Nearly one-third of Minnesota educators are thinking about leaving the profession, citing stress and an overwhelming workload, according to a recent survey.
“The survey was taken by more than 9700 teachers who are members of Education Minnesota. It found 30 percent of respondents say they’re thinking about quitting or retiring,” according to KEYC.
The survey reportedly found that teachers felt stressed, overwhelmed, and worried about their physical and mental health during the coronavirus pandemic, the union’s website said:
Of the union members who responded to the survey, the educators providing hybrid or multimodal education reported the highest levels of negative feelings about their jobs. Multimodal educators are simultaneously providing lessons to students online while teaching in-person to students in their classrooms. Educators providing hybrid education typically do both modes, but not at the same time.
Despite educators’ fears of the coronavirus, a Brown University economists’ recent analysis of data on almost 200,000 children in 47 states concluded that K-12 schools are not “super-spreaders” of the illness, according to Breitbart News.
“Fear and bad press slowed down or canceled school reopenings,” wrote Professor Emily Oster.
“We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going … and the evidence is pointing in one direction. Schools do not, in fact, appear to be a major spreader of COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus],” she continued.
Although opening campuses for the fall semester posed some risk for the spread of the virus, in-person education was important, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
Schools provide critical instruction and academic support that benefit students and communities in both the short- and long-term. The main role and priorities of K-12 educational institutions are to provide age-appropriate instruction and support students’ academic development. Reopening schools will provide in-person instruction for students, facilitate increased communication between teachers and students, and provide students with critical academic services, including school-based tutoring, special education, and other specialized learning supports.
Even with proper precautions, schools may still see cases of the coronavirus following reopening, the agency stated.
“Expecting and planning for the occurrence of cases of COVID-19 in communities can help everyone be prepared for when a case or multiple cases are identified,” the site concluded.
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