Personal Days

 When I started teaching in West Virginia, we were given three personal days each school year. If I remember correctly, we could "save" a maximum of five, and then we lost whatever we had over that. I made it a habit of using any personal days that I had in surplus over those 5 days. Our surplus days didn't roll over into sick days then, they just vanished. I always felt that if you didn't use that benefit, you were short-changing yourself. After all, we sure as heck didn't make much money in those days. My starting salary in 1983 was $14,000. To me, those personal days were part of my salary that shouldn't be wasted. 

I got into the habit of taking a personal day or two each year. I found that a well-placed day off - especially during that long stretch from January to April usually meant that I got some rest and that my kids were getting a better teacher when I came back. 

Then, fifteen years into my career we moved to North Carolina. Here in North Carolina, teachers earn personal days at .2 days per month and if we use them, we must PAY!!  YES, I said PAY. It costs at least $50 per personal day out of a teacher's paycheck. Totally bogus, I know, but that is the way it works here. Hopefully, the North Carolina General Assembly will do away with this during this session, but they are working slower than molasses in January, so I rather doubt it. 

Oops, I got on my soapbox.

Anyway, the first couple of years here, I didn't really have any personal days, so I just took days off without pay. You know what? I actually ended up with a little more cash in my check at the end of those months. Now, that only worked for the first two years, and then I guess the tax laws changed or I was in another bracket because a day without pay meant less cash. So, I quit doing that. 

The point is that I learned early on in my career to take those mental health (personal) days. Teachers need those days to take care of themselves. Teaching is a hard job. There is no point to work yourself into exhaustion. It's bad for you and it's bad for your students. How many times do you remember making a poor judgment call in your classroom because you were exhausted? I know we hate to admit it, but you know it's true. 

Do one thing for this old teacher. Take that day off and don't feel guilty about it. Just do it. I promise you and your students will be much better off in the long run.