I came home and cried today. As an educator, I know I am not alone, but as a Physical and Health Educator (PHE), it cuts deeper because somehow I thought it wouldn’t happen in my class and to me. In education, resources are dwindling, red tape is multiplying, and complex student needs are reaching a breaking point in an already strained system. Education is in crisis. Teachers are in crisis. Students are in crisis. 

Elementary specialists, like PHE, are becoming scarce because governments and society consistently fail to see the intrinsic value of arts, physical education, and health. The simple fact is, kids and classrooms are not the same as they were even five years ago. Student needs continue to grow. The curriculum is increasingly demanding, navigating parental expectations can be difficult, and systemic support is practically non-existent. We physical education specialists stand isolated, exhausted, and pushed to the brink. It’s like being in a canoe alone. We are constantly fighting the current to prove that what we do matters. But leading this charge is exhausting, and the sheer effort eventually leaves us feeling pulled under.

Why We Must Inspire: The Crisis of Indifference

While veteran leaders burn out from over-extending, a deeply concerning shift is happening with the next generation. Our younger colleagues are entering the field severely underprepared, often relying on social media reels and YouTube for basic lesson plans due to a lack of new teacher support and professional development. Left to fend for themselves, many are viewing teaching strictly as a job, not a calling. This indifference, while protecting personal time, means the passion is missing. Without that connection to the craft, teaching becomes transactional, and young educators are leaving the profession in droves in their earliest years. Our students are paying the price, moving through a rotating door of adults in a discipline that requires energy, connection, and joy. We need to inspire and drive our next generation to see this as a career worthy of their heart and effort.

How to Reconnect to Purpose and Action

We cannot let teaching degenerate into a job people simply endure. If we want the needle to move, we must bridge the gap, bringing the collective energy of grassroots organizations, national advocates and rigorous pedagogical research back to our schools. Physical literacy is the foundation of mental health, emotional regulation, and academic success for the whole child, something many of them are struggling with today. To reengage our peers, we must shift away from asking for more time and instead focus on reducing their hurdles, validating their boundaries, and helping them find joy again.

Four Steps to Reignite Passion and Purpose:

1. Reduce the Burden
   1. Share your Plug and Play kits and digital resources. Ready to use units that minimize prep time
   2. Co-teach. Offer to support à class for 10-15 minutes and model management, keeping high engagement and how to teach TARGET and games pedagogy.
   3. Reach out to a PHE teacher at another school to collaborate and share ideas. 
2. Respect the Boundaries
   1. Keep any meetings to 10 minutes and as part of mandatory meetings (where possible) that share high impact wins or address specific concerns.
   2. Efficient over Effort – demonstrate how to pivot to student led mastery where they learn to referee, manage equipment and self-assess.
3. Reconnect the Joy
   1. Host staff recess before, during or after school. Boot camp work outs, games for recess or just the classroom. No stakes, just fun. 
   2. Celebrate participation. – teach educators to shift away from competition to collaboration and cooperation. Emphasize effort over winning. This allows the gym to be more inclusive and positive and in turn impact the teacher’s wellbeing
4. Make them feel valued
   1. Highlight amazing things happening in the gym in announcements, newsletter and school walls. When the community, parents and administrators start to recognize PHE as à vital learning hub for social-emotional learning and wellbeing, teachers feel a renewed sense of pride
   2. Cross-Curricular – partner with a homeroom teacher for à joint project (like statistics and skipping, health outcomes and human systems) It breaks the isolation of the gym and shares the workload between colleagues.

Fellow educators, passion wielders, and leaders, we are navigating a powerful current in education right now. We can choose to stay isolated in our gyms, letting the weight of the water pull us under while the next generation of teachers drifts away. Or, we can choose to paddle together, finding strength in the expertise of our peers. The true power of PHE lies in our willingness to share our knowledge, inspire and actively support one another. By implementing the four steps, we stop fighting the tide alone and start building a canoe capable of holding us all and withstanding the storm. Let’s paddle together towards a more resilient, connected future for our students, our educators and our communities. 

Brenda Carbery-Tang is a teacher and educator with over 20 years experience in elementary education. She works with students from kindergarten to grade 8 and has been both a homeroom teacher and a physical education specialist. She is passionate about learning and improving her practice, social justice and leaving the world better than how she found it. Always ready to learn from others, reach out to her on instagram @aquaholic_bee.

Pair this blog post with the following:

I Didn’t Need to “Remember My Why” I Needed Therapy by Casey Langendorfer

Rethinking Productivity for School Practitioners by Ryan Fahey

More, More, More! or More Better by Jim Davis