Job That Requires a College Degree and Kicks Your Butt? K-12 Teacher

A friend posted on FB that his wife came home on Friday and went to bed at 7:00 p.m. My observations from being married to a teacher for 30 years: It’s a much more physically demanding job than people realize. Not to mention the wear and tear from constant stress over issues that are largely outside the control of the teacher.

For those of us who don’t teach K-12 … this work means that a teacher is on her feet almost constantly from 8:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m., straining her back and her legs and her feet; she has to regulate her bladder and bowels to conform to a small window of breaks; she has to compensate by dehydrating herself during work hours; she has to process how 20-30 students are individually progressing on or following a lesson; she has to be in the hallway with a disruptive child while controlling the rest of the class, who are in the classroom. Those are just the obvious hazards and challenges.

So, here is some research on the occupational hazards of being a K-12 teacher:

Workplace Violence: The American Psychological Association reports that approximately 7 percent of teachers in the United States are threatened with injury each year. http://work.chron.com/hazards-being-teacher-9309.html

High Incidence of SLD (Speech, Language Disorder): Researchers of the study observed that a high percentage of their SLD patients were teachers. In an effort to understand the prevalence of the disorder in this specific occupation, the researchers compared 100 SLD patients to a control group of more than 400 Alzheimer’s patients from a Mayo Clinic study on aging. In comparison to other occupations, teachers were still found to be 3.5 times more likely to develop SLDs than Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.medicaldaily.com/occupational-hazard-teachers-more-likely-develop-speech-and-language-disorders-alzheimers-260035

Study of 1,710 Teachers: The ten most frequently reported work-related health complaints among the teachers were tiredness, eyestrain, anxiety, voice disorder, sleep problems, shoulder pain, neck pain, headache, sadness/depression, and low back pain. Both the prevalence (92.4%) and intensity (mean: 2.43) of work-related tiredness were also very high. The teachers seem to be exhausted and fatigued with their work. They suffered an average duration of seven days or longer in 38 out of 39 single health complaints. It reflects that they suffered from chronic health problems, especially for tiredness, varicose veins of lower limbs, eyestrain, contact dermatitis, anxiety, sleep problems, shoulder pain, and voice disorder. http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk/handle/2031/4531

Urology Problems: John McHugh M.D.... I have practiced Urology for over twenty years and I must say that I have been in some very emotional situations for a variety of reasons. The most common and emotional issue however is the female with debilitating urinary frequency and urgency. The patients that come immediately to mind are teachers. Teachers are a very conscientious bunch and it is my understanding that principals don't often understand the dramatic effect that an overactive bladder has on a teacher. A teacher that can't leave the classroom unless there is someone there to supervise the children. So, imagine the teacher who is voiding ten times a day during work and at each time they are having to explain and apologize for their problem. Day in and day out, taking medicines that may not be helping and having troublesome side effects to boot...it is very frustrating.  In my office on many occasions I have had teachers break down and cry. "I can't live this way anymore."   http://ngurology.com/98560/index.html

**** From UTI L 01-13-2013, 07:50 PM, Read more at: http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=445529, Copyright © ProTeacher (proteacher.net)

I'm almost positive I have a UTI...constant urge to pee, very little coming out, pain, pressure, etc. I started taking AZO and drinking cranberry juice today, but I'm still in misery. I don't see this being much better by tomorrow. Is it ridiculous to take a half day off of work to go to the doctor? I'm truly worried about peeing on myself at school. I've had to make a trip to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes today, and there's NO way I can do that at work. I'm going to put in for a sub tonight if I get a green light from my PT brethren.