Why teachers should stop trying to hide their emotions in school
There is a great deal of talk about how schools need to address the social and emotional needs of students, and that is indisputably true. But this post isn’t about that. It’s about teachers, and the hidden emotional toll that their job takes on them. In this unusual post, Ruben Brosbe, a third-grade teacher in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of New York City, writes about the difficulty teachers have in talking about their feelings about their job — and how gender plays a role in that dynamic.
Brosbe likes hands-on learning and talking about social justice, and he says that he loves the different challenges that every day brings nin his class. When he’s not teaching he likes to cook or explore new parts of New York City. This post was originally posted on The Educator’s Room here, and I am republishing it with permission.
By Ruben Brosbe
I was recently called into a meeting unexpectedly and given the news that one of my students would probably not be returning to school this year. The news and the surrounding circumstances hit me with a wave of emotions.
After discussing logistics such as how to mark her attendance and what to tell her classmates, I was dismissed. I made it about halfway down the hallway before I realized I was not ready to go back into my classroom. I asked a colleague to cover my classroom for a minute. I walked to the bathroom and cried. I felt a profound sense of loss and sadness.
Teachers — especially those of us who spend all day with the same students — forge deep relationships with the young people in our classrooms. Along the way of teaching them how to read, write and enumerate, we are also getting to know them as human beings. Even when these relationships are fraught with conflict, we care for these students as if they are family.
We don’t often talk about it, but at the end of the year, along with the sweet relief of summer vacation, there’s a pang of sadness. The end of the year is a goodbye. In the course of a school year I have spent roughly 1,000 hours with my students. In addition to lessons, tests and field trips, these hours have included birthdays, team builders and difficult conversations. Meanwhile, these hours have been filled with countless little interactions where I provide Why teachers should stop trying to hide their emotions in school - The Washington Post: