swim with the same people each day. We’ll be required to report close contacts if one of them contracts covid-19.
It’s as if adults are playing a cruel joke. Everything is normal. We are fine. But don’t BREATHE! Children see the cognitive dissonance of the entire situation, and we have fundamentally altered their brain chemistry.
We did nothing but instill fear in these children for two years.
“Jenn, these kids are not ok, “ Colleen said with urgency.
“Yep, I know.” I nodded my head again.
“Jenn, we’ve got to do something. Someone has to do something.”
“Colleen!” I blurted out, “I can’t put a bandage on someone when my arm is cut off!”
And we both paused, laughed, and continued the rest of our day in the new “normal”.