This is the last week of the school year for many students and teachers across New Hampshire. But for one educator, school is out for summer indefinitely. Grantham Superintendent Lisa Walker is leaving her career of over 30 years in public education to become an EMT.
NHPR’s Morning Edition host Rick Ganley sat down with her to talk about her decision and how politics around public education have evolved over the last few years.
Transcript
You've been working in the school system for years.
Thirty years.
So why did you decide it was time to leave education now?
It's a multifaceted answer. Thirty years is a long time, and it's nice to still have some tread on the tires to try something different with the years I have ahead of me. But in terms of timing as well, the impact of the current political climate on public education and what it feels like to be in public education – it was just becoming untenable for me. And I think for my own sanity and mental health, it's better that I step away now and focus on other things.
You have some perspective over three decades. How has the pressures of being in public education in New Hampshire changed over that time?
I think we can use COVID as a marking point, a line in the sand. Some of the things that had been normalized politically – how we treat each other publicly, things that's okay to say in public and how people would disagree on topics.
You're talking about decorum.
Thank you. Yes, decorum, civility.
In the years since the pandemic started, you have not seen that ease? Have you seen it change or morph into something else?
It did after we got back to school, back to normalcy. There was another election and things calmed down a bit. It never went back to pre-pandemic decorum. It never quite got back there, but it did calm down. And it's not specific to parents and what's happening in the communities, because the communities in which I worked were wonderful, wonderful people. My leaving education has nothing to do with the communities that I was in. But the attack on public education from the political side continued and intensified post-COVID.
Now, when you say attacks, what do you mean specifically?
Quite honestly, direct attempts to undermine public education in the state of New Hampshire. I think the outgoing commissioner really didn't support public education. I don't oppose private schools. I don't oppose charter schools. I don't oppose homeschooling. But I think it was very obvious to educators who were in the trenches that those were the priorities over public schools. And one example [is] the Divisive Concepts law that went into effect with the website that the commissioner created so that people could report people if they were doing something wrong. It really put a chill into what was happening in our classrooms and instilled a lot of fear in people.
I'm wondering, have you heard from other teachers saying, "You know what, I want to get out?"
Yes. I think there have been a lot of folks that have left the field, either because they're concerned with the direction that things are going, or they're concerned about potentially saying or doing the wrong thing. One of the things that concerns me is that there's a real push that educators should not be concerned about students' social and emotional well-being, we shouldn't be focusing on teaching students coping skills and things like that. That we really just need to focus on subjects.
From an educational standpoint [and] Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, one of the first things that has to happen is children need to feel safe. They have to have food. They have to have a whole host of things before they can access education. So to have leadership and politicians telling us that those shouldn't be our concerns, that we just need to be focused on subjects -- as someone who has devoted their life to public education, it's really hard to see how it is changing, and what we are able to do as public educators is changing.
How do you confront that when a parent says, "I just want you to stick to reading, writing and arithmetic, and I don't want you to talk about any other issue?"
We do stick to the subjects. We do have an academic program, but we can't control everything that happens or is said within a school. I can ask teachers to not have certain discussions in their classroom, certainly. We have a parental objection policy. So if there's a topic coming up in a class that you don't want your child to be a part of, we have a process for that already.
So now you're going to be dedicating yourself to working as an EMT. What appeals to you about that work?
So I became an EMT in 2021 while I was still full time in Monadnock. It requires some of the same skill sets in a way. One, people skills. Number one thing is being able to calm your patient. And [when] you've worked in education for 30 years and 20 of them in administration, you have a pretty good background in trying to calm down people in certain situations. I think the biggest similarity between the two careers is that you're helping people.
So both jobs are very stressful, but in different ways.
Yeah.
With your perspective over 30 years in public education, the stresses have changed over time. You're saying the politics really is pushing you out at this point?
Yeah.
So where did it really come from? Has it been building over the years?
I think it's been building over the years. As I moved up in leadership, maybe it just became more apparent to me. Because once you sort of move into the superintendency, you're more exposed to what's happening across the state. So it may just be a matter of exposure. I think it's a little more than that.
I worry about our kids having all of our students feel welcome and accepted. Some of the things that are happening politically really have the potential to really alienate some students based on whatever characteristics they may have. Because of what's happening politically and legislatively, schools may be limited in what support they can give to those kids that might end up being marginalized. And that's the part that I wish I still had the social, emotional capacity to be in the fray, but I just don't anymore.
