Overview

Teaching is one of the most stressful jobs in the world. You are on stage for 6 hours a day, managing 30 energetic/difficult humans, with low pay and high pressure from parents and principals. 50% of new teachers quit within the first 5 years. This is the Burnout Crisis.

Core Idea

The core idea is Emotional Labor. Teachers don’t just teach math; they manage emotions. They comfort crying kids, break up fights, and absorb the trauma of their students. This drains the battery.

Formal Definition

A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations. Symptoms: Exhaustion, Cynicism, Inefficacy.

Intuition

  • The Candle: You can’t light another candle if your own flame has gone out. Teachers are expected to set themselves on fire to keep others warm. Eventually, they turn to ash.

Examples

  • The “Hero Teacher” Myth: Movies like Freedom Writers show teachers working 18 hours a day, buying books with their own money, and saving every kid. This sets an impossible standard. If you aren’t a martyr, you feel like a failure.
  • Standardized Testing: The pressure to raise scores adds massive stress. Teachers feel like they are teaching robots, not kids.

Common Misconceptions

  • They have summers off: Most teachers spend summer planning, grading, or working a second job to pay the bills.
  • It’s just “stress”: Burnout is different. Stress is “too much” (too much work). Burnout is “not enough” (not enough hope, not enough meaning).
  • Compassion Fatigue: The cost of caring. When you care too much for too long, you go numb.
  • Self-Care: The proposed solution (Yoga, Meditation). But critics say: “You can’t yoga your way out of a broken system.”

Applications

  • Retention: Schools are trying to fix burnout by offering better pay, smaller classes, and more respect.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Systemic Issue: Burnout isn’t an individual failure; it’s a workplace hazard.

Further Reading

  • Santoro, Doris. Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay.