Guest post: Public Education Has Reached a Breaking Point and The Only Way Forward is to Heal the Teachers
A guest post from Dr. Emily King
I’m so excited this week to bring you my first ever GUEST POST. Dr. Emily W. King holds a Ph.D. in school psychology and specializes in working with neurodivergent children, in partnership with their teachers and parents, as they navigate a world that wasn’t built for them. You can learn more at Dr. Emily and her work at www.learnwithdremily.com.
In March of 2021, I vaxxed up and masked up in order to provide in-person play therapy again. I hadn’t treated a child in my psychology practice since March of 2020 when I shifted from playing on the floor to providing mental health triage via telehealth to children living in social isolation learning through a screen. Surely playing in person, even masked, would be more effective than telehealth.
Over a year later, I can say that in many ways it has been better. There’s a rhythm and energy you can feel when playing with a child in person that you can’t feel through video. I know our teachers can feel it, too. It feels good to be in the room with your students. Yet so many teachers have told me that the 2021-22 school year was even harder than the previous one. You know, the one where we were in lockdown.
I felt this in my psychology practice, too. While telehealth in that first year of the pandemic was not ideal for my youngest clients, I found work-arounds by offering more parent sessions and having kids take me on tours of their house. (Meeting everyone’s pets sustained me). We were all in very similar circumstances, so we felt less alone. It worked for a little while because everyone’s expectations were low.
However, as the 2021-22 school year ramped up, the cumulative effects of limited social interaction and parent and teacher stress became evident. I was no longer triaging social isolation and acute problem-solving; instead, I was faced with teaching interpersonal skills, managing depressed moods, and helping children cope with anxiety related to the current events of the world.
And then there was school. After the year our children had just had, they were expected to jump back into a standardized curriculum that was designed before the pandemic even began. In my clinical work, I saw more school refusal, higher anxiety about academic performance, increased social stress, and weaker work habits for all ages. Everyone was out of practice and stamina was low, yet the educational standards remained the same. If we want to move our children (and society) forward, we cannot keep doing what we have done before. It just doesn’t fit anymore.
I am often asked: Will kids socially rebound? Will their mental health improve? Will they catch up academically? While these are all very important questions, these are not the right questions for this moment. We need to be asking about the health of the change-makers in this situation: The teachers.
Schools are not defined by the building, they are made great by the people. So, while we are all eager to know how much the pandemic has impacted our kids, the most important question is this:
How will we heal the teachers who have decided to stay in education and how will we train new teachers for a role that is vastly different than just 20 years ago?
A look back
No system works for everyone. Public education is designed as a top-down model where the curriculum is designed for the masses without consideration of children’s individual differences in the classroom. While schools differentiate instruction through special education and academically gifted programs, because of the variable learning experiences of the last two years, it’s very possible that every student will need some form of differentiated instruction moving forward.
Yet, before any instruction can take place, students must trust their teacher. Learning is a vulnerable experience where we are asked to take risks and make mistakes. No one can help prepare a student’s nervous system for learning better than the teacher on the ground. Teachers know how to connect and engage, but they often must resort to school-wide behavioral systems because they need students to remain seated and listen so they can get through the material.
In a world where teachers are measured on student performance rather than quality of connections, no wonder kids are getting the message that only academics are important. The irony here is that academic achievement isn’t even the sole measure of success for adults. We also need motivation, executive functioning, interpersonal skills, and the ability to remain emotionally regulated when faced with problems. We need our teachers to be able to model this resilience for their students.
A look ahead
In my opinion, a society is only worth its investment in its future. Our future relies on how well we educate our youth and the education of our youth relies on the mental health of our teachers. The pandemic has led to so much teacher turnover that we’re at a pivotal moment in public education.
Some argue that schools need more funding for supplies (they do). Some argue that a standardized curriculum improves learning outcomes (for some). But all the supplies and the best-designed curriculum cannot build relationships. Teachers build relationships and relationships cost time, energy, and yes, money.
We know from neuroscience that in an adult-child relationship the adult’s nervous system must first be stable before helping the child feel safe and connected (the foundation of all learning). Teachers are trained to deliver instruction, but they are also asked to keep students safe, counsel emotional needs, resolve social conflicts, and communicate all of this with parents. This is incredibly hard and important work that must be rewarded and supported. Of course teachers deserve higher pay for their time and energy, but what they also need is help. More funding is needed for more positions, more support staff, more mental health professionals, and more nurses to help schools thrive.
We also need to listen to teachers and school administrators. If a general in the U.S. Military asked the president for more anything to complete a mission, the Commander in Chief would likely trust that general, not question their needs. I know public education has a massive budget. So does our military.
We can vote in local and state elections for people who visit schools and listen to teachers and school administrators about what they need to effectively do their job. And, we can volunteer.
When teachers feel safe, supported, and rewarded, they will then be able to use their energy to foster a child’s curiosity, follow it to a teachable moment, and see the light on a child’s face when the learning sparks. It’s the spark that leads that child to continue their learning, which is the cornerstone of our future.
Thank you to Dr. Emily for this guest post! You can find Dr. Emily on The Socials at @emilywkingphd (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). I will be back next week with the first of several exciting interviews that will be coming fast and furious this summer. If you enjoyed this post, won’t you consider becoming a subscriber? I’m so grateful to those of you who are supporting me with a paid subscription — you are helping keep this newsletter going!