Laura Privette retweetou
Many Educators Are Not Okay!
Many educators are not okay right now and if you listen closely, you can feel it in the hallways, in the staff meetings, and in the quiet moments after dismissal. Over the past five years, the data has only confirmed what so many of us have experienced firsthand. Around 62% of teachers report frequent job-related stress compared to just 33% of other working adults, and more than half say they are burned out. In fact, teaching consistently ranks among the most burned-out professions, with roughly 52% of educators reporting chronic burnout. This is not about one bad year. It is a sustained pattern. Teachers are being asked to do more than ever, manage behavior, support student mental health, meet rising academic expectations, prepare students for high-stakes testing, and do it all with limited time and increasing scrutiny. Add in constant negative press, initiative overload, and unrealistic expectations, and it becomes a perfect storm for compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion.
And the impact is real. About 1 in 7 teachers leaves the profession or moves schools every year. Nearly 70% of early-career teachers consider leaving within their first five years. Some estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of teachers may exit the profession in the coming years. That is not just a staffing issue, that is a human one.
As a therapist and former school principal, I have seen this up close. Good people are not leaving because they stopped caring. They are leaving because they have cared too much for too long without enough support.
But here is the hopeful part, this is fixable.
We can start by protecting time. Fewer initiatives. More focus. If everything is a priority, nothing is. Give teachers permission to do fewer things better.
We can rebuild connection. Adults need Maslow before Bloom too. Staff meetings that include check-ins, appreciation, and psychological safety are not fluff, they are fuel.
We can reduce the noise. Limit unnecessary emails, meetings, and compliance tasks that pull teachers away from what matters most, relationships and instruction.
We can shift the narrative. Celebrate the good publicly and often. What gets spotlighted gets repeated.
And most importantly, we can remind educators of something they often forget, you are allowed to take care of yourself. You cannot pour into others when your own cup is empty.
Many educators are not okay. But they can be, if we are willing to change the conditions, not just expect them to keep pushing through.
Join the discussion at: Facebook.com/groups/maslowb…
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