Sheryl Green: Coffee talks and sleepless nights

This is the time of year when all of us teachers contemplate our lives. Sleepless nights give way to drowsy days, and every afternoon we have coffee with a different friend in hopes to find clarity in the words of our confidants.

It's contract time.

Now is the time teachers ponder if the grass is greener on the other side of town or if kids are sweeter down the road a piece or if the corporate world is a little less stressful.

I know we're experiencing just such an introspection over at our school, Jordan High. Secret sidebar conversations have been murmuring ever since we found out our fearless leader was finding greener grass north of here.

The experience is like one I had when I was a child. Our endearing, phenomenal pastor was leaving, and the church's sidebar conversations were aplenty. I remember, even as a child, recognizing the power one man can have to start a rumble of support or a rumble of dissent. The feeling for me, as a young kid, was simple: I thought he was irreplaceable, and I didn't want another preacher. I liked the one we had.

It's funny how, as grownups, we're really just kids in bigger bodies. My coworkers and I are either wishing our principal good luck or groaning in our own fear of change, unsure about the "new guy." Some of us are going to stick it out and see what happens, while some of us are high-tailing it out of Dodge.

Whatever circumstance, whatever school, whatever city, now is the time teachers take a good, long look at why we're in the profession and if we really want to stay.

Ask most teachers the question of their choice to become a teacher, and most would give the answer about making some small difference in our community. But are we really making a difference? Are the angry parent phone calls worth the difference we might be making in that one child in our group of 30? Is the stress of being labeled a "good teacher" or "not good teacher" by oddly formulated test scores worth the long hours of lesson preparation? Is being ignored or yelled at by defiant children worth the daily worries of handling a situation the wrong way?

Many teachers are saying "no" and leaving the profession, and worse, many college freshmen are declaring their majors in business rather than education. Healthcare versus teaching. The point here is a desperate one.

A major teacher shortage is plaguing districts all over the state. Our beloved Muscogee County is not immune, either. Despite the fact that we have a phenomenal local university (Columbus State) offering a top-notch education degree, there have been vacant teacher positions throughout the district for the entire school year.

The drawbacks of a teacher shortage are far-reaching, and if we think logically about the crisis, we can agree on the desper

ate need to make a change. Hopefully, as a faithful reader, you know me. I'm not going to focus on those drawbacks, but on the possibility for change. A teacher's impact IS small, in the larger schemes of things, but we knew that coming into the classroom.

But the neater truth is, there's a young man graduating in May because of you, and he just may be the first in his family to break the cycle of poverty. The truth is, a little girl just broke her silence about abuse because of you.

The truth is, a child just got accepted to an Ivy League school because of you. And the truth is, a little boy just read his first book because of you. Small impacts together make big ones.

It's a matter a choice, and the road to change begins with one step. When good, solid teachers are leaving the profession, we all hurt. So, to my fellow comrades, I simply say: stay the course. Hang in there. The meaning of the adage "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" doesn't mean to grab your files and get going out of the profession. It means stay the course. Battle like the kids you teach who warrior through their circumstances to learn their times tables or quantum physics, even if you see only a handful doing it.

It's difficult, I know. I have had those coffee talks at Starbucks with my fellow teacher friends. I've wondered what else I can do with an English degree. But then, I always decide the adventure of the classroom far outweighs the solitude of a cubicle.

So, remain, my friends.

Remain.

Sheryl Green is an independent contractor. Contact her at sherylgreen14@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Sheryl Green: Coffee talks and sleepless nights ."