CURB PULSE 2022

Many parents and other community
members feel emboldened
to criticize teachers and teaching
methods. Public school board
meetings often give a platform to
community members who are angry
with teachers.
“Some of the other things that are
said at those meetings are just hurtful,”
says Amy Menzel, who was an
English teacher at Waukesha West
High School. Menzel, along with
many colleagues, left Waukesha
public schools after the 2021-2022
school year. “They say that they demand
respect in those [meetings],
but I don’t see enforcement of that,”
Menzel says.
Many politicians haven’t been
supportive either. For several weeks
in February 2011, thousands of
teachers protested the budget repair
bill at the state Capitol building in
Madison. Act 10 became law not
long after the protests. When Act
10 was passed, teachers and other
public sector employees lost much
of their ability to collectively bargain.
Teachers are still affected by
it today.
Additionally, gerrymandering in
the state has made change nearly
impossible when it comes to electing
politicians who prioritize school
funding, according to Watson.
“​We have not properly funded
public education,” Watson says.
“We’ve kept things static even
though inflation has gone up.”
Teachers, Counselors
and Babysitters
With lack of funding for education
comes lack of resources in
schools. Teachers are often left to
pick up the slack.
At Vel Phillips Memorial High
School in Madison, school psychologist
Debra Conway frequently sees
student needs that require more resources
than the school has to offer.
To her, that’s the biggest challenge
of working in a comprehensive urban
high school.
“It can be a mental health need, it
can be an academic need, it can be a
social-emotional need, it could be a
feeding need, it could be a housing
need, it could be a clothing need,”
22 CURB
Conway says. The lack of resources
doesn’t stop teachers from trying,
though. It can be exhausting, but
many teachers really care — enough
to take work home and continue
trying to meet student needs. Watson
does this almost daily.
“That’s what I’ve been doing for
two years,” Watson says, “and that’s
becoming unsustainable.”
Conway agrees. “It’s hard because
you want to be the be-all-end-all for
“We’re expected to
provide for those
needs and it can be
overwhelming and
hard to do.”
everybody, but you can’t,” she says.
Teachers, like students, are experiencing
their own mental health
crises. Working more than 40 hours
a week in an environment where
teenagers are screaming at you and
throwing things — yes, really, ask
Watson — is draining, and no one
allows teachers the time to recharge.
In fact, teachers say they have less
time than ever these days. The time
they don’t spend with students is
also monopolized by administrative
tasks, such as filling out forms or
creating online lessons.
“My struggle with it is that it’s always
a little more, a little more, a little
more,” Menzel says. “Now we’re
at the point that it’s overwhelming.”
The Autonomy Paradox
While teachers are being given
more responsibilities in their classrooms,
at the same time they are
being stripped of their autonomy.
Not only are books being pulled
from the curriculum and libraries,
but some districts have gone as far
as to require teachers to take down
any signage in their classrooms that
could be deemed “political.”
At Menzel’s former school, staff
were told to remove pride flags from
their walls. According to Menzel,
many teachers took issue with that
request, including herself.
“I think it emboldened students
to say things that were hateful,”
Menzel says. “It put a lot of students’
safety in jeopardy, perceived
or otherwise.”
Even in more progressive districts
like the one in which Watson
works, teachers are seeing a trend
of identity being politicized.
“Books and things being pulled
are often books that deal with issues
of equity, whether it’s LGBTQ+
identity or racial identity or religious
questioning,” Watson says.
Kids are already having these conversations
about race and gender,
and Menzel says it’s her job to help
them do it in more effective ways so
that they feel seen and heard.
“I don’t think we get better at
talking about tough subjects by
not talking about tough subjects,”
Menzel says.
The Solution
What does a community do when
teachers are leaving? The consensus
is simple: Trust teachers again.
It can be hard to trust even a
qualified individual when everyone
feels like they’re an expert.
“I think we’re one of the most
unique fields because everybody
went to school, so everybody thinks
they know how it should be done,”
Burkhalter says.
What the criticism of teachers is
doing, Burkhalter says, is downplaying
the amount of training, effort
and time that professionals in
schools have gone through.
“Districts don’t trust teachers,”
Watson says. “School boards, families,
voters don’t trust teachers.”
Menzel speaks similarly about
trust. “There’s a lack of trust in what
[teachers] have dedicated their lives
for,” Menzel says.
Even Conway, a school psychologist,
says “It’s hard, and it’s real. It’s
hard not to take it personally.”