For homeschooling parents, as well as for many teachers in private and public schools, spring is the last lap in a marathon begun months earlier. The excitement of a new school year has long ago withered along with the winter’s grass, and the eagerness with which these educators began their race back in the late summer has by now all too often given way to fatigue and burnout. The days grow longer in spring, and for many teachers, they are longer than they are for the rest of us.
“Tired teacher syndrome ” is the designation some have given this phenomenon. The challenges of spring include students restless with the warmer weather, end-of-year testing, and nagging doubts as to how much has really been accomplished. “In the Spring,” wrote Lord Alfred Tennyson, “a young man’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love”—but an exhausted teacher’s fancy turns to the halcyon days of the still faraway summer, when, at least for a season, lesson prep and grading are but dim memories rather than a daily reality.
