Mailbag 1 - Exhaustion: The War at Work

Dr. Jordan Lauer rides solo in this mailbag episode, answering the questions you emailed to the show. He digs deeper into the issues that are causing Exhaustion at work and discusses many of the amazing comments and strategies you sent in after Episode 1 - Exhaustion: The War at Work.

Email us at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, I'm Dr. Jordan Lauer.

(00:07):
Welcome back to Educational Warfare where we're taking the fight to the issues that
are affecting education.
So thankful for everybody who listened to our first episode, Exhaustion, The War at
Work.
That is out now.
So find it anywhere you can find your podcast.
We are on Apple, we are on Spotify, we're on Pandora, we're on Amazon Music.

(00:28):
We are wherever you want to find us.
So please check out episode one.
You can find us also on Twitter @EduWarfare, all one word, and you can email us at the
show at [e-mail].
Today what we wanted to do is here at Educational Warfare, we had our first episode, we talked

(00:49):
about exhaustion, the war at work, all the things at work as educators and professionals
that make us exhausted.
We touched on class sizes, cell phones, the modern teenager, politics creeping its way
into our profession and the idea of grooming.
And what we wanted to do is in between each content episode where we talk about the war

(01:13):
at work, the war at home, or the war within whatever topic we're discussing, we want to
hear from you in between those episodes.
That way you help drive our content.
This isn't just us talking about these things.
We want it to be a living, breathing thing because that's what is affecting us and that
is what is making our jobs difficult, whatever topic we're talking about.

(01:36):
So we want you to help build the content.
So today's episode is a mailbag episode.
We had some great feedback from listeners.
I really appreciate it.
My partner Dr. Jackson really appreciated it, some of the insights you gave.
It honestly was amazing.
So today we're going to break down some of those emails, cover some of the issues a little
deeper, and we're just going to chat basically with you.

(01:58):
So again, anytime you want to reach out, please do it at educationalwarfare.pod at gmail.com.
We really want you guys to be a part of this.
I want you to feel like you're in it.
We want us to be able to talk and figure things out and just maybe feel a little better every
single day.
And that's the goal here.
So in this episode, I'm going to be reading your emails, digging deeper into them, helping

(02:21):
expand that idea of what's causing exhaustion, a lot like we're just sitting here having
a conversation.
I think that's the great part of it and what will really be helpful.
So let's go ahead and jump into some of those emails.
We have a lot of great emails from people, so many people saying that they really enjoyed
it and that means the world to us.

(02:42):
Rebecca says she loves it and she can't wait to hear more.
But our first email breaking down the content is from Andrea.
You've got mail.
And she reached out and she said, I especially appreciated how you explained the development
of the teenage brain, highlighting how psychological and neurological changes drive their behavior.
This aspect is often overlooked, but understanding it can revive some of the pressure on teachers,

(03:08):
reminding them that these behaviors aren't personal or unique to individual students.
They're just a normal part of adolescence.
First of all, thank you so much for emailing in Andrea.
That is a great point.
And breaking down their development a little more, we went in slightly how their prefrontal
lobe is not as developed as ours.
And I think you have to also explain as part of that is what does that mean exactly?

(03:31):
Like we know your prefrontal lobe is where we get our logic and our reasoning skills.
So if theirs is underdeveloped, what exactly is happening?
So in your standard brain, right, your prefrontal lobe logic reason talked about that.
Your amygdala is in the center of your brain and that's kind of our emotion center, right?
That's our, where our fight or flight response has taken place based on things that have

(03:56):
happened to our past.
Your brain basically learns and applies what are things I should fight against?
What are things I should be afraid of?
For example, if you were bitten by a dog when you were younger, you're going to have a natural
flight response most likely to dogs, even though you're older, even though your frontal
lobe is developed, you have a natural fear dogs because your brain has recorded what

(04:20):
happened when you're younger says that was not good and I need to protect myself from
that in the future.
So even though you can logic that it's a dog, it has an owner, obviously it's not eaten
that owner yet.
So it's probably not dangerous when a dog kind of approaches you quickly, even on a
leash you kind of curl up.
That's your body's flight response.

(04:41):
Everybody's saying your brain is saying, Oh no, not again.
And it's trying to protect you.
So our teenagers without a developed prefrontal lobe or prefrontal cortex, they basically
have less data going to that prefrontal cortex.
So a lot of times they live in that amygdala.
You kind of think of it as like a ping pong game of data.

(05:03):
So when you see something that upsets you or you become emotional, your brain takes
it from the amygdala, bounces it to your prefrontal cortex, and then decides what it should do.
If it is something a threat after you've reasoned and logic it out, it bounce it back to the
amygdala, fight or flight kicks in.
And if it is something that you're like, this is not a problem, you then reason out and

(05:28):
you could lessen that response.
So teenagers without theirs being as developed, they basically live in that emotional center.
This is why it's really hard when they are upset to logic with them, to reason with them,
because they don't have that bounce.
They're getting just a little bit of data from that prefrontal cortex, but it's mostly
just living in that amygdala.

(05:49):
That's why when they're angry, they're super hard to calm down.
That is why they get angry quickly.
So one of the best things you have to understand about this, how's this driving exhaustion
for teachers is that they are basically, if you understand this, then you can get why
in those moments of anger or frustration, they're not coming back down like you can.
A student can get up in your face.

(06:10):
They get upset, they walk up to you and they basically say something awful.
As a professional, most of us don't really react.
We logic out, okay, they are upset and this is a problem and I need to talk to them.
But they're not in that same space.
So even if you make a good point, they're not on the same level as you.
And this is why many of those behaviors in the classroom can cause such problems and

(06:35):
exhaust us because you feel like you're doing the right thing.
You feel like I was professional, I calmed them down and it didn't work.
And that's exhausting because failure naturally exhausts us.
Our brain doesn't really understand why we failed because it's done all of its processes,
it's gone to its logic center and now it's been thrown back of what now?

(06:56):
So that's exhausting and you have to understand that.
Andrew makes a great point there that if you do understand that, then it makes those not
seem personal and teachers, professionals, we can't take these things personal because
they're not.
We have to find ways.
So give them time to calm down, tell them it's a safe place.

(07:17):
Often things they can do that.
So the blood rushes from the top of their brain, right?
So also the blood in this is also making this even worse.
So instead of the blood going to the prefrontal cortex and allowing them to reason that, it
all filters down to that amygdala.
So they really can't even think straight.
They can't reason almost at all.
A couple of ways to beat this.

(07:39):
One looking up, if you can get them to a calm space, ask them to look up real quick.
That actually activates, that makes your brain go back to the prefrontal cortex.
It sends the blood back up there because it's activating your visual cortex.
Or they could chug a bottle of water.
I've talked to many great administrators and when they have a student in their office who

(07:59):
maybe was just in a fight or some type of altercation, they literally walk in, the student
be sitting there and instead of immediately engaging in conversation about it, which again
makes them defensive because they're naturally going to think that you're coming after them,
these administrators and teachers just hand them a bottle of water and say, drink that.
Make it a little pushback, but just say, hey, drink that.

(08:19):
Then I'll talk to you.
Once they start drinking that, that time, that little bit of time to drink it will allow
their blood to kind of move, seat back up in the prefrontal cortex and water also helps
release cortisol, which is a calming chemical.
So those type of things we can do to calm them down.

(08:40):
So take a moment.
Remember, if this isn't personal, it's not attack on you, then you should do all the
steps to help get them to a space to figure it out.
So a few seconds of calming them down is fine.
We don't always have to start talking immediately.
Take them out in the hall and just wait a second.
Just look at them, say, take some time.

(09:00):
I'm here for you.
And all of those things start to filter back in and that can help make some of those extreme
behaviors even better.
And this works even for the lesser behaviors.
When somebody, you can see somebody's just starting, you're in your classroom and you
start to see two students, you notice the rhetoric, their language, their way they're
talking to each other is starting to get a little worrisome.
Our teacher ears, you might be with another student, but we're always listening.

(09:23):
We're like a great radar.
We're always kind of listening around the room and you hear, oh, that's not a normal
conversation.
Something's happening.
You can do this even when it's starting and that'll get them back to that normalized level.
And that's an important thing to remember.
Also with these developments, I think it's important to discuss when we're talking about
these behaviors that students naturally understand hierarchies.

(09:46):
Okay.
They get it.
You know, all the students know exactly what little click they're in.
So they're desperately, even as much as they don't say it, they desperately want to be
in that cool class or that, you know, like people like me hierarchy.
And so therefore they may do some behaviors that are totally against who they are.
You may see this in your own children that you have your child and all of a sudden they're

(10:08):
just they're the kid, you know, and also they're doing things and acting ways.
They're completely different.
We often chalk this up to like, oh, they're teenagers.
And that's a huge part of it.
Obviously puberty and all the changes that do that really make this a drastic change.
But it's also a part of that social function to where they're looking for and wanting to

(10:30):
be in that different class.
So they may act a certain way to be seen as cool or the group they're hoping for.
They may want to make laugh.
And again, not personal.
If we start to understand this, then we can really see what's happening.
We're playing at a different game.
We have the instruction booklet instead of just being a player with the students.
And that's what we want to be.
We want to be in charge.

(10:50):
That's how you limit that exhaustion.
When you're in control of all these situations, it is easier to manage them and therefore
we get less exhausted.
So they may be trying to be cool and they may be trying to get friends.
They may just be frustrated.
But if you understand where they're coming from, that development, then you're going
to have better results in fixing those behaviors.
I talk about this in my book, The Two Backpacks, Understanding Teens and What They Carry.

(11:15):
How they're doing that.
Students often have to pick between cool and lame.
And we see this on social media all the time.
Again, changes in your child.
You always see this with fashion.
They start dressing the same way.
They always like to make a joke that in the fall, every single teenage girl ends up looking
like Han Solo because they wear the high boots.
They got some type of jeans or leggings on under them.

(11:37):
They're wearing like a white, tight cotton undershirt and then a vest.
Basically Han Solo.
Why they all look the same?
Because that's the fashion that's in.
So they're trying to pick that cool name.
And we've all seen this in your own kids.
You may have experienced this.
You know, you drive to school with your daughter and when you drove her to school before, you're

(11:57):
in your truck, your car, and you're listening to the music you've listened to that she or
your son, he has grown up to like.
So you're sitting there and you're belting out a country song, Florida, Georgia line.
You guys are listening, singing it fun.
And all of a sudden you get in there, you put on the music and your kid says, can we

(12:18):
listen to something else?
That's lame.
And you're kind of shocked.
Like, hold on, we've been doing this forever and you've never said it was lame before.
What's changed?
But you know, being a good parent, you're like, okay, like what do you want to listen
to?
And you know, as a parent also, just a little sidebar.
Don't immediately push back against that.
I know that's your time.
Again, part of that being exhausted in any profession is you get those little moments.

(12:41):
It's your time.
So you love those times with a kid and listening to your music helps calm you before work.
But you know, help them figure out what they like.
You'll have a lot of better results for your personal relationship.
So being a good parent, you're probably like, okay, what do you want us to do?
And you're thinking maybe they like a new country band or they're just tired of that
song and they say something drastically different.

(13:02):
Right?
And she's like, oh, I want to listen to Billie Eilish.
And you're like, where did that come from?
You know, or, you know, your kid knows what you'll probably say yes or no to.
So they may really want to be listening to Cardi B, but they know that won't fly.
So maybe she'll say Billie Eilish or something that a lot of that comes from that constant
pressure to be cool.
They don't want to be in a situation where all their friends are talking about this one

(13:25):
thing, this one band, this one type of music.
And they're like, oh, I don't like that.
That immediately makes them an outsider.
Remember, teens are polling.
They're wanting to be part and accepted.
They want that if you could put it on a scale, right?
A two sided scale, kind of like scales of justice where it's like what you and your
child like and used to share between what their peers find acceptable.

(13:49):
They're probably going to pick their peers at this point.
And that can be hurtful and again, exhausting to feel that change, but because they want
to be accepted by them because they're trying to develop.
There's two reasons they really do this.
One is they're trying to make their own identity and that's completely fine.
It can be scary and exhausting as a parent for your kid to drastically change.

(14:09):
And obviously we have to monitor this.
We can't just let like extreme, possibly dangerous or harmful changes happen.
These slight ones with dress and preferences for movies, films, things they do.
We have to explore that and be fine.
So they're trying to find out who they are so they can adapt and start to flush out their
own values, bouncing them off what you've taught them.

(14:32):
So you are still there.
It's very easy when teenagers start to pull away.
It's very easy to feel like you're no longer there, like you're no longer important, but
you are.
They're not going to explain it.
If you made them explain it, they may act like you're torturing them, but you are, they're
bouncing off the values you taught them.
So they're doing that.
The second reason is joining the popular trend at the time.

(14:54):
Like I said, there's this constant push, especially with social media.
You know, students and teens, we found that they live now.
And again, I talk about this in chapter eight of my book.
We found through research and everything that teens basically live this dual reality.
They have their physical body and their physical self that you see every day, the things they

(15:17):
like, how they talk, but they also have a digital body that they've created.
They've curated it.
They've made it seem exactly how they want their followers or potential followers to
believe they are.
And they have to constantly do that.
So this is why you might see females, right?
Female teens constantly taking pictures, selfies in random times.

(15:41):
They want to put out there like, look how cute and fun I am to curate that, that they're
cute and fun or that they're doing something cool.
You know, adults, we do this too.
We go on social media and what do we do?
We post a meal we made.
So everybody's like, look, I cook and I cook well.
Or we post a vacation.
Look how much fun me and my family have or look how adventurous I am.
We do that.

(16:01):
But for us, it's more of just sharing, going out there, helping friends who may have been
able to connect with for a while, see our lives.
But for teens, it is showing them that I'm acceptable, that I'm fun.
Please follow, please like me.
Because the scary thing about that digital world that I'm talking about is they can be

(16:25):
found to be acceptable or not acceptable simply by their profile.
How many followers do they have?
How many likes did they get on their last post?
And that's that drive to keep adding and getting likes, keep posting pictures because they
want to be found acceptable.
And that's a scary thing.
So that's what we're fighting against.
You know, we're going against that.

(16:46):
So easy thing to try to filter through and remember as you're doing that.
Are they doing this because they're angry?
Are they doing this because they're bored?
Are they doing this because they want somebody to laugh?
Are they doing this because they want to look cool?
Filter all that through when you're dealing with those little behaviors and understand
it's not about you.
It's not a personal attack.

(17:08):
And that if you can figure that out, if you can work through that, then you'll be able
to better get your class in a behavior and hopefully limit your exhaustion.
Andrea also said here, she mentioned a great point.
I love this and I hope everybody goes and sees this.
She said in a professional development, we learned about the true colors personality

(17:30):
test and that most teachers, when you go to this personality test, fall under the blue
and gold personality types.
These types resent traits like empathy, dependability, and unwavering commitment to their students.
All right.
If you look at all the colors, I went to true-colors.com.
That's where you can find this and kind of see a breakdown of it and even take your own

(17:55):
test and see where you fall.
Just kind of break down the colors for you real quick because I do love this point you
made and kind of how it could be exhausting.
Not only you're dealing with this, but you're also, it could be a conflict between your
general personalities and that obviously will cause that because it's very hard to change
that.
That's something we can't affect.
So the orange personality, if you take this test, orange people are adventurous and that

(18:18):
means action-orientated, seeks fun, variety, stimulation, excitement.
Green personality, they're curious, they're problem solvers, they seek knowledge and understanding.
The blue personality is harmonious, they're compassionate, and they seek to encourage
and to care.
And then the gold personality, they're responsible, dependable, they seek to follow rules and

(18:38):
respect authority.
So now remember what Andrea said when she kind of read this article.
Most teachers fall under the blue and gold.
So harmonious, seeks to encourage and care, and responsible, seeks to follow rules and
respect authority.
So those type of personalities bouncing off each other can cause problems.

(19:00):
On that site they found 46% of teachers were in the blue personality and 46% were in the
gold.
Like we said, most of them fall under that.
So rules, care, and compassionate.
If you look at the general population, so non-teachers, just random people taking this,
35% were in gold, but 35% were in the orange, which again is adventurous, action-orientated,

(19:26):
seeks fun, variety, stimulation, excitement, where 15% were in the green, which is curious,
the problem solvers want knowledge and understanding, and then only 15% were in the blue, which
is harmonious, seeks to encourage and care.
So when you think about that, teachers are this unique breed.
We go into this profession because we are compassionate, we seek to encourage and care.

(19:47):
And also most teachers go into the job because they like the structure of the job.
What is it?
It's rules, it's accountability.
It is, every day can be organized, categorized, and very ordered.
So that's what teachers want, and that's the personality we have.
But then we're teaching where students fall under that same general population thing.

(20:09):
They tested students and they almost mimicked the general population with 35% in orange,
35% in gold, 15 in green, 15 in blue.
So you have teachers who want order and structure, but to encourage, and then you have students
who want variety and adventure.
That can make it exhausting because it's not only they're not just listening in class or

(20:31):
they're not interacting in a lesson the way they want.
They could just be doing different things.
They could be bouncing off of what you expect, your personality telling you this should happen,
and their personality saying this should happen.
That's why kids get up and wander.
They want that adventure.
That's a little bit of adventure that they can have.
They go up and wander, they might go check this.
That's why you're constantly saying, Jimmy, sit back down.

(20:54):
That's what they want.
So you have to find ways to fight that.
And what Andrea says here is this also can lead to burnout because you have unrealistic
demands.
Our natural desire to support students often makes teachers feel like we're set up for
failure when we're asked to do so much with so little support.
And eventually we start to burn out and we start to feel those pressures to close gaps

(21:20):
that we honestly can't control.
And I just need to say this is a rock star email, honestly.
This is great.
Thank you so much, Andrea, because that's a great point there when we're talking about
this.
We're talking about all the reasons we feel exhausted.
It's sometimes something we can't even be asked to control.
And this talks about the demand for the job that we went over in our first episode, how

(21:41):
we literally are asked to do so much.
And one of the things we're asked to do is to get this attention from our students, this
understanding, while also keep them controlled.
And then we have to have them perform.
So we have to keep them controlled in this way.

(22:01):
We have to teach them this knowledge.
And then we're asked to perform on state tests, standardized tests, whatever your state may
do.
And those two things don't go together.
If you maybe allowed teachers to take kids outside a little more and do things out there
and have lessons like that, then they might learn a little better.

(22:22):
But we all know that's hard to control.
You would be exhausted because it'd be like herding cats a lot of times.
You'd have to come with these super crazy, unique and interesting lessons.
And then you'd have to hope it all work.
But we're asking them, hey, learn this, but keep them in this environment.
Don't let this happen.
And then we get little support for that.
And that's exhausting.

(22:43):
And so this natural fight between the types of personality is one thing teachers are having
to control with very little support from our governments, from our states.
I'm not going to say admin aren't doing this because again, they're just trying to follow
what's being told to them.
So it's not attack on principals or anything because they again have to maintain order
in the school.

(23:04):
But our support system for this idea is basically just do it.
And that's exhausting.
That leads to burnout.
It leads us being so tired.
It leads us to be just not know what we should do.
And here's the point of this.
Teachers care a lot.
And that leads into the burnout.
We care about our kids.

(23:25):
We care about how they're doing.
That is part of the blue personality that we're harmonious, we're compassionate, we
seek to encourage and to care.
So we care a lot and all professions care about what they're doing.
But teaching is one profession that there aren't really tangible rewards.
There are no promotions coming.

(23:46):
There's no extra money coming.
It is watching your students do well.
That's the reward.
And when you don't see that or when you feel like you're not doing a good job on that,
that just burns us out.
A teacher's care or other professions, maybe I hope I get a raise, maybe I'll get that
bonus.
Ooh, if I put everything into it, I'll get that promotion.

(24:10):
That's burnout and other professions.
A teacher's care is one of the soul.
We care that these children are safe, that these children are growing, that these children
are learning.
It is something you can't see.
And it's something we're asked to show on a standardized test with a data point.

(24:33):
And that can cause burnout because you can sit in a meeting, look at your data, know
that it is just okay.
You might just be on par with the state and have conversations with admin and people who
say, oh, well, you're on par with the state, but we need to show bigger growth.
What can you do?
And in your heart, you're saying, I watched this kid go from where he wouldn't talk to

(24:58):
where he was raising his hand.
Still didn't do well on the test.
He was not a crazy high performer because he'd just broken out of that bubble and he
hadn't learned yet to take that, I'm raising my hand in class, part of that prefrontal
lobe not being developed.
He hadn't learned to take that logic and apply it to tests.
He didn't see that they were connected yet because they just can't see that a lot of

(25:21):
times yet.
Still didn't perform well, but you saw him grow, raised his hand.
Beginning of the year, may not even been able to get that kid to smile or even look up at
you because he was so shy.
Now he's raising his hand.
So you saw growth, but you were told you weren't showing growth.
That causes burnout because again, this is a care of the soul.

(25:42):
We pour yourself into something.
We pour it in there.
I don't know any teachers.
There's stereotypes out there.
I don't know any teachers who come to work and don't pour themselves into it because
I think part of us know that if we don't, kids, part of their developmental thing, part
of their protection thing in their brain, they're very able to pick out phonies quickly

(26:05):
as part of their development.
It's a protection their brain does.
They can see when something's not legit and that helps them be protected, helps them survive.
So they know you're winging it.
You all of a sudden have way more issues than the average teacher and teachers again care.
So you go in there and you pour yourself into it and it exhausts you, but it's not only
exhaustion of, oh, I'm so tired because I've been working late and I have to fill out all

(26:29):
these things that other professions may have or have to do this and this.
And that's just basically a physical, a little mental exhaustion.
Exhausting can exhaust you when you pour yourself into it, can exhaust you physically, spiritually
and emotionally.
And thank you again so much, Andrea.
Let's get into another email here.

(26:51):
You've got mail.
Jake emails and says, if you ask me, the magic pill for reducing exhaustion in education would
be twofold.
The first is lower class sizes and the second increase school personnel.
Jake goes on to say, however, achieving this is unlikely anytime soon given the current

(27:16):
staffing shortages and declining interest in the teaching profession.
Without major shifts in resource and support, educators will likely continue to bear an
unstable load.
One that is damaging to both their wellbeing and their ability to support students effectively.
Jake, that's an awesome point for anybody out there who is thinking like, oh, well,

(27:40):
like class sizes, like you guys talked about that in episode one and we did because it
is a real thing.
You know, a lot of people say you're teachers, you teach students, you want less of them
now.
Isn't that kind of saying you want less workload?
Yes.
Yes.
I'm not embarrassed to say it because that workload is different.
We're not asking to do less.

(28:01):
We're asking to do what we do even better because you have less personalities, less
chances to have these disruptions.
Again, we went back to talk about cell phones.
We talked about how teens are trying to have that social interaction, how they're trying
to gain cool points or work in that hierarchy.
And the more students you have in your classroom, the more students you have doing that and

(28:25):
the more behaviors you have to control and the less content you're getting to cover because
you're managing those other things that aren't teaching.
It's a part of job to manage behavior.
We know that, but when you give a super large classes, it is super impossible to do that.
It is frustrating.
You might spend 10 minutes trying to get two or three kids to do what you need to do.

(28:48):
And what are the other students doing while you're doing that?
They're not working.
They're watching because that's drama and their brains love it.
They're not sitting there studiously filling out the worksheet while you're trying to get
these three kids to do what they're supposed to do.
They are watching.
They're listening.
Is somebody going to say something crazy?
Is somebody getting sent to the office?
So those three students are now affecting the rest of it.

(29:12):
Nobody's working.
So simply lowering it a few could help you manage those behaviors.
But again, he says that there is an issue with that because there's staffing shortages.
And that's true.
According to McKinsey, more than 61% of school administrators have found it difficult to
hire personnel.
They're finding it hard to find teachers, substitute counselors, other administrators.

(29:35):
And let's go on top of this.
This is post pandemic, of course.
Go on top of this.
Fewer college students, one third than previous numbers prior to 2008.
Teacher and complete teacher education and preparation programs.
So we're not only having problems getting teachers to fill roles because I think teachers

(29:57):
are starting to feel more agency.
We're starting to understand that this is our life.
We're starting to understand that exhaustion.
And we're not willing to jump into an awful situation to continue just to do the job.
We want the job to be the right one for us.
And society's kind of pushed back on that, being a little mad.
Like, why aren't teachers doing their job?
Well, whatever job you do, why don't you work in the worst possible environment to do it?

(30:19):
Because you don't want to hate life.
Teachers don't either.
But you also now have fewer people going into the profession.
They're not even trying to look because of all this.
And can you blame them?
I'm thinking about we talk about post pandemic numbers.
And I'm not digging into this with Dr. Jackson a little more in episode two, the war at home

(30:42):
and how this brings exhaustion to us.
It's a little preview here.
But when you're looking at that, when you're looking at people joining the profession,
why would they join it?
If you are an 18 year old about to graduate high school and you see how teachers are talked
about and you see the things being said about them and you see the laws coming down to basically
curtail everything.

(31:03):
I mean, we could even talk about in the state of Tennessee, they passed a law that classroom
libraries had to be uploaded and categorized.
You had to make sure there was nothing bad in there, which one ridiculous and exhausting
because I don't know any teacher who had an inappropriate book in their classroom libraries.

(31:23):
Because remember also high school teachers, English teachers, probably a classroom library
for reading.
Most other subjects might have a few in there in case they do like a, hey, read or whatever
in class.
We don't have many books.
So this is basically attacking elementary school teachers and English teachers, ELA
teachers in middle school and saying, Hey, now you have to do this extra work.

(31:43):
I need you to go through every book you have uploaded to this, make sure it doesn't go
against that.
I don't know any teachers who want inappropriate books in their classroom, but that's something
they had to do.
And that's another thing that's exhausting.
Think about the pandemic.
Think about 2020, the end of 2020.
So we're talking March districts down in Tennessee closed like March 6th in 2020 from March to

(32:10):
August.
We were heroes.
The world talked about teachers just, Oh my gosh, can't believe you're doing this.
I can't believe you're taking care of your family while also teaching classes online.
Just a personal story during the pandemic, uh, by wife's job, she was in a private educational
business at the time and her boss, who was just a very special character.

(32:32):
I'm gonna leave it there.
He didn't let them stop coming to work.
Yeah.
We didn't believe there was an issue, so she had to go to work.
So I'm here at my house and I have to teach my AP classes and my other class, but I also
have three children here who are basically 12 and under.

(32:57):
And I had to do their work.
I had to teach my classes.
Then I'd have to run in and make sure they were doing their work.
We set up desks in each of their room.
You know, we were just making sure they did their stuff, so I'd come in, check on them.
My youngest, basically, I remember one time we were doing the stuff, the hands on the
clock, like learning time.
And one of my other children asked me to come in and check their work.

(33:20):
So I went in and I come back out.
I was working with him at the kitchen table.
I come back out and he's nowhere to be found.
And I'm like, why was gone two minutes?
Where'd he go?
And I'm looking around, I'm calling for him.
Nothing.
And I look and he is outside on the trampoline.
Just jump in, live in his best life.
Right.
I went away for two seconds out there, living his best life.

(33:41):
He crawled through the doggy door because he couldn't reach the deadbolt at the time
just because that door is locked because nobody gone out it.
So he just crawled through the dog door, went on the trampoline.
We were doing things like that.
Yeah.
It was funny.
Called him back in, kept going, but bouncing all that.
All of us were doing something like that.
Most likely we were heroes.
And then by the beginning of the next school year, so by August, maybe creeping into a

(34:04):
September, October, we went from hero to villain within three months.
I don't know any other profession that does that.
We got no grace period.
And why would you want to go into that profession?
So there are less teachers coming into the profession as a whole.
According to the National Education Association, NEA, there are 500,000 plus fewer educators

(34:26):
in the American public school system post pandemic.
That's a problem.
So we want smaller class sizes, but there are less people joining the profession.
So now you have people needing to do more and more take this.
Hey, our English teacher quit.
Nobody's taking the job.
So we have to break up their classes and put them in yours.
Or you have to teach English on top of this.

(34:49):
We'll give somebody else your history class.
You teach English because you have it on your license.
That's exhausting.
And we don't say no.
That's the issue with education is that again, we care.
So where most professions, they'd say, nah, I already do a job.
You need to hire somebody for that.
That's unfair.

(35:09):
We say, okay, because we don't want to upset our administrators who remember we talked
about this last steps are doing our evaluations.
We don't want to upset them.
We don't want to let kids down.
You know, like you just walk by and it's just kind of a permanent sub in there.
Doesn't have an English background.
So, you know, these kids aren't learning anything.
What affects those scores again, we talked about for the whole school.

(35:29):
Then you're going to have to sit in meetings and be like, why is our, why are our scores
bad?
Not anybody outside of education gets the blame for making it that way where teachers
don't want to join.
It's again on us because that's easy for people to put the blame.
So we say yes.
And we do it.
We pour ourselves into a subject we may not be super comfortable in to try to help them.

(35:50):
That leads that burnout leads exhaustion, but lower class sizes definitely would help.
I think it's a, it's a great idea.
There needs to be some way to figure this out.
Dr. Jackson talked about you have class size limits.
People think like, oh, they helped you.
They passed laws to take care of that.
But again, one, it's not really any way to check that for the law unless somebody turns

(36:14):
it in.
And two, it's easy just to shift that around to avoid breaking the law.
So it doesn't, it's not really a true thing.
It needs to be researched, find a finite number and then attach that to a law and then make
sure that we follow that.
But it's not going to happen anytime soon.
So we continue to struggle with these giant class sizes and it is difficult for everybody.

(36:35):
I think I comfortable saying this.
One of the most nervous moments you have as a teacher when the new year is starting and
you're just kind of waiting, it's a summer, you're squeezing as much joy out of those
last summer days as you can and you start getting those work emails, your summer professional
development is about to start leading off in a school year and you get an email that

(36:56):
says rosters are now uploaded.
To me at least.
And let us know, email us and see if it's for you or if I'm just a giant weirdo, educationalwarfare.pod.gmail.com.
That's one of those nerve wracking moments because I click on it and when you, for any
non-educators, when you click on your rosters in most systems, you see the class, like how

(37:17):
your classes are organized, what periods they'll be and then there's a number of how many students
are in it.
And that's the part that makes me nervous.
What's it going to be?
Am I going to get 28?
Am I going to get 30?
Am I going to have a reasonable number?
Another exhausting part is my second period going to be 21.
That's a reasonable number.
I don't think teachers will complain about that number.

(37:38):
A lot of times people think when we say class sizes, we're saying, oh, we want five kids
in there.
Actually, a small class is harder to deal with, in my opinion, because if they're not
engaging, you're basically just standing up yelling at them when you're lecturing almost.
I'm just talking, obviously I have a louder voice and I'm just sitting there lecturing
about something or talking about something and I have five kids staring at me and they're

(38:00):
not engaging.
So it just seems really odd.
So we're not asking for five kids in a class.
20 is reasonable.
23, very doable.
Was my second period going to have 20 and then my fourth period going to have 28?
That's exhausting too, because it's not only, oh, more kids.
Your brain has to now process how to make that happen.

(38:22):
What is this going to be like?
How am I going to change?
We are constantly molding in this profession as teachers.
We are the greatest actors.
We adapt and change and make sure we're giving those classes what you need.
And then oftentimes you can't do the same lesson because it just doesn't work with that
many kids.
So now we're doing two lessons for the same topic.

(38:43):
Again, exhausting.
Nobody wants this profession to become so bad that it has to be changed again by people
who aren't in it.
And you could argue from some groups that's kind of the goal.
It's a political topic that maybe this political podcast show that will really dig into that.
We may at some point, because we're not afraid to have those candid conversations.

(39:04):
Remember, we're taking the fight to these issues.
So stay tuned for that.
But it's still super hard to have a productive, happy school environment when you have these
issues and low support staff.
Again, not being able to get subs.
Most schools have a list that goes out of, hey, these people aren't here today.

(39:25):
Could teachers cover it?
And they've even had to incentivize teachers or anybody not out there.
Now you can get paid to cover that class, which is super nice.
One school I was at, the secretary there, she was a wonderful woman and super nice.
She was very old.
She started working at the school when it opened in 1961.

(39:46):
And this was in 2017.
She literally graduated in May and started working at the front desk in September and
had been there since then, which is an amazing accomplishment.
But when she'd call my class and she'd be like, Dr. Lauer, can you cover this class?
How would I say no?
I'm going to make this person who's running the front desk now have to search again for

(40:11):
somebody to do it.
So of course I'd say yes.
And then I'd lose my planning period.
And now I'd be behind.
Or I'd go in there and try to plan and just do the lesson that the kids are doing.
So I'm just sitting in there monitoring behaviors.
It's difficult.
And that is these little things that nobody sees that just add up, that make you exhausted.
You will be more tired that evening when you had to cover a class than you were if you

(40:35):
didn't because now you're bringing more stuff home, which we're talking about in our next
episode, the things that follow us home.
So it's a great point by Jake there.
And the point of this whole show is we're bringing these issues out there.
We're attacking them so they can no longer attack us.
But I really appreciate Jake bringing that up.
So thank you so much, Jake.

(40:56):
One last email here that we're a go through.
It's been awesome talking about these.
You guys have some great ideas.
I am just floored by some of these reading through some.
It was hard picking this, picking which ones to talk about.
And I just appreciate you all so much.
So please keep them coming.
You've got mail.
Paul mentions that aspect of exhaustion for him is accumulation of rough days.

(41:20):
And I just that just had to stop when I read that was like, that's awesome.
Like putting it that way.
The accumulation of rough days, other professions, you may get frustrated with a task.
I got to do this.
Oh, I have to go to all these meetings and do this.
But teaching is a frustration of not a task.
None of us are frustrated.
We have to teach.

(41:41):
I think that's something we have to talk about numbers are exhausted because we have to do
our job.
That's what we want to do.
What we get frustrated is that what we do is a set of personalities.
And those personalities happen to be your clients.
You know, every other other jobs, you may have an annoying coworker or demanding boss
or a demanding coworker who you have to work with.

(42:04):
It's just hard to keep up with.
But you're working to then service whatever your client is.
And oftentimes there is some invisible force.
You may have a client who's very pushy as well.
And that's just something you have to deal with.
But that's kind of few and far between.
But many of those clients are a name on a piece of paper, a name on a spreadsheet.
Your boss is pushy to make sure you're doing well.

(42:25):
But the people who were dealing with those rough personalities at time are those very
different personalities time.
Those are our clients.
We have to do things for them while also deal with that.
And so when you get this accumulation of bad days, just Tuesday, this kid was just one

(42:45):
work.
You did all your awesome teacher strategies, which all of us have a toolbox full of those.
Nothing worked.
He was still defiant.
And you're like, do I send them to the office and cause this issue and then have to explain
what would happen?
And of course, once we send them to the office, one of the first question is, well, what did
you do?
Again, we're not professionals and don't have a toolbox because we all know what to do.

(43:06):
Very few teachers I know just send kids to the office for nothing.
We go through all the steps.
If my admin knows that if a kid goes to the office from my classroom, that is everything
has been exhausted.
They're almost surprised.
Like I'll get an email like Dr. Lauer, did you mean to send this student?
But yes.
So, but you get that day to where you get to that point.

(43:27):
Okay.
Let's stop there.
You had to get to that point.
That's exhausting.
You had to be so frustrated that you had to send them out.
Or maybe you did a couple of things, a toolbox on Tuesday and activity one didn't work.
Activity two didn't work.
Activity three worked.
You got him going.
You know, you maybe gave him a little novelty in the assignment, something unique about

(43:47):
it.
You know, that orange personality that Andrea, thank you again Andrea, mentioned.
So you got something.
Wednesday comes in, same thing.
Can't do that same novelty thing, different lesson.
You also again, class size might have 26 other students to deal with.
Finally do you blow up?

(44:09):
And people get mad when teachers do get upset.
You know, again, cell phones, the classroom, one thing we didn't talk about is being recorded.
That's terrifying to every teacher.
That's exhausting thinking about that.
You know, even just given a straight up lesson, can I be recorded, mixed, cut up towards something
I said sounds bad than it was taken out of context.
There's now again, we're probably talk about AI in another episode to really break that

(44:33):
down.
But now they can clone your voice with AI.
They get enough content of your voice.
They can get an AI clone and these students can find stuff that most of us can't.
They just are internet.
They can't research and find where you have to find historical facts or English facts
that have been out for 50 years.
But man, they can find that free AI clone downloaded and make that so you can have your

(44:57):
voice sounds just like you pretty dang close saying something crazy.
You know, that part is exhausting.
So we're dealing with all of that.
And if we blow up, it's a story.
Oh, this teacher did this teacher that whereas anything else that's human, you've dealt with
this day after day after day.
And finally, you're to that breaking point or you take a day off.

(45:19):
There's chronic absenteeism.
30% of teachers have said that they are now being more chronically absent than they have
before and walk down the hall next time you're about to take a day off.
All of us have done this.
So teachers listening are like, yeah, I know that.
But anybody else, you know, or a teacher I'm trying to walk down the hall next time you
have a day off, if somebody asks, oh, mental health day, and they'll laugh and go, yep,

(45:40):
we need those.
It's not even like if you're just, I need a day, even that's not the reason you say
it.
People totally understand.
And think about that.
You're burning a vacation day.
You're burning a sick day, basically, possibly just to take a deep breath.
That is a problem.
That means you're burnt out.
That means you're exhausted.
And it's these accumulation of bad days.

(46:03):
Can we talked about a Gallup poll from 2022?
44% of American K through 12 teachers reported feeling burned out often or always.
And again, 44% according to the Wall Street Journal, again, 44% of public schools posted
teaching vacancies in early 2020.

(46:25):
And again, from Gallup, K-12 teachers are the number one most burnt out profession in
the United States of America.
That's from Gallup.
Never reliable source or say it again, K-12 teachers are the number one most burnt out
profession in the United States of America.

(46:49):
That's the exhaustion we're talking about.
That's what we're fighting back against.
Just talking about this, putting it out there, being able to say these things, being able
to be with each other and just hear them and nod along.
Nodding is good.
I hope you're nodding along to this, right?
I hope you're here listening and just maybe that I'm not alone.
You are not alone and you're doing a good job.

(47:10):
I promise you, you're doing a good job.
Tell your friends, tell them about the podcast, tell them to follow, subscribe, give us five
stars, like, leave a review and have them listen along just so we can nod so we can
start these conversations.
Because these things need to be known.
A lot of this aren't.
Teachers, we want to go in and do our job.

(47:30):
We want to keep our head down.
We want to do well and we need to fight back against this.
And talking about it like we are, Dr. Jackson and I here on Education Warfare, that's the
plan.
So it's a great email from Paul really helping to kind of hone in on that, about those accumulation
of bad days.
What do we do?

(47:51):
I've had students before in the past where every day it's, what's this kid going to do?
And that again is exhaustion because you know what?
You may have an annoying coworker at work if you're not a teacher and you're going to
wake up and be like, oh, I hope I don't run into Bessie today.
She just, all she does is talk about her cat and I love cats, but yeah, good example.

(48:13):
She just talks about her cat and won't leave me alone.
Just stands in my office and I can't get any work done.
So you can do avoidant techniques.
She's not part of it.
We can't avoid little Jimmy, little Sally.
They're going to be sitting there because we all know that some of our problematic students,
who just need that a little extra love and attention and that's what we give them.
You know, teachers have to think like they don't like my kid.

(48:34):
I've never not liked a kid one because they're not an adult.
They're a kid or guide them, but I'm thinking about them.
We wake up in the morning.
You know, my alarm goes off shortly after 5 a.m. every morning.
If you have that student or class who's you're constantly pulling out things to that toolbox,
you wake up, your feet swinging the floor after your alarm goes off, you rub your eyes,

(48:57):
you walk to start your shower water.
And as soon as that sleep fog clears from your brain, you're thinking to that kid, how's
today going to go?
That is exhausting.
That makes us just, oh, when you can't, you're not thinking about work.
You're not thinking how the day's going to go.
You're thinking, what can I do?
And that just starts to wear on us again, most burnt out profession in America.

(49:20):
So being able to understand their development, being able to understand what they're thinking,
like we talked about being able to stand how schools work is really important for us.
And that's why I'm doing this.
You know?
And like I said, I had a student every day came in and my wife loves to make this joke.
Kevin Hart, one of our favorite comedians.
You know, my wife's a teacher as well.

(49:41):
And it really is not that we're being mean to the student or anything, but just because
you know that issue, you know, we stand at the door and it's like, good morning.
Good morning.
Hey, how are you?
Good morning.
Hey, what's up?
How was your weekend?
Awesome.
And then that student walks up and you're like, Kevin?
And they're like, Dr. Lauer.
Like, you just know, like, where's this going to go today, man?

(50:03):
Let's both have a good day.
Right.
But you're already thinking about that.
You know?
And I always try that student.
I try to talk to them about something.
They come in as soon as I see them.
I try to avoid that Kevin Hart joke where I'm like, Timmy, you know, I'm trying to like,
Hey, what's up, man?
Did you see, try to find out their interests just to get them in that, that they think
they can trust you a lot of it's a trust issue too.

(50:23):
I think they can trust you, but you're still thinking like, Hey man, like in your head,
you're like, I have this lesson today.
It is going to have to go relatively fast.
We're hitting three different parts.
We're moving around.
I need you not to just blow up one of the parts.
Because you know, and the time we have in our classes, if you lose five minutes because
you're dealing with something, that lesson is not going to get completed.

(50:45):
You've timed this out or you have to build in.
There's five minutes to make sure stuff's going right, which again is exhausting.
We have to think about that.
So we're building that in.
So I've had students before it's like that and we've all been there and that does cause
burnout.
There are some days where you just had a rough couple of days and maybe something's going
on at your at home or talk about it in episode two, you're stressed about something else.

(51:09):
And then you're thinking about that.
And sometimes the night before you eat dinner, you're sitting there and then you start going
over what you're going to do the next day.
You might just go, I don't know if I can, I might just put in for a sub.
And that's the burnout and exhaustion.
We're talking about, and we need to get to where we're controlling that and not letting
that exhaustion win and talk about its first thing.

(51:31):
So I am so thankful for all of these emails.
I'm so happy you're all are listening.
Keep telling people, keep growing it.
If you think it'll help if you're nodding along, I really appreciate it.
Make sure everybody knows where they can find us.
We're on Apple, Spotify, we are Pandora, Amazon Music, everyone can find us.
Share it with them.

(51:52):
Leave us as five stars, leave us a review and keep listening.
Keep sending in your emails.
Again, we're going to do next Tuesday, we're going to do episode two, exhaustion, the war
at home.
And then following that, we'll have another mailbag.
So please don't feel like you have to wait till before you get an idea in your head,
shoot it over to educationalwarfare.pod at gmail.com.

(52:16):
Share it with us, talk to us about it.
Might end up in one of the episodes, might have a shout out in one of the mailbags, might
have a shout out in one of the episodes, but we want to keep this going because these emails
were great and they just opened up my mind, hoping they opened up yours.
Thank you so much for listening.
Next week, we'll have episode two, Dr. Jackson will be back with me and we're going to talk

(52:38):
about the war at home with exhaustion and really break down how we drag that exhaustion
work into our homes, how that can affect us there.
And also how some things at home can then affect us and exacerbate that exhaustion at
work.
So we're really break that down.
So please listen.

(52:58):
And I want to thank you for Dr. Jackson, for me.
Thank you for listening and thank you for being a part of the fight.