Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/have-our-teachers-found-their-calling/5011687/
Over the last few months, my colleague Deb Curtis and I have been working with director groups around the country. We have begun to hear some disturbing stories. They are not just the usual tales of continual staff turnover, but concerns about the mental health of many of the staff members who are staying. This often gets expressed in the form of questions like: "What do you do about the staff member who seems like a cold fish and has no energy for the children or interest in attending workshops?" or "How do you handle a teacher who has passive/aggressive behaviors and seems to be stirring up negativity in our program?" or "I think the real problem with many of my staff members is that they are clinically depressed."Increasingly, I receive calls from directors needing help with staff morale. In these cases, there is often a core of dedicated caregivers and teachers who take their work seriously, but they are increasingly disgruntled with co-workers who don't have the same attitude and commitment. They are tired of the incessant task of training new co-workers to replace those who leave, and impatient with the limited resources available for child care programming. I struggle ...