Author: admin

Managing Anticipatory Anxiety about the Holidays

Posted on | by admin

We live in a society in which the holidays seem to begin promptly after Labor Day. They arrive with the entrance of pumpkin spice lattes and then barrel forward until January, often leaving us tired, spent, and a little weary. Though there is a magical sheen overlaying ordinary life during this time, there is also a unique version of anxiety that presents itself alongside the merriment and wonder.

A friend recently invited me to an event on a Thursday evening in early December, and I immediately, with stomach in knots, wondered if the date was available.

Why on earth should a 30-something, suburban stay-at-home mother to an infant feel as if a Thursday evening months away is potentially already booked? Further, why does the mere thought of it put my stomach in knots?

I think it is because the world seems to be screaming at us, BE PREPARED.

For me, experiences of holiday seasons past create a sense of uneasiness when I think about December on the calendar. Each year I try to keep it simpler than before, to pare down the events and find the peace and calm reflected in the carols that are stuck in my head.

But without fail, the dates fill up quickly, we run a little wild, and suddenly there are few evenings left to be home and gaze at the lights we so diligently hung.

It is a strange phenomenon to both eagerly cherish the holiday season and also feel apprehension about it approaching.

The first twinkly lights,

The first Hallmark movie preview

The first day of sweater weather

They all bring an emotional high quite like any other.

Such eagerness for these picturesque holiday experiences can easily fuel my “yeses” to every event that crosses my path. But then when the time actually comes, I can end up feeling quite overwhelmed.

This is something I have been working on for a few years and I can honestly say that the more I simplify, the more I enjoy the holidays.

But simplification is not without effort, itself. So I find myself in early September weighing my holiday priorities already.

Simplifying the holidays takes fortitude and brutal honesty with myself about my future capacity for activities and tasks. I desperately desire to hold precious the limited time that seems to exist at the end of the year.

I have decided to share with you a few of the little lessons and tricks I have learned in this endeavor.

But first, let’s talk about the general unhealth that runs rampant during the holiday season.

I have worked in a variety of mental health service locations over the past seven years, including residential substance abuse treatment, pediatric inpatient services, and a variety of outpatient counseling centers. At each of these locations, the busiest time for new and returning clients is the month of January. Hands down. I have heard several working theories regarding this phenomenon, but my own opinion is that people tend to put many things off until after the holidays, including the management of their mental health. As well, the holiday season tends to exacerbate concerns that were already present. Increased time with extended family also can cause usually-hidden emotions and interpersonal conflict to rise to the surface.

The end of year also sees an increase in what medical professionals call “holiday heart,” a cardiac event considered to be caused by the excess of alcohol, stress levels / blood pressure, and salty foods during the holiday seasons [1].

Refusing to take care of ourselves during the holidays can have implications that impact both mind and body.

Many people who struggle during the holidays may not necessarily suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder, but could still benefit from either professional help or a re-assessment of priorities and general lifestyle changes. My encouragement to you is to allow yourself to seek these services when you need them, instead of waiting until you are weary and burnt out.

 

WAYS TO MANAGE ANTICIPATORY HOLIDAY ANXIETY

Level your expectations. Life is not a Hallmark movie, friends. It can be easy to think that we are “missing out” on holiday experiences that are not realistic to begin with.

If your home decorations look Pinterest-perfect, you are probably spending too much money updating them each year to maintain trends. Don’t forget that you see online is only a snapshot of the whole picture of someone’s house/ life/ family.

It is okay if you are not hopping from fancy party to fancy party. Media and marketing kind of have us fooled into believing that there are glam events aplenty and it is commonplace to attend several throughout December, all with new shiny outfits. In reality, most of us are not doing that.

Your family is still your family, even at the holidays. Remember that you can only control yourself. For all their flaws and successes, accepting that it is not your job to change your family members can help you avoid falling prey to grand imaginations of a perfect holiday gathering in which everyone suddenly behaves exactly how you would want them to. Your own growth is the only thing in your control. Accepting that people will still arrive as themselves will help you avoid bickering with people you already know disagree with you on hot topics.

Agree to a family plan of action. What are the 3 things that are most important for you and your family this holiday season? Focus on those, and agree that anything else is just extra.

Make sure to get your kids in on the conversation about this! What do they love most about the holidays? Their answers may surprise you and maybe even bring a sense of relief.

Keep it simple. Just because something is a tradition does not mean that it has to happen every single year. Not every decoration has to always come out of the attic.

Consider what holiday experiences “make sense” for your family. Where is there potential unwarranted wastefulness? What things are you doing that are not even really enjoyed for the person that receives them?

Consider this your ample permission to change what isn’t working. Make it make sense for your family without feeling like you have to do things a certain way or spend a certain amount of money just for the sake of a single photo or because you have always done it a certain way in the past.

Create space before you have the chance to feel cornered by your calendar

One year shortly after my husband and I were married, I decided that we would be holding the weekend after Thanksgiving as a “sacred weekend.” Neither of us was allowed to make plans for that entire weekend. We used it to decorate for Christmas, resettle, and take a deep breath for the rest of the year. We spent the weekend choosing what we wanted to do in the moment together instead of feeling enslaved to a schedule of events. It is still one of my favorite things to do when one of us is feeling a little suffocated by our calendars.

Maintain healthy rhythms when possible.

We will all inevitably be participating in some indulgences of various kinds throughout the holidays. Enjoying celebrations is nothing to shame yourself about! However, maintaining day-to-day rhythms can help you still feel balanced come January. It is easy to have an “all or nothing” approach and tell ourselves that we will return to baseline after the new year. But it doesn’t have to be this way! There is space on the continuum between wild abandon and self-deprivation. Consider how you want to find that space for yourself and your family.

For example, do not throw your family budget out the window for the sake of merriment.

Do not allow yourself to take on extra stress that you know is too much for you for the sake of “getting through the holidays.”

Continue to move your body in a way that feels good and energizing.

Drink water. Eat a vegetable when you can. Most importantly, pause to reflect on how you feel. What does your body need today? Use your biological intuitions to help you fuel yourself while you’re also enjoying richer food than usual.

Be honest about your emotional state with trusted friends and family; seek professional help if needed

It is important to note that there is a difference between experiencing occasional anxiousness and struggling with clinical anxiety. Talk to a professional if you feel that your anxious thinking is negatively impacting your ability to function in work, relationships, or daily life activities.

The same goes for concerns such as depression or other mental disorders. The “holiday blues” are vastly different than clinical depression [4]. However, both are worthy of bringing to a counseling session to

work through these feelings. You do not have to just survive the holidays. You can enjoy them again with support.

Remember that your identity as a good person/friend/parent/spouse/child does not rest on your application of holiday tasks

This will be my first time as a mother of a child who can really experience the holiday season, and this pressure to succeed in creating a well-rounded experience for my child is already so strong. It is easy to get stuck in the mindset of trying to out-task yourself for the sake of your family or friends.

That is absolutely not what this season is about. Take a step back. Take a breath.

And for all that is merry and bright, protect that December calendar with everything you’ve got!

References:

1. Brown, K. N., Yelamanchil, V. S., & Goel, A. (2022, February 16). Holiday heart syndrome. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537185/

2. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2020, December 11). Tips for coping with holiday stress. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20047544

3. Nowak, L. (2018, November 30). 9 signs that holiday anxiety poses real mental health risks. BrightQuest Treatment Centers. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://www.brightquest.com/blog/9-signs-that-holiday-anxiety-poses-real-mental-health-risks/

4. Raising mental health awareness during the holiday season. Discovery Mood & Anxiety Program. (2019, July 31). Retrieved September 19, 2022, from https://discoverymood.com/blog/raising-mental-health-awareness-holiday-season/

5. Rhue, H. (2021, December 1). The psychology of anticipation: Why the holidays never live up to our expectations. Byrdie. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://www.byrdie.com/psychology-of-anticipation-expectations-5203025

6. Rosenthal, L. (2018, May 30). Holiday heart syndrome. Medscape. Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/155050-overview

Do you know what your children and teens are learning about suicide from media and entertainment?

Posted on | by admin

Do you know what your children and teens are learning about suicide from media and entertainment?

It may be more impactful than you realize.

Please be aware that the following information discusses topics of suicide and self-harm. If you or anyone you know is struggling and may need help, call the suicide and crisis hotline at 988

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness month. And if your social media algorithms have any sliver of mental health news on the radar, then you will be inevitably inundated with disheartening statistics about the upward trending numbers of youth suicide rates. They are frightening numbers.

One of the biggest areas of prevention that I find important to talk about with parents is the monitoring of media consumption. Studies have overwhelmingly shown that suicide portrayals in media can increase suicide attempts if they are not done in an appropriate manner [4].

The presence of media in the lives of children and teens is much greater than in any previous generations due to the massive increase in accessibility. Truly monitoring your family’s media intake probably feels like a losing battle or a lost cause. Please hear me say that it is WORTH IT.

The specifics of how you monitor what your child is watching and hearing depends greatly on your child’s age, developmental stage, and other factors such as family worldview and moral stances. And at the end of the day, it is impossible to know every single thing that your child has seen or heard. But what you can do is prepare yourself to be the safe space for your child or teen to talk about what they have seen and heard about difficult topics such as suicidality.

Here’s the thing. I am not here to tell you to never, ever let your teen watch a show with depictions of suicide, or to block them off from the world. Instead, I am here to equip you to know how to respond when your child does view media depictions of suicide and may have questions.

I am hopeful that the following discussion can assist you in further exploration of how to keep your child and teen safe from untruthful or harmful information about suicide and self-harm.

National Recommendations for Depictions of Suicide and Suicide Prevention

The National Action Alliance of Suicide Prevention, the Substance Abuse, and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Entertainment Industries Council collaborate to maintain an agreed-upon set of recommendations for those who are planning to depict stories of suicide and/or suicide prevention. The aim of this partnership and set of recommendations is to help the entertainment and media industries “tell more balanced and authentic stories” involving suicide and suicide prevention to reduce potential harm [4].

The Action Alliance website claims that “when depictions are done responsibly, the media can help to encourage help-seeking, dispel myths, and reinforce hope – and ultimately save lives” [4].

However, these recommendations do not hold any actual weight or power over content creators. Narratives such as those depicted in Netflix’s 13 Reason’s Why can choose to completely ignore some of these points. The creators of 13 Reason’s Why, in fact, consulted with a top psychologist in the field of suicide prevention who strongly recommended that they not release their first season without making drastic changes to align with safe practices. Yet, the show was still released against his professional advice [2].

This is why it is incredibly important to not only know what your child is watching, but to be aware of themes and details that could create a false understanding of suicide and suicide prevention.

Some writers in the entertainment industry boast that they are helping create “conversation starters” for difficult topics. But just because something is a “conversation starter” doesn’t make it positive. What conversation is being started? Is that conversation rooted in truth and centered on professional opinion about real statistics? Does the conversation lend toward prevention methods, or does it depict graphic ways to harm oneself? Most likely, the conversation being started may not be centered on your family’s morality and worldview.

You can be the positive catalyst for your child as they are learning about difficult topics. After all, our job as parents is not to pretend things like suicide do not exist, but to be the frontlines for our children and the “home base” for them to discuss such things and learn about the world.

Keeping the door open for conversation so that “no question is too strange” makes you the safe space for tough conversations instead of the internet or a peer.

As for the particular topic of suicide, awareness of the Action Alliance’s recommendations can help you navigate conversations with your children and teens about the content they are watching, and even correct false information that they have been told directly or indirectly through media portrayals of mental health events.

The following recommendations can be found at

https://theactionalliance.org/messaging/entertainment-messaging/national-recommendations

1. Convey that suicide is complex and often caused by a range of factors, rather than by a single event.

Very rarely does someone base a decision to end their life on a single precipitating event. Storylines should reflect this, instead of basing a narrative on one thing that the character in question may have experienced. Talking to your child or teen about this topic can initiate a powerful discussion about the complexity of mental health concerns in general.

2. Show that help is available

Creating stories in which a character with suicidal thoughts has seemingly no options for help may inadvertently tell a struggling individual that seeking help is useless. Always remind your child and teen how to reach out for help or how to help a friend seek help. (See resources listed below).

One professional criticism of some recent stories of suicide is that the adults or mental health professionals were portrayed as “clueless and unhelpful” [2]. This is something to look out for in the content your child may be viewing. There are always, ALWAYS capable individuals available to support a child or teen in seeking help. Make sure your teen knows the local and virtual resources available to utilize or share with a peer.

3. Portray characters with suicidal thoughts who do not go on to die by suicide.

Suicidal thinking does not inevitably mean that a person will die by suicide. There is always hope. Stories should show characters who are able to overcome suicidal thinking.

Note: Asking someone if they are thinking about hurting or killing themselves does NOT increase the chance of them doing so. In fact, being blunt in asking this question can give someone the opportunity to be honest about what they have been thinking or feeling.

4. Portray everyday characters who can be a lifeline.

Portraying a narrative in which someone with suicidal thinking reaches out to people in their immediate circle or community for help is a fantastic way to model community support.

– Community/peer support should always include encouraging the individual to seek professional help. Always.

– Community/peer support should not be depicted as a stand-in for therapeutic support or higher levels of care. For example, a teen who only talks about their suicidality to another teen promotes unhealthy relationship dynamics and places unnecessary burdens on the peer.

– Suicidality should never be a peer-to-peer secret. Talk to your children and teens about how to tell a friend,

“Because I care for you, we have to share this with someone else. I am always here for you, but I don’t have all the tools to get you better without help.”

It may even be helpful to role-play with your child how to handle someone getting frustrated or angry with them that they are not willing to keep their secret. Remind your child that in the grand scheme of things, safety is the top priority. It is always the right thing to do to keep a friend safe, even if they express feelings of betrayal in the moment. The relationship can have the opportunity to heal once the friend is mentally capable of understanding that steps were made in good faith and to keep them safe.

5. Avoid showing or describing the details about suicide methods.

No piece of media should EVER show a step-by-step method to complete suicide. Ever. This should be absolutely non-negotiable. No child, teen, or adult needs a manual for completing suicide.

6. Consult with suicide prevention messaging experts and people with personal experience.

This is a crucial recommendation for shows depicting suicide. When talking to your children and teens, remind them that what they are watching is a story created by someone who is very likely not a mental health professional. Content creators are interested in creating a compelling story to share, and may overlook important truthful details about the actualities of mental health, self-harm, or suicide. Sometimes they may even do so with good intentions.

7. Depict the grieving and healing process of people who lose someone to suicide.

Suicide is final and irreversible, and should be depicted as such. Many individuals contemplating suicide have wrongly begun to believe that their friends and family may be “better off” without them. Stories should make sure to show that suicide does not magically fix problems.

8. Use nonjudgmental language.

Instead of “committed suicide,” it is recommended to use the phrase “died by suicide.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Quick tips for very early suicide prevention:

(these particular tips are meant for prevention before warning signs ever arise. If warning signs of suicide become present, prevention is more immediate and specific, and you should be directly consulting with a professional):

– Suicide prevention is proactive, not reactionary. Know the facts about suicidal thinking before the topic ever arises, and make sure to focus on teaching your children and teens how to seek help/ help others seek help

– Create an open and safe space for your kids and teens to discuss what they see and hear with you

– Build a supportive community. Be active in it.

– Know your children’s activities, interests, and friends (both on and offline).

– What is your family’s worldview? Do you live for something higher than yourselves? How do you talk to your children about this worldview and their responses to it?

– Know the warning signs that someone could be considering suicide (see resources below). When developmentally appropriate, teach your children these signs.

– Take your child’s words seriously at any age. Do not dismiss potentially dangerous statements as “dramatic,” or assume your child is too young to be struggling with suicidal ideation.

Suicide prevention resources for parents:

https://texassuicideprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Young-Person2019Final_v1PDF.pdf

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention

https://afsp.org/teens-and-suicide-what-parents-should-know

https://suicideprevention.nv.gov/Youth/Myths/

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/emotional-problems/Pages/Ten-Things-Parents-Can-Do-to-Prevent-Suicide.aspx

References:

1. 5 steps for developing protective factors against Teen Suicide. BASE Education. (2019, March 13). Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://base.education/5-steps-for-developing-protective-factors-against-teen-suicide/

2. Eisenstadt, M. (2017, April 26). ’13 reasons why’ is a hit, but suicide expert told Netflix not to release series. Syracuse. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2017/04/suicide_expert_consulted_by_netflix_on_13_reasons_why_told_them_not_to_release_i.html

3. Hawthorn, M. (n.d.). The portrayal of suicide in media. NAMI Wake County. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://nami-wake.org/the-portrayal-of-suicide-in-media/

4. National Recommendations for depicting suicide. Action Alliance. (n.d.). Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://theactionalliance.org/messaging/entertainment-messaging/national-recommendations

5. Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) Office of Suicide Prevention. (n.d.). The myths and facts of teen suicide. NV.gov. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://suicideprevention.nv.gov/Youth/Myths/

6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Suicide prevention. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved August 20, 2022, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention

7. Understanding suicide contagion and how to prevent it. BASE Education. (2019, June 11). Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://base.education/understanding-suicide-contagion-prevent/

Encouraging Self-Care for Teachers May be More Condescending than it is Helpful

Posted on | by admin

Encouraging Self-Care for Teachers May be More Condescending than it is Helpful

I quite literally grew up in schools. My dad was an educator and the sole breadwinner for our family. My earliest memories of his work include riding in his driver’s education vehicle, visiting him at his baseball practices, and meeting some of his students in the portable where he taught Mississippi history.

Later when he was an administrator, many of my summer days and after-school hours were spent roaming halls of empty buildings with teachers’ kids, helping file papers in the front office, and organizing textbooks in smelly, dark rooms tucked behind the gym locker rooms.

You could say that it is unsurprising that my family was a huge proponent of public-school education. We were people who viewed education as not only a career that serves and enriches ones’ community, but allows a person to balance family-rearing and work in a healthy, functional way.

And yet, I myself lasted less than three years as an educator in the public school system.

While my reasons for leaving the teaching profession were varied and personal, I am certainly not the only individual with a similar story.

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching profession in the United States was facing a potential mass exodus. In 2019, the 51st annual PDK poll (Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools), identified that “half of public-school teachers have seriously considered leaving the profession in recent years” (PDK poll).

Current Texas statistics are not any more encouraging. A survey conducted this February by the Texas American Federation of Teachers estimates that 66% of Texas educators have recently considered resigning [4].

It does not take a researcher to identify the obvious host of reasons for such sentiments to exist. Teachers who have resigned identify reasons such as burnout, “unfair” pay and long hours, lack of material and professional support, feeling undervalued, and experiencing high stress [1].

The feelings of being undervalued tend to be the presiding concern for educational researcher Doris Santoro, who studies what she calls “demoralization” of teachers.

Santoro distinguishes “demoralization” from “burnout” as such:

“Burnout suggests that a teacher has nothing more to give. However, teachers whom I would characterize as demoralized were most frustrated because they could not teach the way they believed was right” [8].

Teachers who are demoralized have a desire to teach in a way that they believe to be good, ethical work. Yet, their priorities become split when they are overworked with tasks not pertinent to what they believe enriches their classroom experience. These barriers to teaching can often lead to feeling stuck and undervalued.

What do our teachers need?

I was recently contemplating the difficult experiences that educators face, and wondered to myself how we as mental health professionals can encourage them. Could we maybe teach some self-care practices, I wondered? Maybe I’ll do a little back-to-school blog on it.

Then it occurred to me. More like, it hit me like a ton of bricks as I hovered over my keyboard:

For someone feeling demoralized, overworked, and stuck, being preached to about self-care might actually feel incredibly condescending.

I wanted to know if my hunch was correct.

Since I am not a trained research professional, I did the next best thing and asked my educator friends to respond to the following scenario:

“Administration encourages you to participate in self-care to offset school stress”

The responses were even more consistent than I expected.

“I roll my eyes.”

“When? I spend all my time at home doing work, too.”

“When they continue to pile work, assignments, and expectations that cannot be accomplished during our prescribed work hours, what else can we do except stay late to work on it, take it home to complete it, or not do it at all and worry and stress about the repercussions?”

“Give us the time to do [self-care].”

“Patronizing.”

“Definitely contradictory! Usually, the stress comes from an overload of responsibilities.”

“I roll my eyes until I see action on their behalf suggesting they actually care.”

One of these individuals further shared that, in only the second week of the school year, they currently have extra school meetings during every planning period and after school every day of the week except Fridays. Maybe I am naïve, but a schedule like that does not seem to lend toward self-care, or even student care. When does this teacher find time to tackle the regular, daily tasks of teaching?

In my readings about the nationwide concern of teacher frustrations, I ran across a few other expressive ways to describe what it feels like to be told to practice self-care in the midst of feeling demoralized.

One teacher described the advice with the age-old metaphor of a “Band-Aid” on a gaping wound [2].

Another stated,

“I feel like I’m drowning, and they throw you a rubber ducky. Rubber duckies are cute and all, but I’m not in a position to take it [because] I’m literally drowning” [2].

So essentially my hunch was correct. Teachers who feel demoralized will laugh in the face of recommendations to simply “take better care of themselves” as means to managing work stress.

It is incredibly patronizing and hurtful to suggest that teachers’ personal emotional management can fix their overload of external stressors. It is like saying, “This isn’t too much to accomplish; you just aren’t doing it right.” When in reality, the workload is out of control.

I am fearful that we are on the brink of losing the heart and soul of public education

Y’all, I know a lot of educators. A whole lot.

And let me tell you, the educators I know are exceptional people who entered the field for reasons that align closely with their morals and passion to do good work for children. The responses from these upstanding individuals were very congruent with Santoro’s assertion that those seeking to do ethically well are the exact people in the education field who are feeling demoralized. They are the ones who no longer feel as if their work is good in the way that they want it to be. They feel that the way they know they can teach is stifled by policy and non-pertinent tasks to their central job of teaching.

The National Educator’s Association was blunt about this problem in a recent article:

To avoid a “Great Resignation,” districts need to make substantive changes to reduce stress and improve morale in schools. “Educators don’t need any more chair massages or Casual Fridays,” says one expert. “This is about support and autonomy” [10].

Teachers don’t need superficial, obligatory remarks about how they should take care of themselves. Goodness knows they especially do not need to be spending precious daylight hours sitting through mandatory workshops about self-care and stress management.

Teachers are telling us what they need: Time and space to hone their crafts in a way that benefits students.

Consider this: If the teachers craving to participate in good, ethical work leave the profession due to demoralization, what kind of educators do we have left?

Teachers need change. They need support from the community, policymakers, and institutions.

So what do we do?

Of course, I had to consult with my Dad on this one, who has witnessed education policy trends firsthand for over 40 years and currently works in a capacity mentoring administrators.

In short, Dad suggested that the bulk of frustrating, non-didactic tasks for teachers “coming down the pipeline” were decided much further up the ladder than the school administrator. However, these policies place admins in a position to deliver news that may make themselves feel demoralized.

His suggestions to administrators are to provide practical ways to lessen teachers’ loads. Many new tasks and expectations are unavoidable. But it is easy to say things like “here is a new item for your agenda. But I will never add something to your plate without taking something else off.” But of course, admins must FOLLOW THROUGH with that statement. Next time the district requires a fancy new task for teachers to complete, he recommends that an admin allow those teachers to turn in less-specific lesson plans moving forward, or allow them to use a professional development day to actually complete classroom work instead of attending full days of irrelevant trainings.

Administrators can use empathy and intentionality to actually, tangibly lessen the loads for teachers to the best of their ability.

Other experts suggest offering ways to let teachers get involved with brainstorming solutions to problems. Admins can be the advocates for these ideas to the district superintendents and school boards.

Public school education is not a lost cause if there is community support for the passionate men and women who desperately want to use their creativity and God-given talents to teach effectively and passionately.

Does this have you heartbroken? Find a way to serve.

 

I usually end such writings with a series of ways to solve some highlighted concerns. But to be honest, this particular topic has me feeling fairly discouraged myself.

I don’t have any sweeping, generalized answers for how to solve the Texas teacher shortage, demoralization, or mass exit of seasoned educators.

But what I do know is that all of us know a teacher who is feeling demoralized, whether they have spoken about it or not. And it is August. So here are a few tiny ways to support the teachers in your life during a hectic and exhausting time of year.

  • Have a coffee delivered to them at school if their campus allows deliveries (Because goodness knows they aren’t able to leave their campus to pick it up themselves).
  • Choose one of their Amazon Wishlists to purchase items from. Many teachers spend hundreds of dollars a year buying supplies for their classrooms and students
  • Make double of your dinner one night and drop it off for a family of educators. Better yet, make a couple of meals for them that they can freeze and have on hand.
  • Give them a gift certificate to have their house or car cleaned
  • Offer to help with menial classroom tasks before school starts or on the weekends (like completing bulletin boards, stapling worksheet packets, cleaning out a classroom closet, etc)
  • Pray with them and for them.
  • Whatever you do, do NOT offhandedly and vaguely suggest they increase their self-care unless you are willing to take something off of their plate so that they are able to have a moment to themselves.

 

References:

1. 51st Annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. (2019, September). Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://pdkpoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/pdkpoll51-2019.pdf

2. Klein, A. (2022, March 1). Superficial self-care? stressed-out teachers say no thanks. Education Week. Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/superficial-self-care-stressed-out-teachers-say-no-thanks/2022/03

3. Lopez, B. (2022, July 19). Rural Texas districts struggling to attract teachers are switching to four-day school weeks. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/19/texas-schools-four-day-weeks/

4. Lopez, B. (2022, July 25). It’s not just covid-19: Why Texas faces a teacher shortage. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/25/texas-teacher-shortage/

5. Ozamiz-Etxebarria, N., Idoiaga Mondragon, N., Bueno-Notivol, J., Pérez-Moreno, M., & Santabárbara, J. (2021). Prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid systematic review with meta-analysis. Brain Sciences, 11(9), 1172. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091172

6. Potash, B. (2021, December 29). What we can do about teacher demoralization. Spark Creativity. Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2021/12/143-what-we-can-do-about-teacher-demoralization-with-doris-santoro.html

7. Santoro, D. A. (2018). Demoralized: Why teachers leave the profession they love and How they can stay. Harvard Education Press.

8. Santoro, D. A. (2019, November 25). The problem with stories about teacher ‘Burnout’. kappanonline.org. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://kappanonline.org/teacher-burnout-stories-moral-objections-santoro/

9. Stieber, D. (2022, February 14). America’s teachers aren’t burned out. we are demoralized. – edsurge news. EdSurge. Retrieved August 8, 2022, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-02-14-america-s-teachers-aren-t-burned-out-we-are-demoralized

10. Walker, T. (2021, November 12). Getting serious about teacher Burnout. NEA. Retrieved August 7, 2022, from https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/getting-serious-about-teacher-burnout