A Week in the Trenches Dodging Bullet Points

This weekend, OPM sent an email to millions of federal employees demanding they describe what they did the previous week in five bullet points. Per Elon Musk, failure to respond would be considered a “resignation.” From new hires (if there are any left after the “DEI” and Valentine’s Day firings) to 30 year civil servants, each federal employee received the following email which created concern, confusion, and chaos after different departments refused to comply, citing concerns about security and usefulness of the exercise.

Of course Musk’s memes didn’t help things. Nor did his revelation that this exercise was merely to determine if employees had a pulse, and all responses will be run through an AI system. This begs the question: what efficiencies are gained by this exercise? How does this make the federal government more effective?

The BS of the 5 Bullet Points

This chaotic request in the federal government made a number of people think about their own jobs. Many, like Michelle Singletary reported five things they did to deal with Elon’s offensive request, including talking to federal workers anxious about their future, and interviewing a psychologist to help workers cope. Others, like the American Federation of Government Employees did just one thing: file a lawsuit against the OPM request for “violating procedural requirements.”

What would normal people do if others demanded that they write five bullet points to completely encapsulate what they do in a week? It is a disrespectful demand that only an unserious person would make of a civil servant who has managers, receives 360 reviews, and reports to their agency administrator. To highlight how disrespectful the request was, some chose to send in humorous bullet points. Wonder who will read those?

Many people thought deeply about how hard they are holding it together in the deep chaos of the first six weeks of the new national administration which has been hallmarked by mass firings, mass deportations, threats to the existence of trans people, the targeting of school systems for “DEI” and “gender identity” infractions against Trump’s EOs, the appointment of unqualified agency leads, diplomatic hostility to allies, renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and removing legitimate news organizations from the White House press corps for refusing to use the Gulf of Mexico’s new name. 

Teaching Cannot be Summarized in Five Bullet Points

Of course, there is no way to narrow down all that teachers do in a week to a mere five bullet points, because everything they do goes far beyond the lesson plans whether it is ensuring that diverse students are included in the learning community or just by showing up after catching a cold from a kindergartner. A local high school teacher shared this list of a week in the trenches as a high school educator in Fairfax County:

1. Emotional Labor: Teachers navigate the complex emotional landscapes of 100+ teenagers, acting as a counselor, mediator, and sometimes, surrogate parent, all while trying to maintain a semblance of professional detachment. The constant exposure to their anxieties, their traumas, and their frustrations takes a heavy toll on teachers’ own emotional wellbeing. 

2. Paperwork Mountain: There is no such thing as regular or business hours. Teachers can be found grading stacks of essays and assignments, often late into the night, while simultaneously documenting student progress, writing IEPs, and responding to endless parent emails. The feeling of never being caught up is a constant, suffocating weight.

3. Resource Scarcity: Teachers are constantly scrambling to find adequate resources for their students, often spending personal funds on classroom supplies, because budgets are stretched so thin. The frustration of trying to provide quality education with limited materials is a daily battle.

4. Disciplinary Minefield: Every day, teachers find themselves dealing with behavioral issues that range from mild disruptions to serious incidents, often with minimal administrative support. The fear of potential violence or escalating conflicts is a constant undercurrent.

5. The Weight of Potential: Teachers carry the immense responsibility of helping to shape young lives, knowing that a student’s future trajectory can be significantly influenced by a teacher’s action. The pressure to provide students with the tools they need, despite systemic obstacles, is crushing.

Teachers have been hardest hit in the last five years of pandemic, remote and hybrid teaching, book bans, doxxing, and fear of reprisal by bad faith actors or their own administration. Despite efforts by many school districts to increase pay and support for teachers and staff, all public educators are re-evaluating what they do on a daily basis to hold it together while still teaching, supporting, and protecting students from the political chaos. 

Not only that, but education staff have always been the first required to “tighten their belts” in crises and the last to be compensated when financial crises are over. So what will happen under the current administration when the President has: pledged to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, accused teachers of indoctrinating students, and promised to remove federal funding from public school districts? Federal funding can be anywhere from 1-26% of a school’s budget, and it is intended to support the students who need it most by covering food, health care, disability services, and English language instruction, so removing federal funding may be catastrophic.

Use Your Voice to Get Teachers Out of the Trenches

It is the responsibility of superintendents, administrators, families, and communities to think deeply about how teachers can teach when they must be more than merely a teacher in the classroom and their school community. Education staff are social workers, supplemental nutritionists, nurses, guidance counselors, protectors, and, in some cases, human shields. No staff person should expect to dodge bullets as part of their job. Yet, school staff are expected to be that–many have difficult conversations with their families “just in case” the worst happens at their school.

You can help get teachers out of the trenches and onto the fields of education, which means: 

• Paying them for their education, experience, and work.

• Providing sufficient support services for students and families who need it, so that their basic needs (shelter, nutrition, health, and security) are met before a student enters the classroom. Education gaps will persist unless all students start school healthy, safe, and fed.

• Respecting their time, effort, and education by supporting and protecting them, instead of targeting and harassing them.

• Recognizing their work–their life’s calling–as one of the most important jobs since they educate and mold the electricians, nurses, mechanics, lawyers, artists, and teachers of our future.

• Telling our federal, state, and local funding sources to fully fund education as if our life depends on it, because one day, it may.

Your voice matters, even if current national and state administrations refuse to listen to reason (and they have eliminated contact information on their websites). So, contact the Virginia’s Governor, Virginia's Education Secretary, and your state and federal representatives now to demand they fund and support our public schools. Use these links for their emails.

• Glenn Youngkin, Governor of Virginia at glenn.youngkin@governor.virginia.gov, submit a comment via their web form or call his office at 804-786-2211.

• Aimee Guidera, Secretary of Education VDOE has no email listed, so contact her Executive Assistant at: Tammy.babbs@governor.virginia.gov or call her office at (804) 786-1151.

• Senators and Congressmen: Find contact emails and phone numbers for your federal representatives here.

• Virginia Representatives: Find contact emails and phone numbers for your state legislators here.