Expectations for Teachers are Totally Unreasonable

Have you ever looked at the official job description and expectations for teachers in your district? In the handful we reviewed, the number of duties ranged from 19 to 42, and the last was usually “Perform other duties as assigned.”

These tasks, all 42 of them, aren’t small. The first task on each was some variation on “Develop and implement lesson plans for in-person, distance, and virtual learning that fulfill requirements of the district’s curriculum program and show written evidence of preparation as required, including lessons that reflect accommodations for differences in student learning styles.” All by itself, this is, as any teacher with experience knows, a full-time job. There are eight complex tasks embedded in this single duty, and your actual work hours are not planning time. 

Those hours are used delivering instruction to students; managing student behavior; answering the same question 4,452 times; addressing students’ social, emotional, and mental health needs; fulfilling the legal requirements of each special education student’s IEP; answering the phone; sneaking a peek at emails; and, as one district put it, “[making] provisions for being available to the students and to the parents for education-related purposes.”

One district expects teachers to “communicate with students and parents on a regular basis via email, District-approved website, phone, or video conference” and “be available by phone, email, or video conferencing during regular school hours to confer with District personnel, students, and parents.” This is challenging enough with 20-30 students. But in high school, you have close to 200 students. (And in one district, teachers are expected to “establish and maintain effective relationships with students”: maintaining effective relationships entails far more than a mass email through your school’s automated system.)

One responsibility that has contributed to a lot of our own teacher guilt is this one: “Provide timely feedback to students and track progress through a variety of methods.” That word timely really gets you, doesn’t it? Not only are we supposed to provide feedback (which any teacher training program will tell you is meant to be individualized, not just a number or letter at the top of the page), but we must do so in a “timely” manner.

Are you exhausted yet? Don’t forget: every one of the documents we reviewed also expects you to collaborate with colleagues, participate in committees and schoolwide projects, keep yourself up to date on your subject area and professional development, and “accept [your] fair share of responsibility for co-curricular activities as assigned.” Extracurricular activities may be optional for students, but they sure aren’t for teachers!

The Truth About Expectations for Teachers

This job, both in practice and on paper, is literally impossible to do adequately, much less perfectly.

It looks bad enough on paper, but throw in the fact the expectations for teachers and these job descriptions are written for theoretical students, not real teenagers who are below grade level, distracted by family problems, hungry or sleepy, addicted to technology, jacked up on hormones, doing drugs in the bathroom, struggling with their own mental health issues, breaking up with a significant other, trying to avoid attracting the attention of bullies, figuring out their own burgeoning identities, or just plain having a bad day, and this job is darn near impossible.

Add in the existence of social media, filling your feed with gorgeous classroom decorations and reels about creative lessons, it can feel like you’re the only one struggling. You aren’t. We promise. What we see on social media is highly curated. It’s a glimpse at a result, not insight into the process.

How You Can Manage Expectations for Teachers

Many teachers are hard-working, dedicated people who want to fulfill the responsibilities expected of them. But it is impossible to do all these things, much less do them well, and when we don’t acknowledge this, and hold ourselves to a never-to-be-reached standard, it can become wildly destructive. There is only so long a limited human body can continue trying to meet all these demands before it just . . . stops. And by then, a lot of damage that has been done is difficult to undo.

This is why you have to prioritize self-care early, whether it’s the start of your career or just another school year in a long list of many. Part of that is accepting that you will never be able to do this job perfectly. And that’s okay. You can still be a good teacher. You can still make a difference in students’ lives. But you can’t do it all.

When society can’t create reasonable expectations for teachers, we need to figure out how to manage expectations for ourselves. If we don’t, we will not be able to persist in this career. Trust us.

So, what does managing expectations look like?

Do what you can each day and remind yourself that your students did something. They had some opportunity to learn. They had an adult smile and say a kind word to them. And then go home, take care of yourself, and do what you can tomorrow.

If you’d like to hear us talk more about the importance of teacher self-care, check out this podcast episode and YouTube video. Share your own struggles to meet the impossible demands of the job with a coworker who also seems to be drowning. Reminding other teachers they’re not alone and no one can do this job perfectly is a powerful act of kindness.