By Joel Richards
People keep asking why teachers are leaving.
Many of us are leaving teaching because the systemic oppression of Black people and children within the system has become a burden almost too heavy to bear.
For years, we have watched and persevered and guided so many of our students through the margins of society. We have helped them navigate poverty and its related family trauma — incarceration, undereducation and addiction. We’ve helped them overcome discrimination, low expectations, and a lack of recognition for their potential as resilient, creative, passionate, promising young people.
But things have just gotten worse. We are being crushed — by high gas prices, extraordinary rental rates, and our deferred dreams of homeownership. And we are dealing with our own trauma. For years the transfer of trauma from our students was at least bearable, but now when we cry for them, we are crying for ourselves too.
Read the rest of the piece here.