When Everyone Is Tired: What Mid-Year Fatigue Reveals About School Culture

What happens when everyone gets tired, around this time of year?  What happens in families and what happens in schools?

I think this is a question we never really look at in full.   It is winter in the Midwest which means cold dog walks, icy driveways and a sky that is day after day a grey, low-hanging blanket.  You know your body needs Vitamin D, so you run and get some supplements.  You make soup.  You don’t feel the energy to make social engagements after dark.  That is all good - and for me, I am used to it, living here all of my life.   I like the opportunity to snuggle in and rest more and catch up on Netflix series I never found time for.

But what does this look like for superintendents, principals, teachers and students and parents?

The fatigue starts to show things, it starts to expose the systems that really are not working at capacity.  Parents of kids with disabilities and without, are starting to fray at the edges a bit.  The holidays and time off school, and now back to schedules with added sports and classes and homework, and life happening.  Kids with disabilities are struggling often with the transition back after the holidays, and their parents are exhausted.

Teacher’s, who are human beings we often forget, are also getting tired of managing a classroom everyday and their own lives outside of school.  Principals are dealing with issues from above and below and all sides.  Parents, districts, students and a staff of teachers, paras and support running the machine of a school.  Kid’s sleep schedules are a bit wonky, and there is no sunlight, and behaviors that never surfaced start to peak their nasty heads out.

This is not new, this is a January pattern that has happened in our world since inception.  But how does it look inside our schools?  And how does the broken system and the fatigue get exposed at this time of year?

Who supports exhausted teachers?  Kids in their classes get a little more grace because a teacher’s emotional and energetic bandwidth is at capacity.  Who supports parents?  Who supports principals and superintendents, and paras, and custodians, and all of the resources that go into the smooth running of a school or a district.

January is the time to bring in new energy.  To realign our beautiful kids with disabilities, to bring fun and understanding to their peers.  Disability Awareness in winter months is an opportunity to support all of the cogs in this wheel.   Teachers deserve a smooth, running classroom.  Principals deserve to focus on a community and culture they are building.  Parents deserve to have their kids well regulated and engaged at school, so they can focus on the rest of their busy lives.  

I feel like anticipating and creating space for this kind of energy and programming and spark in January-March could be the missing piece and the support every player needs.