I’m sure I’m not the only person experiencing fatigue right now as we are in the middle of election season. The daily barrage of negative ads. The mailbox full of political flyers every day. The arguments on social media and in person. Sometimes when I hear a particularly nasty ad or a vicious argument, I wonder how our young people are affected. They see so many examples of adults behaving badly, accusing one another of atrocities. Even as an adult, it takes a toll on me.
This morning, I was trying to write. My husband had the TV on a political morning show. They were arguing back and forth, talking over one another, and I just lost it for a moment. “Shut that off! I can’t listen to that for another minute!” My husband didn’t seem too bothered by my outburst.
“There’s just 14 more minutes,” he said.
“Then go listen to it somewhere else!” I said. I really could not do it this morning. If I had to listen to the bickering and negativity for another second, I was going to really lose it.
It seems like political bickering is everywhere in my world right now. The school district in which I work was supposed to negotiate a new contract with our teacher’s union last school year. Both my husband and I are teachers in the same district. They did not reach an agreement by the end of the school year last year, so the negotiations continue this year, and we are working under our old contract.
In 27 years as a teacher, I haven’t ever worked in these conditions. Contracts have always been negotiated and agreements reached. I thought this round would be more of the same. A new contract hadn’t been negotiated since before COVID. That was a multi-year contract with modest one percent (or less) increases in pay each year. My husband and I are at the top of the pay matrix since we’ve both been teaching for many years. That meant that the modest increases in our pay were cancelled out each year due to increases in our insurance rates. The cost of living also skyrocketed during that time, so we haven’t seen more money in our take home pay in years. Our central administrators received substantial cost of living increases and negotiated large pay raises in recent years. It was finally our turn.
That has proved to be false hopes at this point. The district continues to bring to the table “negotiations” that are flat-out insulting. “We appreciate you!” they say. “But we can’t afford to pay teachers a living wage because there are just too many of you, and we can’t pass a levy, and the state legislature is really to blame, and if we give you all a raise, then we’ll have to cut 50 teaching positions.”
Really. Then why did administrators receive any raises? If the district is in a budget crisis, then why is all the weight of that deficit being placed on the teachers? It just doesn’t make sense to me, and it pisses me off.
So, between the political ads, the general feeling of disgust and frustration and my place of work, and the usual busyness at the beginning of a new school year, I’m not exactly a ray of sunshine these days.
I’m usually good at focusing on the positive. I need to get back to that, and I have so many things to be grateful for, and my husband’s birthday is tomorrow, so it would be nice if his wife wasn’t so grouchy.
I teach my students to find the “beautiful things” in a day. Here are some of mine to switch my focus to the positive.
- I got to see the Aurora Borealis for only the second time in my life this week, and I got some great pictures.
- My students finished a puzzle in my class and started another one.
- I finished the Halloween puzzle that I was working on at home.
- I get to go out for dinner with my husband for his birthday tomorrow.
- The weather has been gorgeous around here lately.
- I learned how to make bread (which is causing me to gain weight) but we’ll ignore that for now and focus on the positive.
- I have a roof over my head and good food on the table.
- My daughter is doing her student teaching this year and loves it!
- I have a sweet dog.
- I love my family.
There! I feel better now. Cheers to a good week and may all of the political arguments this season lead to better outcomes eventually. We can always hope.
