In my teaching life right now, I am facing students who have stunted their behavioral and mental growth through hours upon hours, glued to the big screens–or more likely the tiny (with or without blue light filters), swiping left (or right)– getting their “streaks in” and being exposed to God-knows-what, and now they pass along the trauma of a person who as “unalived” themselves on camera, or laugh while they cause their fellow human pain, heartache, or embarrassment– numbing their senses, stealing their own joy and innocence. I am faced with that, and teaching 11th graders who enter my room reading at a 6th grade level (if we are lucky), and the student who should have taken AP, but their schedule would not allow for it– all while I navigate working three jobs to ensure my children are cared for and deciding whether or not my twenty-one plus years of marriage can stand another.
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There were a lot of horrors that I’ll never unsee from my time when I worked in tv news. As producers, we were the gatekeepers who chose what would inform but not traumatize viewers. We had to keep in mind that unless it was the ten o’clock news, you should assume that the viewer has a young child in the room, who has no control over the tv channel. One of the reasons I quit social media was because of people sharing stuff just to drop something shocking in the feed. I had a fifth grader sharing disturbing gifs on a Google Doc group chat, and had to have many conversations with students about respectful use of technology, but especially about how you can never unsee things. All that to say, I feel this.
This is so powerful. You did a great job communicating how frustrating teaching and life can be. We wear so many hats, and sometimes it becomes so exhausting and overwhelming. I can completely relate to the frustration of having so many things out of your control. Teachers have to herd those cats, and it’s not easy, or else everyone would do it. It’s also not easy to herd your family and life outside of school. Thank you for sharing.
Holly, Your emotional honesty about what you face as a teacher today is powerful. This hit home for me even in the middle school setting. The way you describe students numbing themselves through screens while you juggle three jobs and a marriage adds a layered sense of pressure and realistic humanity.Your voice is strong and compelling. I like catchy hooks..maybe your opener could begin with a vivid image like “this week, one of my students showed me a video of someone….. or a stark confession? Where will this piece go?
Life can be so chaotic that we feel like we’re being dragged around like a rag doll. I admire your strength and hard work as a teacher and as an amazing human being.
I feel this 100%, it’s incredibly frustrating and all we want to do is push our students to greatness. Meanwhile, there are people that actively attempting to undermine everything we do. Claiming we are trying to indoctrinate students that we care for when we can barely get them away from the phones that are actively rotting their brains.
As a nation, this is our fault–“students who have stunted their behavioral and mental growth through hours upon hours”–not the students, not you as teacher. I ponder how we can reverse this process. What can we learn from other countries (Abigail’s Finland)?
Holly! YES! to all the things. You refer to the stolen joy and innocence via tech, and despite our collective efforts, our most vunerable ones have become numb to empathy. I am scared with you. I am worried with you. I am mad with you. Thank you for putting this into words.
What isn’t talked about is how this impacts our personal lives-at least seriously or with any concern. That goes for the students issues too though. We are in a place of denial about all of this right now (non-teachers).