BUFFALO, N.Y. — Teacher burnout is real.
The National Education Association called recent results of a new survey of teachers a "five-alarm crisis."
Like many industries, schools are still dealing with ongoing staffing shortages which continue to take a toll on the remaining staff, leaving many feeling fatigued and stressed.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 567,000 fewer educators in America's public schools today than there were pre-pandemic.
Alisa Officer has been an educator for 13 years, 12 of which she spent in the classroom as a math teacher. Officer is now the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Health Sciences Charter School in Buffalo and says the reality is many teachers are suffering from immense fatigue as a result of the build-up over the past two years. That's also taking into consideration the demands of the job itself.
"Just because class starts at eight doesn't mean you start at eight, especially when you're teaching K-12. It's a beast in itself.," Officer says. "You may have human needs and wants and you know, you're tired, but it really kind of gets put to the backburner when it comes to students because their needs and their wants will always come first. And that is the job we know we signed up for."
But if you consider the many ways in which COVID-19 changed life as we know it, then it's also understandable to consider how the needs and wants of many students doubled, even tripled during the pandemic.
"Assistant principals were back in the classroom, because there were no other options in some schools," Officer says. "I'm an asthmatic with allergies and trying to teach with a mask on. It was hard, it's just impossible to do."
Veteran Buffalo Public School Teacher Mike Jeffers agrees and says the educational community needs to change if there are hopes of seeing more people join the profession.
"20 years ago, when I started, if I wanted to get a job as a social studies teacher, anywhere, in theory, Niagara County, you would have 400 other applicants going for the same position," Jeffers explains. "That's not the case now. We have so many positions to be filled within the Buffalo Public Schools, and even in the suburban districts."
In some cases, staffing issues are leaving students without the one-on-one attention that they need to succeed.
"We need more teachers. The issue is, a lot of young kids, they do not want to go into the teaching profession, because they do feel they're undervalued, they do feel they're underpaid," Jeffers continues. "It is difficult, but we push through because we have to."
Officer and Jeffers agree more support, at all levels, and better incentives for teachers in the future could not only with recruitment efforts, but with retention as well.
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