Teachers are exhausted. Approximately 567,000 U.S. educators have left the classroom since the pandemic began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Twin Citians Ira Sanders and Ann Bolsem are not part of that number.
Both nominated as 2022 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, they've seen the grinding impact the pandemic has had on teachers. Yet they are determined to remain in the classroom to do what they've always done: make a difference.
New York native Sanders, 70, was a commodities trader on Wall Street. After working in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he moved his family to Edina to be closer to his in-laws. Now he teachers economics, government and current events at Roseville Area High School.
Bolsem, 47, taught swimming lessons in her youth and learned that she loved teaching kids. Over 25 years, she has taught kindergarten, first grade and second grade, spending the last eight years in a kindergarten classroom at Garlough Environmental Magnet Elementary.
We talked with Sanders and Bolsem about why they chose teaching, their post-COVID goals and what encouragement they'd like to offer to other teachers who are struggling.
Q: Why are teachers leaving the profession?
Ira Sanders: Teachers don't think about leaving a school. They think about leaving the career. Teachers have really transferable skills that the private sector values, so for them, they're looking. They don't say "I'm looking for another teaching job." They say, "I'm looking to get out."
Ann Bolsem: Education is changing, and it is changing rapidly, and it is just getting more and more challenging. The needs of our students. The expectations put on teachers. At some point, it's just too much.
Q: How has the pandemic, specifically, affected the education field?
IS: Young people were home from work. They got to reevaluate their lives. And I think they would rather do something that is more rewarding. Not that teaching isn't rewarding. But I think they suffer a lot. And they can do other things that don't take up their time as much, that pay better [and can] be just as rewarding for them. And I do think the pandemic has heightened that. It's giving people a different perspective on their lives.
AB: [The pandemic] required me to take everything I knew about teaching and learning and recreate it in a completely different format. A new level of intimacy was established between my students' families and me, as they were inviting me into their homes every day; they experienced my instruction daily, and I experienced their home life daily.
Q: What do your fellow teachers need, in terms of resources and support, to stay in the profession?
IS: Teachers are screaming and nobody is hearing them. They feel invisible, and that's not a good way to feel. They need some influence on decision-making [and] policy-making in school. They need to have autonomy over the classroom. Teachers have very translatable skills to the business sector. And education has to realize that. So the pay needs to be more competitive to the business sector.
AB: Teaching can be so isolating because you are one adult in a room by yourself with 20-plus kids all day long, and so if you don't have a strong team of educators that you can plan with, talk about kids with, discuss strategies with, work through problems with, obviously you're not going to be able to sustain your stamina because it's exhausting.
Q: For those exhausted by the demands of online teaching, does it get better once you return to the physical classroom?
IS: I was glad when distance learning was over because I really missed the kids. I enjoy seeing them. I see young kids, I feel young.
AB: I think we are actually relishing and appreciating so much more now some of the things that we took for granted before the pandemic hit, now that we have them back and we can experience them again. I won't take them for granted the same way I did before.
Q: Despite the challenges, why do you stay?
IS: I love the kids. I just really, truly love the kids. And I love the colleagues. The reason why I stay at the school that I'm in is because I like working with the people I work with. They have become my family. If I could go to another school, I wouldn't because it would mean giving up the people I work with, and I don't want to give that up.
AB: In the end, they won't remember everything I taught them. But they will remember that I cared about them. That I loved them. That they felt valued. That they felt safe and loved when they were in my presence. And that's the most important thing — that they know they are special to me because, when they feel that way, they can accomplish anything they set their minds to.
