Toll on teachers in Saskatchewan becoming too much

Profession's `best and brightest' are burning out, says Elizabeth Breese.

Well, Saskatchewan, this is it. We have hit a critical point in education in Saskatchewan. This round of bargaining has brought us to a crossroads.

It has brought to light what all of us in education have been screaming from the rooftops for several years. Help! We need support!

My family emigrated to Canada from Portugal in the 1970s to escape an authoritarian government and seek opportunities in Canada. At the time, Portugal had the lowest literacy rate in Western Europe, and my grandparents didn't know how to read or write, even their names.

My family has always valued education, and they highly respect educators. They were incredibly proud when I became one. It was a desirable profession then, and getting a job in the late 1990s and early 2000s was competitive.

The profession was attracting the “best and brightest”; you had to work hard and possess many gifts to stand out and get a teaching position.

For the beginning part of my career, I quickly had to adapt to how much time and energy it took to plan lessons, manage the classroom, assess student work, communicate with families and develop professionally.

I realized that the reality of the profession was not the same as the appeal that drew me to it in the first place, but I loved my job and felt that the work I was doing was meaningful and appreciated; I could see the impact that educators had and felt supported in the work I was doing.

This is essential work, but it is becoming more challenging to feel the same way about the profession. So much has changed. It has always been a demanding role that comes with many misconceptions.

Still, the increase in the number of students experiencing significant challenges, the time it takes to be the ones to address the complex needs of students adequately, the increasing demand for teachers to do more with less, and the toll it takes on our own families comes at a personal cost and is causing high burnout rates.

When teachers are demoralized and disrespected, especially when asking for help to support student learning, it significantly impacts the profession and our kids' education. I never imagined the vilification.

To recruit and retain the “best and brightest,” the bare minimum is to treat them with respect and dignity; they should also see that being an educated professional deems them experts in their field.

If you are a student right now and watching the lengths to which your teachers have to fight to get the support needed to do their jobs, would you sign up? What will happen to the system when those of us who are further along in our careers are gone, and the young ones stop signing up, but the kids keep coming?

In the meantime, our students are falling behind, the system is crumbling and teachers must decide if it is worth continuing the fight. I never saw this coming.

Saskatchewan must decide what road they want to go down. Do we stay the current course and veer off the road altogether, or change direction and use this opportunity to negotiate during an election year? Now is the time. How will the people of Saskatchewan respond?