Teacher Burnout is Real, and the School Year is Just Getting Started

In a TikTok video, a teacher blames the pandemic for kids' behavior issues, while others blame 'ghost parents.'

Fact checked by Sarah Scott

"The kids are different. The kids are 100% different," TikTok creator and school teacher @butterpunkk tells the camera. She explains that it is not even October yet, and she is already feeling burnout—something she doesn't expect to happen until the year's second half. She also explains that kids these days are built differently, and since the pandemic, this generation of children has become nearly impossible to connect with.

@butterpunkk is not alone; teacher burnout has become a chronic condition of the K-12 profession. In a 2022 Gallup poll, K-12 educators beat out every other sector for workplace-related burnout, and among K-12 educators, an overwhelming 44% report "always or very often" feeling the pain of burnout.

I spoke with several K-12 public school teachers and administrators who agreed with the sentiments @butterpunkk expresses in her video. However, they were not comfortable going on record given the charged political atmosphere around discussing public schools.

They did share that public school systems are facing unprecedented challenges from every direction, including issues around poverty, addiction, parental exhaustion, and political threats of censorship and defunding public education.

One teacher said, "Teachers are hurting. They're leaving mid-year with more regularity. It's truly real, sad, and consequential." But the worst part, they said, is all the blame they see being pinned in the wrong place. "Teachers know, respect, and repeat the words, 'all behavior is communication' all day long," another teacher told me.

One glance at the comments section of @butterpunkk's video gives sobering answers to their burnout. Many blame the kids' behavior, which, they say, has worsened since the pandemic. When commenters speculate why, two criticisms in particular stand out: ghost parenting and schools not catching up with the times.

Related: Is My Child Acting Out or Is It Age-appropriate Behavior?

Routine Disruptions Impact Kids

There has been much chatter among parents, teachers, and the media about how children’s behaviors have become worse since the pandemic. According to the Education Advisory Board, 84% of public school teachers say that K-12 students are developmentally behind in self-regulation and relationship-building compared to students before the pandemic.

One reason why post-pandemic kids may be acting differently is because the pre-pandemic routines they relied on for academic success simply don’t exist anymore.

“So many routines were disrupted for students, teachers, and their families. Even for states that didn’t extend school closings, routines at home were disrupted, and that is very difficult for young minds to comprehend,” says Brandi David, MEd, a Florida-based K-8 educator specializing in mathematics and development editor for Hand2Mind. This can be a major contributing factor to student behaviors. It can seem impossible to feel comfortable in a constantly changing environment.”

Related: National Test Scores for 13-Year-Olds at the Lowest Level in Decades

“Ghost Parenting” Contributes to Student Behavior

The concept of ghost parenting, which is a perceived lack of parental participation in a child’s education, receives a lot of blame—but the idea that parents who don’t volunteer at schools or get hands-on involved in their child’s education are somehow bad or don’t care about their kids is a hugely problematic concept.

Studies have shown that parent involvement in a student's academic life can have huge positive impacts that can lead to academic success—and that the reverse is also true; parents who are not as involved can have negative impacts on a child’s academic career.

No parents set out with a goal of having their child fail at academics, but the reality is that for families who are low-income, single parents, or marginalized, the ability to actively participate in their kids’ education is simply not an option. But what is eye-opening is that parents who are overly active in their child’s school life may be causing more harm than ghost parents.

“Ghost parenting may be impacting a certain subset of students, but helicopter parenting is probably more impactful on the problems that we are seeing today,” says Scott A. Roth, PsyD, a New Jersey certified school psychologist and the founder and clinical director of Applied Psychological Services of New Jersey. “We have many children who have never been permitted to feel disappointment or frustration because parents swoop in to prevent it from happening. This can cause a child to not trust that they will ever be able to solve their own problems.”

Research supports that helicopter parenting can have negative implications on a child's mental health though further study is needed.

Dr. Roth says ghost parenting typically happens because of circumstances outside of the control of the parents; they are just not able to be as involved in their child's learning. “We need to be creative in how we engage these parents instead of writing them off when they do not show up for a parent-teacher conference or answer an email,” he says.

School Resources Are Exhausted

One of the biggest problems facing students and teachers is the shrinking of resources compared to the increased demand for them.

“The demands on [teachers] have never been so profound, and students and parents alike turn to them to be the problem solver,” says Dr. Roth. ”Gone are the days when a teacher teaches a lesson, and the student completes the homework and studies and then is assessed on the material. Those pieces still take place, but schools have now become the community intervention centers where unhoused families seek resources, students with mental health issues seek guidance, and even students with medical issues get care. The issues are more complex, and schools are under-resourced.”

The constraints of exhausted resources also seem to fuel the criticism that schools are not keeping up with changing times.

“The K-12 education model has faced numerous criticisms for its perceived failure to keep up with changing times and adequately prepare students for the challenges of the modern world,” says Patricia A. Edwards, PhD, a Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University specializing in supporting literacy learning and development for families of color, with particular attention to the roles of parents in children’s literacy development.

Dr. Edwards points to the following issues that contribute to the criticism that schools need to catch up with changing times:

• Outdated curriculum

• Standardized testing

• Lack of technology integration

• Inequity

• Failure to teach life skills

• Lack of global competitiveness

“In response to these criticisms, many education reform efforts are underway, focusing on curriculum modernization, personalized learning, increased use of technology, and a shift away from standardized testing," Dr. Edwards says. "These changes aim to better align K-12 education with the changing demands of the contemporary world.”

Related: Kids Need Access to Mental Health Days

What Can Parents Do

Fixing our schools, relieving teachers of burnout, and helping kids get their needs met, including socioeconomic-related factors, mental and physical health, and issues of equity and equality, are all huge, daunting tasks. There is no simple, easy fix. That said, there are some things that parents can do.

For starters, teachers and parents may need to stop comparing post-pandemic kids to their pre-pandemic selves.

“I think the pandemic created a new baseline or a new 'average' student. It is not helpful to compare our students' achievement or lack thereof to their predecessors in 2019,” says Dr. Roth. “I am not sure we can catch them up, and we may have to just change our timeline of expectations. With that said, if we are going to place the burden on schools being community intervention centers, then we need to properly resource the schools with enough staffing and programming to address these new needs.  In my opinion, there is no better place to deliver mental health services to children than in schools.”

For some practical, day-to-day advice, David suggests that parents and teachers find ways to connect to help students achieve academic success and improve classroom behavior.

“The best way to keep students accountable for their behaviors is to have a working relationship with the parents. The effective techniques and practices that teachers may use in their classrooms to manage behaviors can also be very effective at home,” says David. “Teachers should share with parents what they are doing, if it’s working, such as a calming corner, breathing techniques, and opportunities to correct their behavior.”

It may all come down to relationship-building between teachers, parents, and kids. “Relationships matter,” says Dr. Roth. “Students that feel safe and cared for learn better.  Teachers that can connect with students relationally have far fewer behavioral problems in their classes.”

Related: Teachers Speak Out On How Parents Can Support Them As We Head Back-to-School

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