I collapsed this week.

It seems that the ability to perceive one's work as important, a certain rationalization of one's role as a teacher, and obtaining satisfaction from the relationships established in the school environment, appear to be factors that strengthen teachers and prevent burnout.

This week was a complete collapse.

I took a day off on Tuesday. But my head was still confused and tired. The lesson planning papers were jumbled in my hands and scattered around the office. And then there's the enormous tiredness in my body. I just wanted to lie down and sleep. And I slept, for long hours, after getting up at 6 in the morning. And even after breakfast and after lunch.

The 86 billion neurons needed rest.

I'm not sure what's going on with my neurons right now.

I learned that there are 16 billion neurons in the brain, but the cerebellum has 69 billion. The rest are scattered throughout other regions of the brain, enclosed within the skull.

It seems we are born with this cellular apparatus already in our human nervous system. We have the largest number of neurons in the animal kingdom. Practically no more neurons are produced throughout life. The secret lies in the constant activity these tiny cells engage in, connecting and disconnecting from one another. This is neuronal plasticity. Is this how we learn and forget?

I discovered an article in a Brazilian journal from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) , which is dedicated to supporting scientific research in Brazil. In fact, it was Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist born in Rio de Janeiro in 1972, who helped develop a method for counting neurons, making a significant contribution to understanding the number of cells that make up the brain. On her blog , she continues to discuss countless curiosities about the brain and what neuroscience is discovering.

We know that something accumulates in the spaces between cellular tissues and that only sleep can eliminate it. This is because the lymphatic system does not exist in the brain; therefore, the elimination of substances resulting from normal metabolism only occurs during sleep.

Emotions and discouragement accumulate, and there's a terrible laziness for anything other than staying on the couch or in bed. It's not serious, but I feel it's important to stop.

Are there too many vaguely harmful substances that need to be eliminated from the brain and the organs that accompany it inside the skull?

On Sunday, I was deeply moved at an education meeting in Lisbon, dedicated to the current government's maneuvers to place teachers under the umbrella of a public institute. Those on the right believe that, in the name of improving the functioning of the Portuguese education system, the legal relationship between the Portuguese state and teachers must be reviewed. For over two hours, about 50 teachers, in a tone reminiscent of fado music and moments of lament, discussed the state of education. Fortunately, there were also moments of calling for action. "We are not victims, we are subjects," someone said. I was moved when speaking about the hope that always exists when we are responsible for 44 children, always with a smile on their faces, a joy for life, and immense tenderness, even when we imagine the small and large personal and family dramas they carry, even at just 10 years old.

"We are not victims, we are agents of transformation in society" is a phrase that emerged in 2021, coined by Tomás Máscolo, a trans activist and Argentine journalist, editor of "Izquierda Diario".

The real challenge lies in gathering strength to keep rowing, always rowing.

There is a temptation to complain, a sign that we are fragile and that we urgently need to strengthen ourselves in some way.

We forget that life, a strange phenomenon perhaps rare in the Universe, is a game of constant readjustment, depending on everything that changes around us. The first step, I always insist, is to know how to listen to the wind, and perceive what is happening around us, and from there maintain the struggles that are within our reach. After all, we have the advantage and privilege of having 86 billion neurons in about a kilogram and a half of brain.

I returned to school and the school environment after a break, even more aware of the stimuli I must provide my students so that new neural connections can be formed in those little heads. And also aware of the conditioning factors that make it difficult for them to learn what society and the world insist on teaching.

This doesn't mean I'm unaware of the tremendous challenge every teacher faces. At the end of my career, I have fewer than 50 students to whom I teach two subjects in the second cycle of basic education. But most teachers in primary and secondary education have more than a hundred.

Fatigue is a serious problem in schools, even before we address the more dramatic issue of burnout.

In 2018, FENTROP conducted a study on teacher burnout. In 2021, Ana Isabel de Bastos Mota returned to the subject in her doctoral thesis, " Burnout in Primary and Secondary School Teachers: Personal, Organizational and Classroom Variables ".

Just mild tiredness or a serious and worrying situation like burnout?

While the school environment clearly seems to contribute to triggering a serious condition, there are also personal characteristics that appear to predict that mild tiredness will turn into a serious problem.

It seems that the ability to perceive one's work as important, a certain rationalization of one's role as a teacher, and obtaining satisfaction from the relationships established in the school environment, appear to be factors that strengthen teachers and prevent burnout.

Listening to the wind and finding solutions to guide it safely into port—will the important task of teaching everything to everyone be the way forward?

LENT, R. et al. How many neurons do you have? Some dogmas of quantitative neuroscience under revision. European Journal of Neuroscience. v 35 (1). Jan. 2012.

HERCULANO-HOUZEL, S.; LENT, R. Isotropic fractionator: a simple, rapid method for the quantification of total cells and neurons in the brain. Journal of Neuroscience. v. 25(10), p. 2.518-21. 9 Mar. 2005.

Mota, Ana Isabel de Bastos, Burnout in primary and secondary school teachers: personal, organizational and classroom variables, Doctoral Thesis, University of Minho, 2021.

ZORZETTO, R., "Recounting neurons puts neuroscience ideas in check", Pesquisa FAPESP 192, São Paulo, 2012.

Connections:

Suzana Herculano-Houzel's Blog

FAPESP Research Magazine