I’ve been thinking a lot lately about unreasonable demands.  I know teachers face a lot of them, especially teachers who work in under-resourced schools. 

You get told that on top of teaching Math, which is what you were hired to do, you also have to teach Freshman Writing. 

Or that even though you’re a student teacher you’re going to be in charge of the class for the rest of the afternoon because there aren’t any subs available. 

Or you need to take charge of the after-school girls’ soccer team or the school won’t be able to have one anymore.  Oh yeah, and there’s no budget for uniforms so could you start by running a fundraiser?

These kinds of demands are very real and figuring out how to manage them is part of what I help teachers to do when we work together.  (If you’re interested you can sign up for a free consult on my home page or keep your eyes out for a new offer I'm working on that will release in the next couple of weeks!). 

But I’m talking about another kind of “unreasonable demand,” the one YOU make on yourself. 

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, says that often when we don’t give ourselves what we need we become “vexed, angry, out-of-sorts…sullen, depressed, hostile…like cornered animals snarling at or family and friends [or students, or principals or colleagues] to leave us alone and stop making unreasonable demands.”  When in fact, “we are the ones making unreasonable demands.” 

 How? 

Because we expect ourselves to be able to function without giving ourselves what we need to do so. 

Ms. Cameron is talking about artists in her book, but I think it the thought applies equally well to teachers, especially sensitive, empathetic, social-justice oriented ones. 

Does this sound like you?

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