I met with the president of a local teachers’ union on Friday for a cup of coffee and a truly excellent conversation about education writ large, the state of teaching, and the future of the profession. It was a wide-ranging and provocative conversation.
In the course of our conversation, though, I was reminded of something that’s been gnawing at me for weeks. She was telling me about a local middle school teacher who was bummed out because her school only had 20 minute lunches. Add to that standing in line for lunch, walking to the lunchroom, or stopping to use the bathroom, and all of a sudden you’re left with a 10 minute lunch. This story is repeated in schools all over, but this particular story struck a chord with me.
Lately I’ve been increasingly convinced that now more than ever, we need to de-mystify the state of teaching and teachers. While I’m certain teachers are indeed worried about achievement gaps and long-term strategic goals for a district, I have a feeling what matters even more are the daily realities of working in a school. We study “burnout” and “attrition” like they’re some sort of mystery vexing education. Perhaps we don’t need national think tanks and teacher studies to solve some of the problems facing teachers. Maybe we need humane, basic treatment of teachers everyday. How about starting with a reasonable lunch?
This isn’t rocket science, but it’s also not a particularly popular notion either. In an age of so much teeth gnashing, it almost seems counter-intuitive to imagine that such simple transformations as a lengthened lunch hour or good lighting or a staff lounge could effect meaningful change. Barring Long-Term Strategic Planning, how about we institute Short-Term Daily Thoughtfulness and see what happens?
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