A recent article in The Telegraph published shocking statistics released by Suffolk County Council highlighting the levels of stress and anxiety teachers in Suffolk experience. According to the article -
The shocking classroom figures released by Suffolk County Council show stressed-out teachers took off the equivalent of 50 academic years in 2010.
The remainder of the article delves into the causes of classroom stress with quotations from unions and officials outlining that teachers face more and more pressure from Ofsted inspections, paperwork, league table pressures and so on.
Graham White, Suffolk’s division secretary for the national Union of Teachers, said that teachers were becoming “more and more” stressed.
He said: “I think that it is clear that teaching is an extremely stressful job and the figures do not surprise me.
I’m sure most of us would agree with Graham, it is of no surprise. But what interests me is how clear the emphasis on the causes are in this article. I agree teachers face a huge amount of pressure, but if the teachers are under pressure to get the children to perform and reach a certain level, then how much pressure are the children under too? Over the last few decades it seems to have become increasingly important for children to achieve academic results, and I question whether this has been at the cost of their overall wellbeing.
And it doesn’t stop there. All of us our expected to achieve so much more, to experience so much more, and to have so much more. We have more information, more choice, more rules and despite the technology, we have more to do!
It saddens me when some individuals believe that they are in some way mentally ill when they find it hard to cope with modern society. Sometimes I think that actually it is our “society” that is ill and the fall out of mental and emotional distress is actually a normal human reaction to living in such challenging times.
The problem with that belief system however, is that even if you held it to be true, unless you felt able and powered to protest for change, you run the risk of remaining trapped in a victim mentality, which is unhelpful for your own recovery.
So – if we are a victim of society and politics. If it is because of the continuous external pressures we are exposed to, that we sometimes feel mentally distressed and exhausted – what can we do about it?
Well – you could of course become a politician, writer or blogger even to vent and protest for change. I have a tendancy to do a little bit of that here – and I have to say it is helps me!! But protesting for change and shouting from soap boxes can be exhausting too. So – I’m forever hopeful, forever optimistic and forever looking for that silver lining – you have to don’t you?
Silver lining number 1 for me, is the idea of measuring General Well Being as a nation instead of GDP alone. The happiness index received a great deal of critisism when first declared, but all in all, if a government understands that it needs to consider the general wellbeing of the population when taking policy proposals into consideration, that has to be a step in the right direction, and has to lead to a more balanced approach to what currently seems to be a decision making model based heavily on economics and GDP – often at the expense of wellbeing or happiness.
Silver lining number 2: Even if we can’t change the external pressures, we do have the power and choice to manage our response to those pressures differently. We can find ways to avoid getting caught up in the “more, more, more” society, and be content with what we have. After all, as the saying goes – sometimes less is more! Read our FREE guide - Understand & Manage Stress – A Compact Guide for some ideas on how to manage your response to external pressures.
Here is a link to some support from organisations working to improve wellbeing in schools. If you know of a service that could be added to this list please contact me.
What do you think? Is society stressing us out and if so, what can we do to regain control over our own lives?
For more reading:
Article in The Telegraph: Suffolk Teachers Take 10,000 Days of for Stress
