WEBVTT - Why Teachers Are Still Quitting

0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.880
<v Speaker 1>It's Tuesday, November two. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily

0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.880
<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America.

0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:10.600
<v Speaker 1>The pandemic was a big inflection point for workers of

0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.200
<v Speaker 1>all industries, but teachers were put in an especially difficult spot,

0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.120
<v Speaker 1>dealing with remote learning, back to school craziness, and concerns

0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.400
<v Speaker 1>for their own health. Many teachers quit and others are

0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:25.759
<v Speaker 1>still thinking about it. Leslie Gray Streeter, author and contributor

0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.600
<v Speaker 1>to The Washington Post magazine, joins us to talk about

0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.440
<v Speaker 1>conversations she had with teachers that left their profession because

0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.440
<v Speaker 1>of the pandemic. Many felt guilt, anger, and heartbreak over

0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.720
<v Speaker 1>their choices. Thanks for joining us, Leslie, Thank you for

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.080
<v Speaker 1>having me. We've been hearing a lot about the great

0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.520
<v Speaker 1>resignation and you know, people leaving their jobs for something better,

0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.199
<v Speaker 1>just maybe not feeling like they're appreciated. Um, you know,

0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.080
<v Speaker 1>everything really changed with the pandemic. Uh. For this story,

0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.120
<v Speaker 1>wanted to focus on teachers, and you know, we've been

0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.960
<v Speaker 1>hearing that a lot of teachers obviously left their jobs,

0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.560
<v Speaker 1>a lot of them are still thinking about possible leaving.

0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.000
<v Speaker 1>I guess we saw one in four American teachers reported

0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.839
<v Speaker 1>considering leaving their jobs by the end of the last

0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.520
<v Speaker 1>academic year. And you know, replacing teachers is not so

0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.919
<v Speaker 1>easily done. UM. So for your latest story, you spoke

0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.720
<v Speaker 1>to seven former teachers kind of explaining why they left,

0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.560
<v Speaker 1>what drove them to do it, and kind of what

0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.280
<v Speaker 1>they're doing after that as well. So Leslie, help us

0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.080
<v Speaker 1>walk through some of this. What we're teachers saying about

0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.360
<v Speaker 1>the conditions of the classroom last year. Well, I think

0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:37.800
<v Speaker 1>that like so many people and other professions who participated

0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:43.160
<v Speaker 1>in the Great Resignation, UM, there were already issues beforehand,

0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.920
<v Speaker 1>like maybe there wasn't enough payment or there wasn't enough

0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.320
<v Speaker 1>flexibility even before COVID and COVID exacerbated a lot of

0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.640
<v Speaker 1>those conditions, and people are like, is it worked it

0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.360
<v Speaker 1>for me to return? Even if you know, when it

0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.600
<v Speaker 1>made things, things are made even worse. And I think

0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:59.760
<v Speaker 1>that for so many of the teachers that I spoke to,

0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.360
<v Speaker 1>that was the case, whether it was feeling like you know,

0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.440
<v Speaker 1>we've always talked about teachers being underpaid or being expected

0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.280
<v Speaker 1>to spend their own money on supplies or to act

0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.840
<v Speaker 1>as you know, combination social workers and parents and suppliers

0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.280
<v Speaker 1>of decor all of it, you know, And I think

0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.600
<v Speaker 1>that so much is that was made worse when you

0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.960
<v Speaker 1>also there's no separation for so maybe teachers who were

0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:30.480
<v Speaker 1>teaching UM remotely because they might have their own kids

0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:32.200
<v Speaker 1>and their own families, their own things to do, and

0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.880
<v Speaker 1>there was no separation. The woman I spoke to the

0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.880
<v Speaker 1>game of the story line Higgins, she spoke about that

0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:42.120
<v Speaker 1>about she's trying to parent her toddler literally five time

0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.519
<v Speaker 1>to go to the bathroom, and she's monitoring a bunch

0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.320
<v Speaker 1>of middle schoolers, and added to everything else she's trying

0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.280
<v Speaker 1>to do, it just was not it was she was suicidal.

0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.720
<v Speaker 1>She said she was absolutely depressed. And for other teachers,

0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.040
<v Speaker 1>for instance, UM our teacher named Peggy, who talked about

0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.400
<v Speaker 1>how she already had stress, is trying to figure out

0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.000
<v Speaker 1>how to meet the emotional needs of these kids beforehand,

0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.240
<v Speaker 1>and she said she didn't return in part because she

0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.639
<v Speaker 1>knew that she would be so distracted by trying to

0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:17.440
<v Speaker 1>then addressed the trauma that was piled on from COVID,

0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.720
<v Speaker 1>which was packed onto the previous trauma they already had,

0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:22.800
<v Speaker 1>and she goes, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on

0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.440
<v Speaker 1>academics because I'd be trying to figure out what was

0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.240
<v Speaker 1>how could I help this kid who's t firaling like

0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.160
<v Speaker 1>the rest of us work. So it just was things

0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.840
<v Speaker 1>that piled on. Yeah, the first teacher that you mentioned, uh,

0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:35.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, you you mentioned she had a toddler. She

0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:37.880
<v Speaker 1>had to take a bathroom break. You know, she found

0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:39.840
<v Speaker 1>it so stressful that she had to say, okay, three

0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.160
<v Speaker 1>minute break for everybody, just so she could run and

0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.280
<v Speaker 1>and do and do something real quick. And you know,

0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.640
<v Speaker 1>obviously you're in a zoom session. The kids are at

0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.400
<v Speaker 1>home now, they're just kind of sitting there and and

0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.760
<v Speaker 1>you know, she you know, it all bears down. I

0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.120
<v Speaker 1>think someone you spoke to said it best, right, And

0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.280
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned all those things that teachers do that we

0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.480
<v Speaker 1>know that they do, right, social workers, surrogate parents, all

0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.880
<v Speaker 1>that Teachers were already wearing so many hats. The pandemic

0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.160
<v Speaker 1>just added more hats to that equation and it became really,

0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.280
<v Speaker 1>really tough. Um, So tell me a little bit about

0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.680
<v Speaker 1>the conversations that you had with some of the teachers,

0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.280
<v Speaker 1>because one of the things that popped up a lot

0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.599
<v Speaker 1>was guilt. They felt guilty that they were leaving the

0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.760
<v Speaker 1>profession that they you know, something that you know, they

0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.040
<v Speaker 1>worked a lot to get to something that they always

0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.520
<v Speaker 1>had wanted to be for a variety of reasons. But

0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.919
<v Speaker 1>they felt guilt and heartbreak having to leave it, like

0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.640
<v Speaker 1>they were leaving their careers and leaving their responsibilities to

0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.640
<v Speaker 1>the children. Well absolutely, I mean I think that if

0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:35.240
<v Speaker 1>you know any teachers, and I think you know most

0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.200
<v Speaker 1>of whom we had teachers, and we probably know some

0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.799
<v Speaker 1>now in our adult lives. Um, they go into education

0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.400
<v Speaker 1>not for the money, not for the status or the cloud.

0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.240
<v Speaker 1>They go into it because of the calling to them.

0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.560
<v Speaker 1>It is something that they feel they were providing as

0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.960
<v Speaker 1>a service to their communities and to the future leaders

0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.719
<v Speaker 1>into humanity. And they go into this and some of it,

0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:58.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, starts when they're young and they might not

0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.200
<v Speaker 1>know as much. But the on particularly the career teachers

0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.880
<v Speaker 1>who stuck around for a while, they did this because

0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.320
<v Speaker 1>they love it, and there is a real feeling of guilt.

0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.360
<v Speaker 1>It's not like leaving other jobs or you though this

0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.080
<v Speaker 1>was just a job to me. Um, they take these

0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.040
<v Speaker 1>things very seriously. Every single teacher I spoke to, no

0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.560
<v Speaker 1>matter what part they were in, what stage they were

0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.719
<v Speaker 1>in their career, said to me, I went into this

0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.800
<v Speaker 1>because I loved it. I went into this because I

0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.440
<v Speaker 1>felt I was supposed to do this, And so thinking

0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:27.800
<v Speaker 1>of yourself as a teacher, like you know, myself as

0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:29.839
<v Speaker 1>a journalist, have always thought of himself as a journalist

0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.839
<v Speaker 1>capital j like it was my calling, Like I had

0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.640
<v Speaker 1>to do this, And then you learn maybe that's not it,

0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.400
<v Speaker 1>or maybe you don't have to stick with that enough

0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.120
<v Speaker 1>to where you are stressed or suicidal or just not

0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.160
<v Speaker 1>thinking that you can get the job done. Obviously, COVID

0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.520
<v Speaker 1>loomed large, and a lot of these decisions and you know,

0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.800
<v Speaker 1>impacted it in many different ways. Some of the teachers

0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.799
<v Speaker 1>even felt anger, you know, at the current situation. Um,

0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.920
<v Speaker 1>whether it be mass policies, whether it be crazy school

0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.640
<v Speaker 1>board meetings that we know we saw, Um, you know

0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:01.919
<v Speaker 1>a lot of them felt like they were bargaining chips. Uh,

0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:04.120
<v Speaker 1>you know when parents were saying, hey, we got to

0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.680
<v Speaker 1>send the kids back to school. But uh, you know,

0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.240
<v Speaker 1>the teachers had fear for their own health as well.

0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:11.440
<v Speaker 1>And you profiled a couple of teachers. I think there

0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.159
<v Speaker 1>was two that had some type of severe asthma and

0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.680
<v Speaker 1>you know, for them going possibly getting a respiratory's disease,

0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.839
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty scary. And there's one who was pregnant, who

0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.200
<v Speaker 1>had suffered a miscarriage earlier and was identified by her

0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.600
<v Speaker 1>doctors in writing that she was recommended to cheat remotely

0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.279
<v Speaker 1>and she was denied. And I think that, like anything else,

0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.000
<v Speaker 1>all of us felt. I think most of us, I

0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.880
<v Speaker 1>know I did, felt some trepidation about at what point

0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.560
<v Speaker 1>do I do? How do I do my job in

0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.240
<v Speaker 1>a way to protect me and my family and that

0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.640
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing. And when that one teacher who had

0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.960
<v Speaker 1>already felt that she was not protective of a florityan

0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.240
<v Speaker 1>teacher after what happened at Marjorie Stillman Douglas, even though

0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.960
<v Speaker 1>she was like hours away from there, she felt that

0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.839
<v Speaker 1>vulnerability and it's a PTSD. So then she's like, are

0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.480
<v Speaker 1>you gonna taketure of us? With gun laws, with mass laws,

0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.599
<v Speaker 1>with being able to stay remote, what are you going

0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.440
<v Speaker 1>to do? And she didn't felt they were do She

0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.320
<v Speaker 1>didn't feel they were doing enough, so she left, and

0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.600
<v Speaker 1>once again she felt angry. The other teacher I interviewed

0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.880
<v Speaker 1>in Florida, which is where I lived at the beginning

0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.040
<v Speaker 1>of the pandemic and had a school a child in

0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.120
<v Speaker 1>Palm Beach County Schools, which we left and still you know,

0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.120
<v Speaker 1>has grappled with math man needs and that kind of thing.

0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.600
<v Speaker 1>The teacher said, you know that she was watching these

0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.440
<v Speaker 1>parents on these Facebook pages. She was lurking and going,

0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to send my kids to school anyway, even

0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.920
<v Speaker 1>if they get COVID. I mean, how how could you

0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.120
<v Speaker 1>feel you know about that? Yeah, and particularly in Florida.

0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.720
<v Speaker 1>You know, the Florida Education Association said that there was

0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.520
<v Speaker 1>a nine thousand uh shortage of classroom and staff shortages there,

0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.520
<v Speaker 1>so and I guess that was from the month of August,

0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.000
<v Speaker 1>but there's nine thousand people more that they could have

0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.840
<v Speaker 1>needed to to help with all of that stuff. So

0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.440
<v Speaker 1>definitely a tough situation there. And then one of the

0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.400
<v Speaker 1>other things that came up to with the teachers that

0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.560
<v Speaker 1>you spoke to, you personal life outside of the classroom,

0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.680
<v Speaker 1>which is so important. And when you're working so many

0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.200
<v Speaker 1>hours throughout the zoom, you know, can't even take a

0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:10.880
<v Speaker 1>break with the rest room, you know, then you have

0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.760
<v Speaker 1>to grade, then you have to work on all this stuff. Um,

0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.440
<v Speaker 1>you know, even that personal life aspect of it. You know,

0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.920
<v Speaker 1>when you're living and working all from home, you know,

0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:21.720
<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people, that was a big shift,

0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.440
<v Speaker 1>and and that was also hard to adjust to. Absolutely,

0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:26.720
<v Speaker 1>there was a young man that I spooked to He

0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:28.640
<v Speaker 1>was the only male teacher that I spooked. And I

0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.320
<v Speaker 1>gotta tell you a lot of people probably wanted to

0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.520
<v Speaker 1>contribute to the story, but you know, you don't necessarily

0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.600
<v Speaker 1>if you're still working there, or if you want to

0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.360
<v Speaker 1>maybe go back, you're not necessarily going to want to

0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.320
<v Speaker 1>go on record. So I understood that this was a

0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.960
<v Speaker 1>brave thing a lot of the teachers did. But Stephen

0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.520
<v Speaker 1>Lane for all teachers that have have left the professional sense, yeah,

0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.480
<v Speaker 1>and loved exactly, although he said maybe I'll go back

0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.080
<v Speaker 1>one day. But you know, if he was a young man,

0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:57.800
<v Speaker 1>he is a young man who's in authorities who said

0:08:57.800 --> 0:08:59.680
<v Speaker 1>he didn't realize how much he wasn't home until he

0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.840
<v Speaker 1>was teaching and went, wait a minute, I'm never here.

0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.440
<v Speaker 1>It's because he built his life around teaching. It's like

0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:11.000
<v Speaker 1>the lines from landsladded, she changed because I built my

0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:12.559
<v Speaker 1>life around you, you know, And it was like I

0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.160
<v Speaker 1>built my life around teaching, and now I have to

0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:20.040
<v Speaker 1>change that. Are what are these teachers doing now after

0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.040
<v Speaker 1>they've left a profession. I know, some feel they're in

0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.480
<v Speaker 1>a better place and a new job. Some others have

0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.160
<v Speaker 1>said they haven't necessarily settled yet, they don't know what

0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.760
<v Speaker 1>they're doing. But most of them, I think all of

0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:35.400
<v Speaker 1>them feel happier with the situation. At least they feel happier,

0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.640
<v Speaker 1>if not. I mean the one a couple of the

0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.200
<v Speaker 1>woman from plumb Beach County who said, listen, I wasn't

0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.679
<v Speaker 1>going to retire for another couple of years, and I'm

0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.280
<v Speaker 1>kind of angry. I felt like I was supposed to

0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.480
<v Speaker 1>do that, forced to do this. But there is a

0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.360
<v Speaker 1>sense of relief, certainly with a lot of them. Lenna Higgins,

0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:52.960
<v Speaker 1>the first teacher I spoke to in the beginning of

0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.680
<v Speaker 1>the story, is writing a lot and she's running a business.

0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.000
<v Speaker 1>She has a game that she started, a board game

0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.840
<v Speaker 1>with her husband, so she's doing that. Um. A couple

0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.280
<v Speaker 1>of people, like Stephen Lane that I mentioned, is now

0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:08.360
<v Speaker 1>writing curriculum for a private company, so he's still using

0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.120
<v Speaker 1>his education background. There's a woman from California who's now

0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.160
<v Speaker 1>in Columbia at a project that is teaching teachers and

0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.480
<v Speaker 1>training teachers how to teach from a culturally sensitive social

0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.440
<v Speaker 1>justice perspective with its mind on disparities, and that's why

0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.880
<v Speaker 1>she left because she felt that she always felt that

0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.680
<v Speaker 1>there were these inequities and disparities and teaching and that

0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:31.480
<v Speaker 1>it was you know, three days after her kids went

0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.720
<v Speaker 1>back to school, they had a subsidized test, and it's like,

0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.559
<v Speaker 1>welcome back to this place. We haven't been for a

0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:38.040
<v Speaker 1>year and a half. Here's a test that's going to

0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.640
<v Speaker 1>determine what how you do for the next year. It's like,

0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.440
<v Speaker 1>that's it's enough. It's enough. So um, I will also say,

0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.840
<v Speaker 1>like I said, so many of these teachers, every single

0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.200
<v Speaker 1>one of these teachers cares, like they said, they care

0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:56.560
<v Speaker 1>so deeply, and they really want people to understand that

0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.839
<v Speaker 1>this was not a decision that was made lightly. You know,

0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.760
<v Speaker 1>this is not a decision that they went oh with

0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.120
<v Speaker 1>and learn what's the next big adventure. It was something

0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.000
<v Speaker 1>that with some of them, held onto the last week

0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.240
<v Speaker 1>before you know, the schools start school district starter until

0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.040
<v Speaker 1>they had they would have until a certain time to

0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:14.600
<v Speaker 1>make the decision. They would it to the very last

0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.720
<v Speaker 1>day because they just wanted to make sure that they

0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.360
<v Speaker 1>were making the right decision. And they ultimately all said

0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.360
<v Speaker 1>they knew they made the right decision, you know, and

0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.199
<v Speaker 1>to your point, you know, for the majority of teachers, right,

0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.360
<v Speaker 1>you get into it because you do deeply care. As

0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.480
<v Speaker 1>you mentioned, we all know a teacher or had to

0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:32.880
<v Speaker 1>have had a teacher that made an impact on us,

0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.120
<v Speaker 1>and it was because they made those extra steps to

0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.040
<v Speaker 1>help you learn, help take care of you, all of that,

0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.840
<v Speaker 1>and and it was so tough throughout the pandemic, like

0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.320
<v Speaker 1>it was for many people in many industries, but we

0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.640
<v Speaker 1>rely so much on teachers. As you mentioned, you know,

0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.920
<v Speaker 1>it just takes the toll on the person, and you know,

0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.440
<v Speaker 1>it's pretty unfortunate. So obviously we hope there's a lot

0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.640
<v Speaker 1>of discussions on improving things in the classroom. Hopefully we

0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.160
<v Speaker 1>get there, but for now, um, you know, these are

0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.600
<v Speaker 1>just kind of it seems very emblematic of what a

0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.960
<v Speaker 1>lot of teachers were going through throughout that whole thing. Leslie,

0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:06.959
<v Speaker 1>I appreciate, and I just I just want to add

0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.560
<v Speaker 1>very quickly, so many teachers have written me to say

0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.560
<v Speaker 1>thank you for doing this, even teachers who weren't involved

0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.120
<v Speaker 1>in the story, because they're like, no one was telling

0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.360
<v Speaker 1>our story and nobody was explaining how we felt. So

0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:23.200
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much for doing that Leslie Gray Streeter, journalist, author,

0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.000
<v Speaker 1>and contributor to the Washington Post magazine. Thank you very

0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:31.400
<v Speaker 1>much for joining us. Thank you so much. Goodbye. I'm

0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.760
<v Speaker 1>Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget

0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.040
<v Speaker 1>difference days, big news stories. You can check me out

0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.960
<v Speaker 1>on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So

0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.360
<v Speaker 1>follow us on my Heart radio or wherever you get

0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:43.079
<v Speaker 1>your podcast