A question for teachers: Are YOU dying from 'death by a thousand cuts'?

Death by a thousand cuts refers to the psychology of a major negative change which happens slowly in many unnoticed increments and is not perceived as objectionable.

If this is you, instead of mentioning the big things, what are the tiny little things which seem so insignificant but really affect you personally.

My name is Sam and I'm on the outside  looking in, I'm looking into studying to become a teacher. I work to serve teachers every day with Minds Wide Open, and joining the teaching profession doesn't seem to be an appealing career with all the 'thousand cuts' stories I'm exposed to...  why do you stay? What makes all the cuts worthwhile?

I've worked in the media, including at the ABC, for a decade, and I can say  everyone groaned and complained doing their job, some struggled, some developed mental health issues or true burn out, but do you know what kept them coming  back? Their recovery time after 'bad days' was remarkable. Sometimes just a solid weekend was enough to get them back and inspired. Why? Mainly because it's who they were, they were born for this world, it was their identity.

I guess for some people teaching is  their identity - no matter how bad times become, you recover fast enough to never truly burn out.... until that thousandth cut. 

Is it worth so many scars?

If you are a teacher approaching your thousand cuts and you're reading  this, peace be with you, please practice self care where you can, my  thoughts are with you.

Sam Phelps
Guest blog post