Article March 11, 2019 Issue

God’s child isn’t a failure—a schoolteacher’s story

Grace Kingsbery

Despite putting forth my best effort, I felt like a failure. I was not used to feeling that way.

This occurred several years ago, when I was teaching at a high-energy school whose purpose was to enable underperforming students to close the achievement gap. Every school day I worked a 12-hour day, and I dedicated time to my work on the weekends as well. I gave everything that I could in my role as a lead teacher, and was embarrassed to admit that working at a K–8 school could be so stressful. I felt consistently overwhelmed and as though I was the weakest link in the chain.

After 19 days of teaching, I was called to a meeting with the principal and the curriculum director and told that I was not meeting the expectations for an educator at this school. I was then given two options. The first was that I would be given three weeks to turn around my classroom culture. If I was successful, I could continue in my position. If I was unsuccessful, my employment would be terminated. The second option was for me to step down into a support role as an assistant teacher.

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