Give Me a Break!
By Tim Chartier @timchartier
“How are you?” It’s a common question asked so many times over my career – in meetings, at conferences, in emails. And yet, during the pandemic, it’s a difficult question to answer. Am I fine? Are things OK? Am I doing well relative to someone else? When am I sharing and when am I just complaining? I don’t and won’t fully know the answers. But, what I do know is that this unique term is over…or almost over depending on your college and stack of grading. The semester’s end is in sight with a break coming. For some, the break may offer the first actual day, let alone days, off since the beginning of the term.
The burden of the term is real. A recent piece in Inside Higher Ed entitled “Faculty Pandemic Stress is Now Chronic” notes the mental health implications of the term on faculty. The article also reports that 40 percent of respondents to the survey considered leaving their jobs due to the pandemic’s impact. When asked if Covid-19 made their jobs more difficult, 87 percent of faculty strongly agreed or agreed.
Take a break over break! Granted, next semester’s classes approach. There is a stack of items from a mental to-do list that may be more daunting and even more emotionally draining than a tower of end-of-term papers. There are ideas we want to integrate from terms we’ve completed. There are preparations for classes we’ve yet to teach during the pandemic.
The more we read and think about teaching, the greater our sense of urgency becomes for all we have to do to prepare to teach again.
Mary Hatwood Futrell, Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University, stated, “When the untapped potential of a student meets the liberating art of a teacher, a miracle unfolds.”
Celebrated American poet Robert Frost shared the insight, “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”
Reading such quotes could inspire one to dive into teaching preparations for next term. It’s understandable. At the same time, these quotes underscore the importance of a break. The aforementioned piece on faculty stress from Inside Higher Ed also reported that meeting the emotional and mental health needs of students was a source of significant stress for two-thirds of the professors surveyed.
Teaching occurs outside the classroom as well. Think of your favorite teacher and embedded in those memories are likely aspects beyond the content. We teach from who we are. There are significant uncertainties and demands for the coming months, even with the promise of the vaccine. To be present for our students, we must be ready to share. Ready to listen. Ready to help move through the unknowns of the coming term. We need ourselves to be ready – physically and emotionally. So, get ready for that break and take it. Let that invisible stack of mental to-do items sit for a few days, a week, or, if possible, even longer. Pull entirely away. As Maya Angelou wrote in Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now,
“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”
So, take a day – or even more than one. Enjoy doing something or possibly nothing at all. For your students’ sake, take a break, as the refreshment of rest can enrich not only you but also your preparations for the term to come.