NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio — At least 600,000 educators in public education have left the profession since 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

What You Need To Know

• Jenny Shiplett has wanted to be a teacher since she was in elementary school


• Shiplett said remembering who she was there for and shifting her attitude helped her to stay


• While some educators have left the profession, Shiplett decided to stay in the classroom

While many more have considered or are on the verge of leaving, others have stuck it out, like Jenny Shiplett. Shiplett’s in her 21st year of teaching. She said she always knew that she wanted to be a teacher.

“It’s just a dream job if you like working with kids.,” Shiplett said.

Although teaching comes with its ups and downs, Shiplett never imagined that she’d question or even consider leaving the dream job. But the pandemic brought a new set of questions.

“We got the call that we would be going virtual for a little bit and we weren’t prepared for that,” she said. “We’re a small rural school district. So our kids don’t have access to computers. A lot of them don’t have internet access.”

Ending one year in a remote setting, but then starting the next in a hybrid setting while teaching both sets of kids, was hard. With challenges continuing to mount, she said, “We were losing our minds.”

“We felt like we were doing twice the work and not getting half as far as we usually do with the kids,” Shiplett said.

It wasn’t just challenging for educators.

“We could see the frustration. I mean, we would be on a Zoom with a child and see that they’re getting frustrated and then their parent is getting frustrated behind them,” Shiplett said.

With a lack of substitutes, feeling like she couldn’t take a day off without her team suffering as a result, along with the mask debates, was wearing on her. That’s when Shiplett admits that at a certain point, she along with a few others weighed their career options, but that was short-lived.

“You get to a point where you’re like you know, these guys are who we’re here for, and as stressful as it is, you can make your day go the way you want it to, so we tried to turn our attitude around and change it,” Shiplett said.

Reflection and the change in attitude turned things around for her.

“It’s gonna keep getting better every day. Everybody’s smiling a little bit more now and next year’s gonna be even easier. We’re gonna get through it with our kids. We just have to have a good attitude about it,” she said.

Looking back, Shiplett said the biggest lessons she’s learned over the last two years include being willing to let things go, while taking a deep breath. She said having fun with her students without letting the stressors take over and changing how you respond to situations instead of trying to control them helps.