Education Week - March 2, 2022 - 20

Superficial Self-Care? Stressed-Out
Teachers Say No Thanks
Many teachers see the " mindfulness " push as well-intentioned,
but not a panacea for the feeling that their jobs have become untenable.
L
By
Alyson
Klein
ouise Williamson's phone lights up whenever
an administrator raises the importance of selfcare
and wellness in a meeting.
" This is the last thing I needed to hear right
now, " someone will write on a text chain the
English teacher in Southern California has
going with some of her colleagues. " Just shut
up and let me go home, " someone will write. Or, " They say
they care about our wellness, but we're told to go teach in a
petri dish every day. "
Being a teacher-always a difficult job-is especially
stressful these days. Teachers often lose their own planning
period to cover classes for absent colleagues, who may be out
sick or quarantining after a COVID-19 exposure. Students
are wrestling with trauma brought on by lockdowns, losing
a family member to COVID, and more. Talk of lost learning
time fills professional-development sessions. Violence in
schools is on the rise. And some teachers worry they are
putting their own health on the line every time they come
into work.
What's more, many teachers have had to prepare both for inperson
instruction, and virtual learning for kids quarantined at
home. That means creating slide decks, videotaping lessons,
and more, Williamson said. Her planning time has more than
quintupled this school year.
To help teachers cope with what many say has become an
emotionally draining, bottomless workload, administrators
around the country are turning in part to the wellness and selfcare
practices that have become increasingly popular-and
fueled a multi-billion dollar industry-over the past decade.
Districts have held professional-development sessions
on meditation and breathing exercises. Staff emails remind
teachers to remember to take time for themselves and
their families. Teachers are encouraged to check out yoga,
aromatherapy, or write in a journal, typically on their own
time. One large urban district sent out a calendar with selfcare
reminders like, " On the 25th, take a walk. "
Some teachers say they find this sort of thing helpful. Others
see it is well-intentioned, but no substitute for the kind of
broader, systemic change that would keep them from feeling
that their jobs have become untenable.
And still others see it as myopic and even insulting.
" I think that when people in charge people recommend
20 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 2, 2022 | www.edweek.org
wellness to teachers instead of fixing the situation, it comes
off as being insincere, patronizing, or even just shortsighted,
wanting to put a Band-Aid on a problem, " said Williamson, a
nearly 30-year veteran educator who teaches at Hilltop High
School in Sweetwater Union High School District, south of
San Diego.
Or, as Tiffany Moyer-Washington, an 8th grade English
teacher in Hartford, Conn., put it: " I feel like I'm drowning,
and they throw you a rubber ducky. Rubber duckies are
cute and all, but I'm not in a position to take it [because] I'm
literally drowning right now. "
'People get soured on the whole concept'
That doesn't mean that mindfulness techniques aren't
helpful-up to a point.
In one study, published in 2019, researchers randomly
assigned 224 teachers working at high-poverty elementary
schools in New York City to a group that received professional
development in emotional regulation, mindfulness and
more, and one that did not. After nine and a half months
in the program, the teachers who got the training reported
significant decreases in psychological distress, fewer physical
aches and pains, and an improved ability to stay calm amid
the intensity of the classroom, compared to the control group
teachers.
The problem is that while mindfulness can help teachers
deal with their high-pressure jobs, it doesn't take away the
cause of that pressure, said Patricia Jennings, a professor of
education at the University of Virginia and the lead author of
the study.
" Mindfulness can help teachers be more aware in the
moment, when their own stress level is starting to rise, and
do things proactively to calm themselves, " she said. But, she
added, " mindfulness is not going to help with the kinds of
structural problems that stretch teachers beyond their limits.
Just telling a teacher to breathe when they haven't had a break
all day is not going to help at all. "
Fans of mindfulness worry that districts' superficial
embrace of self-care and wellness has backfired, closing
teachers off to the real benefits of those techniques.
" People get soured on the whole concept, " said Williamson,
a certified yoga teacher and daily meditator who wakes up
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Education Week - March 2, 2022

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