Burning Out or Burning Up?

Public school educators spend a significant amount §of time in the life of a child, and in some cases, §their daily contact may even exceed that of the §primary caregiver. As families continue to be §besieged by financial challenges, mental and §physical health issues, and intrapersonal and §interpersonal difficulties, their distress and §dysfunction will continue to spill over into the §school system. Educators will be challenged to §maintain a healthy degree of engagement with §students, students families, and colleagues. This §study was undertaken to explore the concept of a §continuum of career engagement in the field of §education. Assessed levels of career satisfaction, §burnout, and compassion fatigue served as respective §indicators of healthy career engagement, §disengagement, and overengagement. Although educator §burnout has been studied quite extensively, research §examining primary and secondary trauma in the lives §of school personnel has been conspicuously absent. §This study sought to determine whether today s §educators are burning out or burning up, with the §latter resulting from ''flying too close to the §flame''.