Carina McGee, a high school teacher in the Aiken County Public School District in South Carolina, expected to teach until retirement age. But just three years after beginning her career, she’s reevaluating whether she made the right decision.
“Everything that has come with COVID, it has just been an absolute nightmare. I have been so much more overwhelmed and exhausted and just beaten down,” said McGee, 24. “I thought I would retire when I was like 65 from teaching, and now I’m considering leaving within the next two years.”
It has been difficult to staff classes at McGee’s school. Teachers have been absent to take care of sick family members, or they’ve been sick themselves, she said. Substitutes have been hard to come by. As a result, McGee said, she and her colleagues’ workloads have tripled. They’ve had to prepare lessons for both students in the classroom and those learning remotely, monitor classes without substitutes and forfeit their planning periods. Her principal even has covered some classes while waiting for a substitute.
