The teacher loves their job and students, but is considering leaving due to a lack of respect. The teacher has witnessed a steady decline in respect over their four years as a teacher. The teacher provides a list of ways respect could be improved, such as respecting teachers' time by not requiring unpaid overtime, respecting their qualifications by paying them enough to not require second jobs, respecting their health by not overloading them, and respecting their teaching methods by reducing micromanaging. The teacher argues that with more respect and support for teachers, they would have the best job, students' needs could be better met, and fewer teachers would experience burnout or feel they need to leave the profession.

1. I love my job. I do. I love greeting my students each morning at my
classroom door. I love seeing the lightbulb moments when they seem
to grasp a new concept. I love what I do. I love who I do it for—but
there’s something that has made me question whether I will return to
this classroom I love next school year.
It’s the lack of respect. I’ve tried to ignore it. I’ve tried to simply wish
it would get better and pray about it. However, at some point, I started
realizing that it may never get better. In the four years I’ve been a
teacher, I haven’t witnessed the lack of respect improve in the
slightest; instead, it’s been a steady decline. I’m just not sure I am
capable of coping with it for the next 26 years, so I’ve been forced to
consider other options.
I’ve had this ongoing list in my head of all the things that could be done
to drastically improve the situation and convince amazing, qualified
teachers on the brink of leaving to stay. If those making the rules and
dishing out the respect (or lack thereof) would listen to me, I’d tell
them:

2. 1. Respect our time.
Many of us have kids of our own; we’d like to spend our evenings with
them instead of grading the papers we couldn’t grade during our
“planning” periods because we had to watch someone else’s class last
minute. Then, are we paid for those hours? Of course not. It hurts to
see employees in other jobs being paid for working overtime when it’s
expected teachers should often work for free.
2. Respect our qualifications.
A Bachelor’s degree is no easy (or cheap) feat. Many of us have a
Master’s degree. We shouldn’t have to work a second (or third!) job to
make ends meet and give up our holidays and vacations that we so
desperately need in this line of work. Respect the value we bring to our
students and all the preparation that went into it.
3. Respect our health.
When we do more than what our job description entails (which we do,
every day), don’t keep pushing us to do more. At some point, we are
forced to place boundaries around our physical and mental health—
and then we’re often seen as the bad guy for implementing them.
4. Respect our methods.
We understand that we have programs that need to be followed and
there is a certain way to do things—but the micromanaging is a bit
ridiculous. We spend so much time detailing lesson plans, we don’t
have as much to actually use them. We spend so much time
“documenting” every move that we forget the point behind all of it. I
know in my heart that you’d be completely amazed at what teachers
could do with more freedom and more trust in THEIR methods.
What if we shifted how we viewed these things?! What if we listened
to the ones really struggling—the teachers? Only then will you
understand what changes need to be made. Most of the changes aren’t
very groundbreaking—imagine a world where there are enough
substitute teachers and school supplies. Imagine a world where
teachers have the time to pour into each of their students because
many tedious (often useless) tasks have been taken off their plates.
Imagine an environment where everything that benefited the teacher
then positively affected the students—who should be our number one

3. concern in all of this. When you listen to the teachers, you are listening
to the students. When you respect a teacher, it has this amazing
snowball effect; if you would just listen to even SOME of our pleas, then
we could meet MORE of these children’s needs. Imagine an
environment where most teachers weren’t experiencing burnout; a
world where teachers didn’t have a reason to go on strike or fight for
their rights that are constantly taken away. Just imagine.
We’d have the absolute BEST job in the world if it weren’t for the lack
of respect. We want to stay—but sometimes we have no choice but to
leave. That won’t change until teachers are respected and people
realize that by investing in our teachers, we’re investing in our future.