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Jocelyn Millis's avatar

Your unique perspective as a soldier and an educator who knows so many languages helps you see the battlefield students are struggling on clearly. The level of social and economic pressure faced by students when in high school and post secondary school is high. Learning how complex the lives of students moving week to week between parents who are separated - shows there is little continuity.

Being both a conservative and yet progressive was possible when I was a child. Now holding two different viewpoints on the same situation is deemed impossible and disloyal by ultra wings that are present in every school.

Children are facing mounting expectations while the systems that once offered support are crumbling.

Teachers can’t do everything that families, churches, and communities once did in a complementary way for children.

We burnout trying to be all things for our students.

No one is able to do this task.

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Ninah's avatar

We have public schools here in the US too, especially in the cities with violent students. Not to mention the problem with shooters. But I think some of that comes from cultural upheaval due to resistance to change.

The US has whitewashed history by leaving out migrant and black history in the establishment of the country, simple math is taught in a convoluted way that children need calculators to it, languages, art, music are all but forgotten and so many can’t/don’t read when they graduate. I’ve seen this over the decades.

Schools are no longer challenging, but large daycare centers. I think the trend to put 40 children in a classroom and expect them to learn anything is more than a challenge for any teacher. And teachers here are looking elsewhere for jobs. Burnout.

It pains me to think that this is a world problem. I remember being challenged everyday in school and learning to push myself to be better. I guess those days are long gone.

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Classroom Reimagined AI's avatar

Rui, thank you for sharing this with such vulnerability and clarity. Your reflections on the contrast between the structure of the military and the chaos of the classroom hit especially hard. It’s a powerful reminder that schools need more than reform—they need to be reimagined. Not just better policy, but better environments. More humane systems. Safer spaces.

At Classroom Reimagined, we often say “space shapes experience.” But stories like yours show how space must also support resilience, respect, and dignity, for teachers as much as students.

Grateful for your voice in this work. And hopeful that, together, we can co-create learning spaces that feel less like battlefields and more like places of belonging.

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Joy DeSomber's avatar

Rui, this is frightening, sad, and disappointing when thinking about our future. My daughter taught for a year in Spain, came back to teach in the U.S. for a year, and will return to teach in Spain for a year starting this fall. She always feels far safer and more successful with the kids teaching in Europe than in the U.S. I had no idea there were safety issues going on on a regular basis for teachers in Portugal. It's not only scary but heartbreaking. The whole world needs a restart—an overhaul.

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