If I look at my Instagram account, many of my followers are teachers. Mostly primary and elementary teachers. They seem to be young and energetic and full of positive vibes and a love for their kids. However, if I look at those accounts this time of year, their posts are full of relief for the coming of Spring Break. They have dreams of beaches and doing something close to nothing, except working on their tans and drinking “boat drinks.” You know, those elaborate drinks you get on cruise ships. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against those things; On Wednesday, I am heading to a Florida beach for sunshine and stiff margaritas and visions of bikinis. That is not my point.

My point is that these young and idealistic people are worn out and tired eight or nine months after they started with so much Life and hope. But they are tired. They are young and they are tired. On the other end of the spectrum, there is me. I am older (I turn 59 on Thursday) and I am not really a high energy guy. But I love my teenagers and my job. I love the opportunity to celebrate my birthday on a warm beach but I also miss my kids and teaching them. Am I tired? Not really. Yeah, I left a stack of tests on my desk because I have lost focus for now. Tired is one thing but stress is another.

I feel so little stress that, at times, I feel a little bored…Wait. Let me qualify that. Does the pressures of being a public school teacher and, hence, a government employee stress me? Yes, it prevents me from being a pure educator. Does the politics of administrators above me stress me? Absolutely! Does the fact that we, as a group, do a terrible job at protecting and educating our teenagers stress me? Yes again. But, when I am left alone to educate and protect these kids, I feel relaxed and full of joy and, sometimes, bored when they are not in my classroom.

How did I get to this point? Have I always been like this as a teacher? To answer the second, I used to be pretty nasty as a teacher. I used a lot of yelling and screaming and slamming things on the floor. I have had tug of war incidents with students over a bag of chips. I have been threatened. I have been shoved. I have cursed. I have gone home so worn out from getting angry at everybody.

The answer to the former question is psychology and planning and more psychology. I did not solve my stress problems, at work and at home, until I learned about psychology. Not your standard stuff but the deep, cut to your soul stuff. First it was working with a psychologist about my personal demons. Then it was sports and performance psychology. Then it was (and is) a dissertation combining math teaching and psychology. I have learned many tricks combining education and deep psychology. What are these tricks? It looks like you have to follow this blog to find out. (Or just ask me.) One day, I want to teach many teachers how to deal with the systems that we currently have. Anybody with me?