As a part-time associate professor who teaches graduate courses at The New School, I’m very fortunate in that I get great feedback and appreciation from my students. However, last month I had lunch with a dear friend and his girlfriend, who is a high-school teacher in an upscale Long Island school district. She was complaining about how poorly she was treated by parents and students. Therefore, I thought of her when I read the lead item on Axios Finish Line yesterday (June 8), titled “How to Help Stressed Teachers.” Here are Axios’s suggestions:
Say “thank you.” Teachers tell us they rarely receive a simple thanks from parents and community members. Tell the teachers in your life you appreciate them, and post on social media to spread the message in your network.- Make calls and write letters. Pick up the phone and thank the teachers who changed your life. If you don’t have their numbers, look for them on social media and reach out there. And write notes and cards to the teachers at your local public schools.
- Volunteer. If you have the time, step up to volunteer in classrooms, in the library or in the cafeteria — and try to give our teachers and school staff a long-overdue break.
- Give them gift cards for school supplies and a stash of healthy snacks — they are among the few people outside the home who know a kid is hungry.
- Be kind. When you’re emailing your child’s teacher, remember that they’re barraged with demands and complaints. Be cheerful, appreciative and efficient: They may well be answering you on their own time.
- Bring donuts. It may sound frivolous, but it’s not. Show up with goodies or coffee to your kids’ school. Little gestures like that don’t fix the situation. But they sure make it more tolerable, says Brooke Olsen-Farrell, superintendent of the Slate Valley Unified School District in Vermont.
- Empathize. Dial back the political attacks on teachers. They, like all of us, are simply trying to do what’s best for our kids. Usually your issues are with the PTA or the union anyway.
The bottom line: Recognize the crazy stress teachers face. They joined a once admired, albeit modestly paid, profession — and now are vulnerable to physical attack, while being pelted with political grievances.
