For the sake of those led, teachers must rest.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to inform teachers about rest and renewal. These attributes show up as some of the most misunderstood and least applied aspects of effective teacher leadership. I will show that rest and renewal are essential, and those who have such understandings place themselves in very advantageous positions. A primary outcome of this article is that teachers will commit to seriously valuing the necessity of getting sufficient rest and renewal, which in turn helps them produce transformational change in the classroom.

Introduction

Rest and renewal are significant matters that education leaders should begin advocating as leadership deals with massive teacher turnover, most of which result from burnout. This trend will most likely continue as teachers attempt to keep up the fervent work pace placed on them. Leadership proves to be an exhaustive endeavor, but I propose in this article that by getting proper amounts of rest, teachers will have the energy and drive to transform their organizations. Leadership rest or renewal is about effectively fighting off burnout. Maslach & Leiter (1997) found the following:

   The time has come to recognize the truth about burnout--it takes an
   emotional toll on the worker and it takes an economic toll on the
   workplace. And the time has come to start taking new action to
   prevent burnout and to build engagement. The new action that we are
   advocating involves the job environment, not just the person.
   People cannot continue to ignore the powerful influence that the
   social context exerts on individual behavior.... [T] he hard truth
   is that there are no simple answers to the complex problems of
   burnout.... With patience and resistance on the part of both
   individuals and the organization, progress can be made toward the
   healthier and more humane workplace of the future. (pp. 153-154)

The fact that many teachers only work nine or ten months out of the year should not suggest that burnout should not be a serious consideration regarding job performance. For instance, as a teacher in the Florida school system, I personally observed many teachers obtaining part-time jobs to supplement their paltry salaries. Such actions only elevated the possibility of burnout, along with all the ill effects thus associated with it. Teachers must be able to recognize what burnout is, and then be able to take the appropriate positive steps to address such effects. The words of O'Neil (1993) can help guide teachers in such an endeavor as he writes:

   Working on a personal level toward a balanced, integrated life and
   helping others within the organization to do the same is a worthy
   goal for any ... leader. Those in positions of influence have the
   best opportunity to demonstrate this potential synthesis of work
   and play in their own lives--to lead by exampl[e]. They have the
   power to affect many other lives.... As we learn, one by one to
   apply the skills and principles of self-renewal to our lives and
   careers, our organizations and institutions will change, one by
   one. If this happens on a large-enough scale, we will be on the
   road to a self-renewing society. (pp. 259-260)

In the abovementioned quote by O'Neil (1993) he is, like me, concerned with leaders, which includes teachers, by advocating that once leaders learn what works for them, they should share such understanding with those less informed. Relating this to teachers may mean that those who are quite experienced with maintaining the edge on paper-grading, parent and teacher conferences, and the like, must, or should actively seek to assist others who lack such insight.

From what I have observed during my time in the field of education, lack of rest by teachers and other educators makes true the assertion of Wuellner (1998) who states, "[I]f the shepherd is not fed as well as the sheep, the shepherd will begin to starve and may end up devouring the sheep" (pp. 20-21).

In other words, when teachers fail to receive proper amounts of rest, the very students they have obligated themselves to teach, mentor, and impart life-changing skills to, may become innocent victims of their ill-defined and ill-planned lives, with burnout looming on the horizon. Maslach et al (1997) states:

   Burnout is the index of the dislocation between what people are and
   what they have to do. It represents an erosion in values, dignity,
   spirit, and will--an erosion of the human soul. It is the malady
   that spreads gradually and continuously over time, putting people
   into a downward spiral from which it's hard to recover....
   [B]urnout can cause such physical problems as headaches ... high
   blood pressure, muscle tension, and chronic fatigue. Eventually,
   some people reach the point where they can't take it anymore and
   they quit.... [S]uch a decision can be very painful if it means
   walking away from a career that was once a source of pride,
   prestige, and personal identity. As one high school teacher put it,
   "I've been teaching for over twenty years, but I've lost my
   self-confidence. I can't keep doing this; I don't want to keep
   doing this, because I don't like the values of our society as I see
   them in the schools--anti-learning, anti-effort,
   anti-responsibility.... I just want to go somewhere else and have
   a life. So I'm just in a basic survival mode now. (pp. 17-19)

The described scene by Maslach et al. (1997) is one that reeks with the ill effects of burnout, an analogical scene where teachers fail at getting proper amounts of rest, which minimizes their ability to produce high-quality pedagogical displays for their students. Wuellner (1998) offers great advice to leaders as they actively seek to balance work and personal life. One question she suggests that leaders ask themselves is whether they have given themselves adequate time to recuperate from the daily tasks involved by teaching. According to her, one should consistently ask themselves:

   Do I give myself regular "Sabbaths"? Even if we achieve
   well-balanced work schedules and limit our professional and
   emotional demands, we still may experience exhaustion if we are
   not intentional about our regular personal Sabbaths.... Each day
   we should lie aside at least one hour of Sabbath time to be and do
   what delights us most.... We need one day a week for relaxing,
   joyous, humanizing activities.... We need a week each year (not the
   regular family holiday) when we can go off alone or with a few
   like-minded friends or spouse for a quiet retreat.... We need to
   take responsibility ourselves for our Sabbath times with
   unapologetic firmness and clarity. (pp. 121-123)

As a former middle school teacher, who while jugging all that comes with the job, and at the same time completing doctoral work, I was, within one year, well on my way to becoming a burnout victim. Many days I would go to work and just lack the energy and desire my students deserved. I was a novice at teaching, and needed help with juggling all that teaching encompassed.

At first, I believed it to necessary to carry papers home to grade every night. However, I begin to observe certain, more experienced teachers, who, rather than leave campus for lunch would remain in their classrooms grading papers, making parental phone calls, or any other planning measures that prevented or could halt the onslaught of burnout. It didn't take me long to ascertain that the key lay in prior planning, and by taking full advantage of the teacher's daily planning period, or any other available time during the day.

If nothing else, I learned that getting the proper amounts of rest started with my own self-awareness, awareness of my various temperaments, my relationships with others, and my responses to such relationships. In such a fluid and dynamic environment as middle school can be, failing to become conscious of such matters only increased my chances of becoming a burnout casualty. I benefited and I sense other teachers can also, from the insight of Stroud (1990) who writes:

   [A]s I told you, it is extremely important if you want to wake up
   and go in for what I call "self-observation." Be aware of what
   you're saying, be aware of what you're doing, be aware of what
   you're thinking, and be aware of how you're acting.... The unaware
   life is not worth living. The unaware life is a mechanical life.
   It's not human, it's programme[d]. We might as well be a stone, a
   block of wood. (p. 67)

I agree wholeheartedly with the author's assertions. Should teachers continue to use the same approaches their teachers used, that of taking work home, working during the summers, or other burnout looming events, they should expect to eventually feel the ill effects of burnout in their lives. Teaching is a great and noble profession, but burnout helps no one, especially the students. So often, these students must be satisfied with being innocent sufferers of teachers who have not or cannot because of burnout, effectively teach them the life-changing skills they need.

Awareness is key, but more applicable to the context of teaching is having the ability to go on retreats that renew and supplement rest regimens right at work. Recognizing teaching as a social event, individual teachers must take responsibility for their own lives, rest and renewal approaches included. They must display as Handy (1989) asserts, "A proper selfishness" (p. 64).

This is not the type of selfishness where students are left to fend for themselves, or where fellow teachers can all but forget about one being a team player. The sort of selfishness he advocates simply means that teachers must never forget to take care of themselves. In the case of teachers and rest requirements, if they fail to get the proper amounts of rest, whom can they blame for the inherent and likely work dilemmas but themselves, more especially when the genesis of burnout looms on the horizon? Handy (1989) offers sound advice about this proper selfishness as he writes:

   This is a responsible selfishness.... I am not advocating a
   narcissistic self-indulgence. I am suggesting that, on the basis of
   good evidence, that those who learn best and most, and change most
   comfortably are those who:

   a) Take responsibility for themselves and for their future;
   b) Have a clear view of what they want that future to be;
   c) Want to make sure that they get it; and
   d) Believe that they can. (p. 64)

For teachers the key to fighting burnout is with rest and daily renewal retreats. Such retreats need not include geographic relocation. O'Neil (1993) offers several techniques I believe are useful for teachers who must fight off daily the ill effects of burnout. Many can be completed without ever leaving home or for that matter school. He writes:

   Retreats can take many forms, but they usually require solitude,
   contact with nature, and the presence of ritual. The most effective
   ones contain elements of all these qualities.... We are conditioned
   to be social creatures, and not much attention is paid to
   developing a ... capacity for using solitude productively.... The
   more you practice being alone and using solitary time in different
   ways, the more rewarding and useful your experience of solitude
   will become. But whatever activities you choose, none is as
   important as the simplest: tolerating yourself. (pp. 178-180)

How can teachers tolerate themselves, teach, or lead if they lack an effective rest and renewal regimen? In a world moving at such an unrestrained pace, is it no wonder that more teachers have not resigned their positions, or become more dependent on stimulants of sorts, to keep them operating at some functional level. I sense that we, as educators, must put our heads together to determine what is most important as we advance an effective pedagogical approach.

We must continually question ourselves as we practice the pedagogical art. We must ask ourselves whether our values, many of which may be cloudy or fuzzy in understanding because of the lack of rest, or burnout are in fact, prioritized. Questions such as "How can I" as Handy (1989) put it maintain a "proper selfishness," what can I do to lessen the chances of yielding to burnout, and what can I do today that will enable me to get more rest and renewal? We must ask ourselves these and other questions which by the very asking helps to clarify our values as teachers, if we are to stay ahead of becoming victims of burnout.

As teachers who successfully maintain adequate defenses against burnout, we can teach our students with all the fervor, desire, and insight that each of them deserve. Such proper selfishness, as Handy (1989) postulates, allows for renewal, thus keeping our students, classrooms, schools, and ourselves in a cyclical, renewing, learning, and transformational stage.

References

Handy, C. (1989). The age of unreason. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. (1997). The truth about burnout: How organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

O'Neil, J. R. (1993). The paradox of success: When winning at work means losing at life. New York: G. P. Putman's Sons.

Sivits, J. (1993). Ten reasons for renewal_ Retrieved June 13, 2004, from http://www.intervarsity.org/slj/su93/su93_ten_rs_for_renewal.html.

Stroud, J. F. (Ed.). (1990). Awareness: The perils and opportunities of reality. New York: Doubleday.

Wuellner, F. S. (1998). Feed my shepherds: Spiritual healing and renewal for those in Christian leadership. Nashville: Upper Room Books.

Jerry L. Brinson, Regent University, VA

Bruce E. Winston, Regent University, VA

Brinson, MBA is a Training Instructor III with CACI-PTI. He is currently completing his doctorate in strategic leadership. Winston, PhD is Dean at Regent University School of Leadership Studies.