We are well into the summer holidays and us teachers are finally getting to enjoy a well-deserved break for all of our efforts this year. We’ve taught, we’ve toiled and we’ve trudged on, despite the many curveballs this year has thrown at us. Now that summer has finally rolled around, there are just some things that teachers don’t want to hear during summer, or ever again for that matter!
Things Teacher Don’t Want to Hear During Summer (or Ever)
“You get the whole summer off, maybe I need to become a teacher”
If you think having the summer off makes up for the gruelling teaching hours, planning, meetings, report writing and marking – you’re sadly mistaken. Hearing ‘you’re so lucky to get summer holidays off’ is not a compliment, it’s undermining. It discreetly suggests that teachers had better dare not complain about our jobs because we get so much time off to sit twiddling our thumbs. News flash: that’s not true. If you think it’s so easy, try it. Go get a degree, then a teaching qualification, then try to manage all the stresses of teaching life just so you can have the summer off. Let us know how it goes!
“When do you go back?”
Well-meaning (we hope) people ask teachers this question all the time. Please, give us a minute! We’ve just about paid our beds back all the debt we owed them in sleep. Going back to school is the last thing we want to think about right now. Teachers are in deep recovery mode during the summer, let us focus on zen and relaxation – leave us be!
“Wow, six whole weeks off, what on earth do you do with yourself?”
This question is so passive-aggressive it hurts. If your job leaves you feeling like you’ve been hit by a ton of bricks, you’d know six weeks is just about enough time to recoup. The problem with this question is that it insinuates that the summer break is too long and just an excuse for laze-about teachers to do more lazing about. Us teachers are just too idle for our own good aren’t we, naughty us.
“Since you’ll be home all day, can you ………?”
Our loved ones are usually the culprits behind this one. Just because we’re not working, it does not mean that we’re not doing anything. Even if we aren’t doing anything, did it ever occur to you that we planned to just relax that day! Please don’t make teachers work when they are not at work. Teaching is a labour of love but our summer break doesn’t have to be. If we fancy helping you out here and there we will, but don’t set that expectation on us just because we’re ‘free’.
“Think of the workload waiting for you in September!”
If someone says this to you, best believe they enjoy seeing you suffer. Why would you say this to a teacher? Are you trying to bring about an anxiety-induced frenzy? It’s like asking a boxer who is black and blue and exhausted after finishing a fight, ‘when they’re going to do their next one’. Don’t you see how tired I am? I just fought for my life. Let me have a minute to breathe.
Let us know if we’ve missed something from our “things teachers don’t want to hear during summer” list and happy August from Beyond!
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