No doubt appearances are sometimes deceiving, but I have been struck, over the years, by how many of my colleagues in Leafstrewn seem to have relatively happy and healthy marriages. Most of us are married, I'm pretty sure our divorce rate is well under 10%, and the marriages generally seem strong and fulfilling. If my colleague RG's retirement book idea is "Kids These Days" (about adult disapproval through the ages), a book I always imagine writing in retirement is "Secrets to a Happy Marriage--How Leafstrewn Teachers Make Relationships Work."
A new Gallup survey makes me wonder if our happy marriages really are just due to our profession. According to Gallup, teaching "may be one of the best careers for a person’s wellbeing." Teachers rank just below doctors in overall life satisfaction, and they are the most likely of any profession to say they "smiled or laughed a lot yesterday." Teachers also ranked high in saying they get to use their strengths at their work. Interestingly, the only categories in which teachers were last were in the level of respect with which they feel they are treated and in saying that their supervisor creates a trusting and open environment. Fortunately, we here at Leafstrewn have humane and competent administrators, so we're even happier!
(Then again, could our happy marriages just be due to the fact that we Leafstrewn teachers read a lot?)
It's tenure that makes marriages happy.
ReplyDeleteThat may be. Our old headmaster described tenure itself as a kind of marriage.
DeleteActually, when I wrote this post I wondered if it was our job security and other union-related benefits (humane family leave policies, pensions, etc.); teachers, it seemed to me, were like a kind of Scandinavia-within-the-US. But then I looked up the divorce rates for Scandinavia and found that they were among the highest in Europe. In fact, some people speculate that more socialistic societies with stronger social safety nets have more divorces, partly because in that kind of society divorce is not as economically dangerous. But then, the divorce rates are low in Massachusetts...
And marriage is a kind of tenure....
ReplyDelete