A retiree's point of view: My heart goes out to my former colleagues who are working under horrendous conditions .... Submitted to NBEA

I am a recent retiree from the NB Schools. My heart goes out to my former colleagues who are working under horrendous conditions. The stress of the job of a teacher was always something to be dealt with because most of us felt a deep responsibility to give each of our students the best education we could despite all the things that made it hard to do so. Many students come to school distracted by less than ideal situations at home--poverty, violence, illness, lack of support, hunger etc. The current administration had taken the stress of the job to a whole new level. How are teachers supposed to be able to concentrate on their students' needs when they are terrified of losing their jobs. Yes, they are afraid--their livelihood may be taken away which will place their families at risk. They are being bullied by constantly being told they are not doing something right. They are made to spend hours writing lesson plans which are then criticized for incorrect wording, punctuation. They have to spend hours putting together their portfolios for their evaluation or their re-application for their jobs!! All of this takes away from time spent on their students. 

I believe most of the veteran teachers had "the fire in their belly" to help their students. In many of them that fire has been extinguished or at least diminished by the disrespect they have been shown by this administration, and undisciplined students who are allowed to misbehave with no consequences. Give these teachers credit and listen to them. They are "in the trenches" and know what really needs to be done but they have been completely ignored and left out of the "turn around". Shame on all of those who have allowed this to happen!