More Than Just Teachers Retiring

 

More Than Just Teachers Retiring

The last couple of days, I've had an eye-opening revelation. I have long understood and predicted that a large number of teachers would retire from the profession or retire to seek their fortunes elsewhere as a result of the pandemic and the circumstances facing them in classrooms this fall. But I had not thought about the problems that would affect princiapals and administrators up the chain of command. But the last couple of days, there have been a number of articles in different places reporting on principals of schools or superintendents of education directors of school boards indicating that they were leaving.  It is one thing to lose teachers but something else entirely when one location loses its leadership. The assumption is that it is the leadership who that is going to help schools get through.  I completely overlooked that the pressure on them would be immense.  One has to wonder how a director of education can find the strength of character to stand up to the powers that be and demand more money for all the things that his or her district require to facilitate students entering schools and staying safe given the problems with dealing with the pandemic.  If anything, I would have to imagine that the pressure on upper and lower management is far greater than that on the teachers in their classrooms. If I was a teacher, I would do what I have to do to do the best by my students. ButI would be leaving all the major decisions to those above me in the chain. But now, those above on the chain are under often superhuman challenges.  Safety issues, ventilation questions, staffing calculations, money for all the ppe and sanitizer stuff and how to staff a school so that the teachers don't feel overwhelmed by the numbers and the parents believe that their kids are safe.  I would imagine that in many school districts, it is a total fiasco trying to deal with all the challenges. The question though becomes how to the politicians pulling the strings answer the calls from their hired help, so to speak, to make what they want happen.  in the United States, on top of all the questions, you have the struggle over public versus private school funding and you have a recipe for total disaster.  Th equation will be, what will things look like a year from now?   Who will be left to pick up all the pieces. I worry about my young friends in classrooms today.  A part of me wishes I could just roll up my sleeves and get to work to help out.