New Study Shows Parents May Be Most To Blame For Teacher Burnout
Thursday January 3, 2008
Although I doubt anyone could say that a teacher "burns out" of the profession for any single reason, a recent article in the New York Times suggests that parents play a large part in educators' decisions to leave the classroom, maybe even more than unruly students or demanding administrators.
Teachers, does this conclusion sound right to you? What aspects of the teaching profession have done the most damage to your morale and/or commitment to the job?
Comments
I believe teacher burnout is caused mostly by the school system not appreciating our teachers. Teachers are a dime a dozen in my college town and you are given the impression that you are not worth anything and can be replace at any time. I wonder if we would get that same feeling if we were not in a town filled with universities and colleges.
Teachers are required to perform too many duties outside of teaching. We don’t have enough time to spend on a subject before it is time to focus on another subject. I leave my classroom wondering if my students really understand the given concept which was presented within the forty minutes provided. I say forty minutes, because it takes five minutes for the class to settle down.
I think that burnout is caused when we let that which we have no control over consume us. We do have control over what we do in the classroom and over how we react to an uncaring administration, helicopter parents, etc. I have learned how to deal with people so that they leave feeling like we have worked out any issues. In my twelve years in education, I have rarely had a parent that has not ultimately given me respect for how I deal with his/her child.
Remember, you are important in all of your students’ lives!
I agree with the previous posters that we are overworked, and often lack support from administrators and some parents. I also agree that we are sometimes our worst enemies, trying to do it all:teach, counsel, nurse, parent, you name it. Then we’re discouraged that we don’t get it all done perfectly! I think it has more to do with daily demands than parents.
Parents can indeed be a source of stress for us teachers. The last straw for me at a previous job was when a parent chose to blame me for her daughter’s “F” instead of the real reason: the student never did any of the assignments. Currently, the biggest stress at my job is lack of creative control. We are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach–absolutely horrific.
In my school we don’t have helicopter parents, we have just the opposite – too many parents who are completely uninvolved in their child’s education. Their idea of helping their child study is sending them to their room with their spelling list, etc. in hand. We’ve tried having parent sessions to help them out, but no one comes. We go over strategies when we have parent conferences, and they smile and nod, but nothing changes. We have afterschool tutorials that help, but nothing takes the place of a concerned, helpful parent at home. I realize that parents have their own concerns and stresses, but it’s so frustrating to see children falling behind and know that with a little help at home, they could do so much better. So,in this sense, yes, I think parents can be a cause of burn-out.
I think saying it is the main reason is an overstatement. It does however play a role. I taught for eight years and decided to call it quits and stay home and raise my kids. Parents did play a role in my decision. I left shortly before my original planned date for maternity leave. My early leave was directly related to parents. My decision not to return to teaching was my children. However it was student and parental behavior that made me not miss teaching.
After going through so many classes and certifications, it is so annoying to have some parents, who don’t have a degree in my subject, telling me how it should be taught or how I should handle my class. When I make a recommendation, it is always second guessed and we are sometimes made to feel as though we aren’t the professionals we trained to be but some moody lady who “doesn’t like my son/daughter”.
Adding other “duties” is also an issue.. a 45 minute prep is not enough for teaching and preparing correctly and well for the students. What lunch duty has to do with my career is beyond me.
I am an intern teacher just beginning my teaching career, but we call each parent once a week to keep them informed about their child and progress or problems. I hear many parents giving excuses for their child and also blaming previous teachers and schools. There have been several days that I have left at the end of the school day and questioned whether this is for me.
In regard to parental involvement, it seems as though our school has one extreme or the other: either parents don’t participate in their child’s education at all, or they constantly hound us on a daily basis for oftentimes trivial reasons. For me, parents do play a part in feeling burned out, but the biggest factor is lack of administrative support where it really counts. Hey, thanks for the free t-shirts and lunches throughout the year, but I’d really rather have you spend the money on much-needed materials that we are expected to buy ourselves! Sound familiar, anyone?
After 35 years in education, with 25 years as a school principal, I can affirm parents are a majority cause of teacher burnout. I have had excellent teachers with only a few I counseled into other professions. I miss the years of parental support for teachers vs. present day mentality of everything wrong with a child is the teachers fault. I am grateful for the excellent teachers I have had the pleasure of working with over the years.
I was a daycare provider for 12 yrs specializing in infants and toddlers and I had more problems with the parents than I did the kids. One mom was upset because I didn’t hold the bottle for her 11 mo old child who was capable of holding her own bottle. This is just one example of how petty parents can be. I wouldn’t doubt that teachers have more problems with the parents than the kids.
What caused burnout for me? Not parents. It was the hollow drive toward “professionalism” that wrongly assumes that attending more workshops and being observed more often produces good learning in a classroom. Paperwork surrounds every workshop and every observation, for instance. Students lose out as teachers are pushed to learn new techniques at the expense of time spent with their students and preparing work for them.
I’ve been teaching for 9 years, and my biggest source of frustration has been administrators who are unsupportive of teachers (and discipline). I work in a district with a great deal of gang activity, and had a new principal who refused to acknowledge gang existence and influence. It’s something that we, as teachers, deal with on a daily basis. I’ve never had an issue with parents – mostly because they’re too busy working several jobs just to keep a roof over their heads to hover over their children’s educational experiences. I agree that having to be the nurse/counselor/parent, as well as the teacher, takes a significant toll on my ability to keep going. Couple that with the intense push toward getting schools out of PI (Performance Improvement) status with few resources, and living in a very expensive area with a low rate of pay, and teaching becomes an overwhelming task sometimes. I love my students, and that’s what keeps me going!
I have been a teacher for over 35 years at the secondary school level in Nigeria. I had enjoyed teh early years of teaching but now things have changed. Some parents even come to schools and slap teachers and they get away with that. Teachers’ burn out is visible in my country as a result of most newly-rich parents in the developing nations who believe that their money is all that’s needed to get things done their own way. The children are disrespectful to teachers because they take to heart the sometimes nasty and belittling statements their parents make about teachers’ poverty. In most cases, these parents are not really educated, by way of having university degrees and so they would want to make up for their deficiencies through their children. Most of them really prod and push their chilfren to an extent that these childrren become rebellious not to the parents but to the teachers. Such parents complain about everything in the school while in fact, they had little or no experience of what a school should be like. All governments must look into teaching and teachers’ problems because all over the deloping world, which I know well, young people do not want to teach. When they teach, they are birds of passage. Who, then, will be responsible for the education of the future generation?
I am in my first year of teaching. What I find most frustrating are the students that think class time is their time to goof off and talk with their friends. Then, they complain about too much homework. Parents of many of these students are not supportive and tend to agree that there is too much homework. I teach at the middle school level and I love my students, but I can see how and why many new teachers burn out quickly. I was a non-traditional student, and am now in my 40’s so I think I see things a bit differently. Accountability is a major issue. The students are not held accountable for their behavior. A teacher is more likely to have a parent come in and complain that their child is in trouble, than to have a parent come in in support of the teacher and the rules of the school. I think we need to get back to the basics. Teachers should teach, parents should back the teachers, and students should do what is assigned. Time management is also an issue. Students need to learn how to be students and how to manage their time as well. I decided to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a teacher when my own children were in school and I think I see the issues from both perspectives.
I feel that too many expectations coupled with high personal standards are to blame for teacher burn-out. Not enough time is spent on teaching children reading, writing and math skills. We are torn in so many directions and don’t spend enough time on the things that matter most. The many hours spent on report cards after a very busy day with students and for many, our families, is also a great cause of stress for this teacher. How can one be expected to write such a professional report at 8 o’clock at night. That for me, is the greatest cause for burn-out.
The greatest causes of teacher burnout are: constant testing, lack of support from administration, unrealistic expectations, and of course low pay. All students can learn, but it is not fair for the government (or whatever powers that be) to expect teachers to perform miracles. It is also not fair for students to have such pressure to perform well on state-mandated tests. Teachers do the best with what they have. Teachers are not treated as professionals either-more respect needs to be given to teachers. People- get real, and back to basics.
Diann, You are exactly right about every single comment you made. Every thing you listed is happening at my school. It is one of he saddest changes I have seen. Thanks for posting.
Whatever takes place in the home, eventually reaches the classroom. My approach to avoiding “burnout” is to create a separate classroom culture where I’m able to teach, and students are able to learn. I set the tone for expectations, and behaviors, which earns the respect of most. You have to get everyone on board with your goals — students, parents, colleagues and as much as possible, administration. Otherwise, the classroom environment becomes a chaotic mess and burnout is sure to follow. You’ve got to lead, or you end up being led.
Boy, does this discussion address an issue our school is currently dealing with. Right now a young, dynamic teacher is off on stress leave largely because of one student and his parents. The student has mental health issues but the parents have taken a blame-the-school approach rather than actually helping their son with his real problems. We (I’m the Special Ed teacher) have met with parents multiple times, compromised, met their demands, adjusted our teaching strategies according to what everyone thinks is best for the child. However, the child (who is almost a teenager) still hits people, hurts himself, disrupts others etc. etc. And the parents continue to blame the school, no matter what their son does! It is frustrating for the teachers; but it is also very sad to see the young boy suffering and not being helped.
I hope I am not causing burn out for the teachers I am in contact with – I have two boys one in grade two one in sr. Kindergarten both ADHD – both being treated with meds and behaviour modification. I try to be supportive with the teachers and I respect what they do and have to put up with. I’d like to know what the term “helicopter” parent is – I’m praying I am not one of them – but if so I need to change:)
Parents are a big piece of the pie for teacher burnout, not just for their complaints, but also because too many of them believe that teachers are the only ones responsible for their child’s education. If the parent is not checking homework, reading to and with their child, is not exposing their child to outside positive experiences that field trips used to do, there isn’t much hope that their child will get a really good education. Also, the No Child Left Behind Act is causing unbelievable havoc and stress on many teachers. We are losing many excellent teachers for these reasons and because of low pay.
I have been teaching for 12 years. I am still very young, but cannot handle the kids anymore. Their behavior is uncontrollable in the classroom. Parents are not on our side anymore. The teacher is always wrong. We never do anything right.
I appreciate everyones’ post, I can relate to many of them. I teach at an inner city school, which is very successful and I am starting to get very frustrated with the amount of paperwork that is being piled into our lap. Haven’t they ever heard of the expression,”If it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” This is just ridiculous. We have hours of paperwork to do now, but what we were doing before was working, so why are they asking us to change? It’s about the instruction, not the fifty million rubrics and checklists attached to every piece of paper. State testing is another issue. If they’re going to give us these tests, can my students at least take it in May so that I don’t have to cram a year’s supply of math into six months?
I don’t think parents are as much of the problem as all NCLB(No teacher left unscrewed)
and all of its incredibly stupid results are. In the 12 years I’ve been teaching the paperwork has tripled, my time has become rigidly structured(no time for a teachable moment if it’s not on the pacing guide), and the stress level for students has gone through the roof from the endless round of pointless testing. I remember hands-on science and social study units. Now I have 15 minutes for Science AND Social Study, even thogh 5th grade takes a state mandated Science test, half of which is 4th grade standards we don’t get to during the year.
My school is one of the oldest in the district with a low socio-economic group of students, many of their parents being illegal immigrants. We are a PI (program improvement) 5 and have been told that we may all be moved
and replaced, even though many of us choose to teach here because we know we can make the biggest difference here. The most frustrating (and burnout creating) fact is that we’ve contoinue to improve every year but because our Sp ed and African American(small groups) populations haven’t met their goals, we are ALL failures. Let’s face it, everyone needs positive stokes now and then, but if you, as a group, keep getting told you failed AGAIN, people lose hope and quit.
I am currently on medical leave fighting cancer, which probably was partially brought on by the enormous stress of the last 6-7 years.
I think that the demands of what children are supposed to be doing and society have made teaching hard for some teachers and parents. Both sides want what is best for the child, but sometimes it is hard for parents to work with others for what is best for the child or to look at what the child is doing in school. I am a kindergarten teacher and I get a lot of resistance from parents when I tell them that I have some concerns. Parents don’t want to hear it, especially when children are young and then many of them will get past it or it will stay with them. When teachers have parents that “stress them out” they need to have supportive administrators or that will add to the stress and teacher burn out.
I am mazed that how can teachers write all these comments???? bc it needs some time, which is not available to poor teachers. A job of teacher is full time (24 hours) job. eight hours school time, and sixteen hours for planning lessons, checking note books and worksheets, making worksheets, monthly tests anf terminal exams papers etc etc. The result is horrible parents making excuses and searching blaming teachers mistakes and advising suggestions etc……………….. God bless pitty teachers and prevent them from burnouts………
I am 52 tears old and have only been teaching for 5 years. I teach 8th grade English in a suburban Phila. public school. I can honestly say that if the economy wasn’t in the state that it is in, I would quit TOMORROW. I’ve had two absolutely HORRIFIC situations with parents who verbally annihilated me because in one case I gave their child a “B,” and in another case I caught their child blatantly cheating on a test. I an BURNT OUT – I dread each day going in to school wondering when another unexpected and undeserved bomb will drop. I have administrative support, but it just doesn’t stop the flow of tears that result when I get home after being attacked, maligned, and abused by nut-job parents.