Let’s Pontificate About Stress

I had a former teaching partner who introduced me to the word ‘pontificate.’ Fun word, which Webster says is “expressing one’s opinion in a way considered annoyingly pompous and dogmatic.”

OK…I’m good with that.

Stress--again defined by Webster, “is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.”

OK….that would be teaching in a middle school.

My previous teaching partner (referred to above) had a theory about stress in the confines of the school building. His theory in a nutshell: Every school building/environment has a given amount of stress to be shared within its walls. Those sharing the stress include staff members and students. When it becomes apparent the STAFF is more stressed than the STUDENTS, we have a problem!!!

Last week’s Late-Start faculty meeting was just such an example! We were very crabby with each other. Everyone shared their frustrations about the students, the lack of support from the parents, nothing seems to work…. The facts actually focus on a few parents and a few kids….but our frustration level is soooo very high, it feels like our entire school-world is doomed!!

Springtime is ALWAYS difficult for staff. The school year is winding down; sometimes not fast enough, but always too fast because of ‘things’ teachers want to impart to their students while they have the chance. We’re still on the ‘MISSION’ until the very last day.

Then to compound things, we are all trying to prepare for the next year. We need to ‘hit the ground running’ next year. We have class assignments and schedules to complete. We have books to order if the up-coming class is bigger and/or to cover the ‘destroyed’ books. We must order materials and supplies with our DWINDLING classroom budgets. Currently, we have $150 per teacher. (I have 75 kids on average each year----$150 for ALL…..yeah riiiight!)

We have inventories of equipment and furniture….again making sure there’s enough for next year. Student records need to be finalized for both special education AND regular ed kids. Summer maintenance forms need to be finished. Library and textbooks must be accounted for and all fines paid, lockers must be cleaned and locks labeled. Our ‘Check-Out’ packet is a monumental task in itself.

THEN there is the turmoil regarding who is teaching what and in what room. We MUST reconfigure each year depending on the students coming to us from the grade below. So, stress levels are always high at the end of the school year.

Spring of 08-09 school year was painful! Kansas’ financial situation is like everywhere else; NO MONEY….revenues were WAY down. Unemployment reduced income tax, sales tax revenues down as no one has any money to buy anything. And, of course, because education is the highest expenditure for the State; schools were hit hard!! My small school system lost classroom teachers, at-risk teachers, and classified positions.

This year, 09-10, is much worse. State revenues continue to come up short. State is missing ‘payment deadlines’ to its schools, putting the school in danger of not making payroll. The schools have stretched every dollar, cut expenditures while trying to keep the ‘cuts’ from impacting kids and their learning. For the upcoming year the ‘cuts’ will be deeper, again losing positions. We are now looking at student programs we can’t afford to fund. Class size could be increasing significantly.

AND we won’t know how ‘deep’ we have to go until the Legislators tell us, which could be after school is closed up for the summer.

AND we won’t know who has jobs and who needs to sign up for unemployment until school is ‘next-to’ over for 09-10.

NOW, let’s think about stress and this school year.

Yes…there is more! The 09-10 school year has been a powder-keg from the beginning. A few students have controlled the school environment….AND, apparently, their HOME environment as well. These VERY SMART children have figured out how to get the adults in their lives on opposing sides and ‘combating’ each other; thereby, leaving the kid alone and getting himself/herself out of trouble. Once the kid has expertly directed the ‘blame’ elsewhere he/she is HOME FREE!

And we fell for it this year!! By ‘we’ I mean school staff and parents. Shame on us!

Soooooo, besides all the ‘normal’ stress factors, we have the added financial issues, and have been ‘puppeting’ for our kids. AND, of course, we KNOW our community/parents are facing financial issues just as is the school. We ALL just want desperately to make everything ‘OK’ for ALL, and we CAN’T! The kids ‘smelled’ weakness, and they went for the jugular.

So….now we have a ‘stage’ for the stress thing! I think it is quite obvious most of the stress in our school building is being shoulder by the staff (teachers, paras, office, administrators, custodians). Ninety-five percent of the kids are ‘hanging’ in there, are resilient; but once again not really shouldering their share of the stress. I would refer to these kids in the ‘stress interaction bubble’ as PASSIVE. They are not taking in stress or dishing it out.

So, let’s look at the remaining 5% of the students. Their role is that of the ‘stress giver’ AND they do it WELL!! This year the adults in the building are worn out… completely!!! And with that weariness, we have lost our resilience AND for the last 9 weeks have been the ‘stress absorbers.’

As my former teaching partner would acclaim,

THE BUILDING IS OUT-OF-BALANCE!!

So….what to do, what to do, what to do?

Admitting we have a problem is the FIRST STEP!! Actually, first step would have been to not let this happen. Some of the past ‘feel-good, touchy-feely’ years supported ‘don’t stress the kids.’ WRONG then and WRONG now!!

Stress is a motivator. It can be very beneficial. The KEY is to MANAGE the stress. Put the ‘individual responsibility’ back on the students’ shoulders—where it should have been all along. Kids NEED stress! They MUST learn to manage it while with us. We can guide them in this skill, as we should. Being able to manage stress is essential to a happy and productive adult life. (This is NOW the morning mediation message for us.)

Back to the problem – At this point in the school-year, we need to look ahead and talk about improving our action/reaction skills, put in place some ‘triggers’ to identify the 5% ‘stinkers’ early. Place these kids on a specific acceptable behavior plan and let them earn ‘freedoms’ once trust has been earned. We KNOW these kids. The only ‘surprises’ are new kids to the district. AND it has been the ‘same-ol, same-ol’ issues every year. We KNOW this….how about fixing it NEXT year!!

BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS YEAR?
Get more sleep, take more vitamins, get massages weekly, and hunker down into the ‘survival’ mode!! FINISH the year in SOLIDARITY! GO TEACHERS!!!!