AFter my divorce I realized that what I was doing wasn't sustainable- I was likely going to die on the job or have a heart attack sitting at my desk like I knew one very successful old-timer had done (in fact it happened to him twice.) I moved schools and restructured my life: one or two saturday contests in the fall, no sectionals, one long marching rehearsal each week during the season, and leaving no later than 5pm each day. You know what? I was just as successful if not more so. I hate what I did to myself and I'm still recovering 6 years later. Fortunately my kids were very young a that time and have no recollection of it.
As Ive gotten older (I'll be 50 this summer) I've found myself regretting the choices I made early in my life- I'm more tired than my peers who aren't teachers and I haven't experienced much of the world. Ive decided Im not going to wait any longer. Its time to go do the things I wanted to do but couldn't or thought I couldn't. The band hall will be there when I get back and these students will still be there when I get back. The frustrations are universal but my perspective is different now.
I've made the change to middle school recently and the frustrations are still the same and the expectations for success are still the same, but it's different and it's been good. I find myself missing high school at times and perhaps Ill go back one day but I'll never work myself to such a unrecoverable point ever again. My high school directors are all very young with young husbands or wives and no children and they are working themselves down to their bones. I hope they can sustain that in a healthy way.
I know this doesn't address your point, but I hope a younger teacher is reading this and stopping to reflect for a moment on their work and their life.
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