What percentage of yourself do you give to school?
What is left in the tank for you after your school day?
“I always give 100%”
Whenever I hear teachers say that they give 100% to their job, little alarm bells start to go off in my head.
Giving 100% of yourself can, on the surface, sound like a throwaway comment; just like you may say it’s raining cats and dogs.
It never actually rain cats and dogs.
Yet, some educators do believe - and expect themselves - to give 100% to their job. It almost comes as part-and-parcel of the ethos and identity of being a teacher: you are here for the students and so you must give everything you can of yourself because that is what they deserve.
To give less than 100% is to be considered an uncommitted, nonchalant and downright lazy teacher.
Let’s pause and question this language today.
What does it actually meant to say we give 100% of ourselves to teaching? Is it true? Should it be true?
What is the impact of a culture of one-hundred-percenters in a school?
What sort of narrative may this be pedalling for our teachers and schools?
What could be the alternative?
Is it actually possible to give 100% of ourselves to teaching?
By the end of this blog, you may think me a pedantic. You know that you may not literally give 100% of yourself. That would mean giving yourself over to teaching completely. It would mean donating all of ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally.
That just isn’t literally possible!
You’re not handing over your body to your students and saying, “Take everything of me” (although it can certainly sometimes feel that way).
You are certainly not extracting your brain and heart from your body and offering it to your staff as a sacrifice for their own agendas and wellbeing.
Yet, it feels honourable to say you give 100%.
Why does this type of language prevail?
Running on empty
This is how dedicated I am to teaching.
There’s something of the martyr in the statement, “I always give 100% of myself” isn’t there? It literally implies that there is nothing left of yourself at the end of the school day. You are completely spent. Some days, you may just feel like that!
However, there is a subliminal challenge just below the surface: “If I am giving this much of myself, are you giving the same?”
It can create a pressure of one-upmanship. It can create an atmosphere of each person trying to look like they give the most.
This can lead to a toxic workspace.
Some may struggle to give their best on a particular day or week. Consequently, they may feel like they are not good enough or not doing their fair share. Yet, this may not be possible for them because of commitments outside of school, for instance.
Going above and beyond
Teachers often expect themselves to give 100%. Unfortunately, this is also a societal expectation as well. Schools are ever increasingly expected to pick up and carry the expectations and services of other areas of society. There is simply too much for each individual educator to do. In order to complete everything, educators would need to give more than 100% of themselves.
Unfortunately, the system continues to rely on the over-giving and people-pleasing nature of so many educators.
Giving 100% of yourself, let alone more, inevitably leads to burnout. Educators lose their “why” in amongst the neverending to-do list, unrealistic demands and lack of appreciation.
Even attempting to give 100% - and the inescapable guilt that comes with its failure - is driving educators away from the profession.
What you could give instead of 100%
Yes, spoons.
The Spoon Theory was coined in a 2003 essay by American writer Christine Miserandino. They used spoons as a metaphor for units of energy to describe how chronic illness can leave people with fewer spoons in a day, or how some day-to-day tasks may use up more spoons than they would for a healthy individual.
Spoon Theory has since been adopted by various communities, including the neurodiverse community, to demonstrate the rationing of energy.
And it’s something you can use too.
It’s a great visual for identifying what you need energy - or spoons - for throughout the day. Crucially, it can help you to facilitate leaving some spoons for yourself and your family at the end of the day too.
Photo by Dstudio Bcn
For instance, on a typical day, you may begin with 10 spoons. If you know that you need 3 spoons at the end of the school day to go home, look after your family, complete any necessary work and get to bed on time ready to sleep your way back into more spoons for the next morning, you know that you can only expend 7 spoons at school.
You are working to your capacity.
Which means you are working to your best.
Some days, you’ll have more or less spoons. And that’s okay.
More significantly, you will also need to prioritise activities that help you to accumulate spoons (check out my blog on the 7 Types of Rest). You may need to expend spoons to grow more spoons. For example, I love my personal training sessions and these energise me. But, it also costs me a spoon in energy too!
Give yourself permission
Once you allow yourself to reframe what you can and are willing to give of yourself to school, you will notice a greater sense of self-kindness. You will notice your expectations of yourself and others becoming even more realistic. You will notice that you do not want to give school all of your spoons because there are people outside of school who deserve your spoons even more.
Crucially, you may also begin to give more of yourself to yourself as well, recognising what you do give to others and realising that you are deserving of that care and attention too.