Teachers, We Have to Support Each Other

This one is going to be short because I don't feel like I need a lot of words to make this point.  

I am tired of watching teachers boss around other teachers online.  

I know you think you are being helpful when you tell other teachers not to take stuff home with them, but you don't know what their school day is like.  They may not be in a place where they have any quiet in their day.  Perhaps they share a room with another teacher or have been subbing all day.  It could be that they do their best work when they are at home alone and feel more settled grading at home.  It's not your business, so let them make that decision for themselves.

You may have very strong opinions about homework and grades, but that doesn't mean another teacher has to have the same policies you do.  You aren't in the same school with the same parents and administrators.  You don't necessarily teach the same subject (The amount of homework needed in middle school math is different than it is in senior English).  You can disagree with another teacher's policies without thinking that teacher is evil.  You can even disagree without telling them you disagree.  Just because it is easy to berate someone on Twitter doesn't mean you have to.

Right now, when we aren't getting a lot of support from the public (Remember March 2020 when we were all angels?  Good times), we really need to support each other.  Right now, when we are doing our best to get our students to keep their masks on, it is not the time to give another teacher flack for giving students things to memorize.

You know how you are just doing your best to survive right now?  So is every other teacher.  Stop questioning their integrity because they still lecture.  Stop insisting that their boundaries be the same as yours.  Stop giving them a complex about their work/life balance because their balance is different than yours.  Start encouraging those who are doing things you like.  Start saying, "I see what you are doing, and I applaud you for it."  

Start giving encouragement and stop taking their energy.