Positive Affirmations For Terrified Public School Teachers

I choose optimism.

Yes, they want to dismantle the DOE, increase censorship, and take money from already underfunded public schools to give to private schools, but maybe they’re too incompetent to accomplish all that right away. Maybe the wrestling lady will only last one or two Scaramuccis. Maybe they’ll get sidetracked arguing about whether adjectives should be banned along with pronouns. Maybe my school can pretend to be the British kind of “public school” where “public” means “private.” Anything is possible.

I have lots to be grateful for.

When I feel overwhelmed by how many papers I need to grade, I will see it as a sign that I love my job. Instead of complaining, I will savor the papers and hold them tight—my precious, precious student papers.

I can’t control what other people think of me, only what I think of myself.

People are calling teachers groomers based on the word of a man who bragged about walking in on beauty pageant contestants undressing, but that doesn’t mean I have to let their words affect me. They’re just words. Words that could get me registered as a sex offender for letting students read a book about how trans people exist.

I am turning down negativity and turning up positivity.

I won’t have to worry about closing the COVID-19 achievement gap once the next pandemic creates new gaps. I won’t be required to sponsor clubs when the only club is church. I can skip taking recertification classes every few years since soon the only requirement for certification will probably be making out with a flag or something. I’m about to have so much self-care time. Maybe I can finally brush my hair.

I can treat my problems as opportunities.

When the King James Bible becomes the only textbook I’m permitted to use, the kids are going to get a kick out of reading aloud from all the passages containing the word “ass.” Then guess who’s suddenly going to be the cool teacher?

I am surrounded by people who care about me.

I am blessed to have many wonderful people in my life. People who understand me. People who love me unconditionally. People who depend on me for the health insurance I get through my job.

I can adapt when necessary.

I have skills to fall back on, even if my school is shut down and turned into a scrapyard for discarded Cybertrucks. For example, I might remember enough from my evangelical upbringing to find employment at a religious school. The culture seems to have changed a bit in recent years, though. Less “Our God is an awesome God,” and more “Praise is the water my enemies drown in.” But I know I still have all my long denim skirts somewhere.

I will use healthy coping mechanisms.

Not SSRIs, though–I don’t want to wind up at one of RFK Jr.’s wellness farms. Of course, he never actually said people would be sent to farms against their will. He simply suggested, as someone who will soon be in charge of public health, that being “reparented” on government farms is a valid alternative to taking medications prescribed by doctors.

I can thrive outside of my comfort zone.

When I do get sent to a farm, it’ll be nice to reconnect with my ADHD students. I am always looking for more project-based learning experiences for them.

I am appreciated for what I do.

If I die from picking organic vegetables from sunup to sundown, maybe they’ll put my name on that Fallen Educators monument in Kansas. It was originally created because of school shootings, but they include all kinds of dead teachers now.

I can put things in perspective.

Thinking about it objectively, I’m not in more danger than anyone else. Trump will have the nuclear codes again, so everyone on Earth is equally unsafe. There’s something comforting in that, right?

No matter what happens around me, I can create peace in my heart.

Of course, I can’t hide my trans, BIPOC, and undocumented students in my heart. My heart can’t stop little boys from saying, “Your body, my choice,” to little girls. My heart can’t buy summer meals for all the kids about to lose them, which makes it hard to have peace in my heart sometimes. Of course, there is always sleep. So peaceful.