We all have nightmares about school, including teachers. Teachers have these dreams taking place in the craziest of spaces: some in the middle of class, or on a field trip. Others may even think they are a student.
Jane Stafford, known to be a calm and collected person, dreams of losing control and feeling overwhelmed. “Suddenly, I wake up and I’m on something, almost like a cruise ship or a very large ship, and I have all my students and it’s either just me or sometimes my coworker is there. There are students everywhere and water everywhere and I’m in charge, and I think, ‘How on earth did I end up in this position, where I’m in charge of all these students and there is nobody else, and I don’t know where they are, and I don’t know if they’re safe, and I don’t even know how to communicate with them?’ I’m looking for a loudspeaker and I can’t access it. I can see kids I have on the other deck across from where I am. It’s insanely stressful.”
History teacher Dino Annest has a recurring dream that would probably make all of his students very happy. “I wake up, go to school and I’m late, and I’ve missed giving a test. I’ve probably had that 20 times, and it’s usually a night or two before a test. It’s scary because I dreamed that all the kids showed up to take the test and there was no way to give it to them.”
Carley Tallman dreams of leaving and forgetting about her students. “It’s always the same. Usually I have it in late August. One time I had it in July which was pretty rough. But it’s always the same: it’s the middle of the first period on the first day of school. I don’t know where my classroom is, I don’t know what my schedule is. I know I have one, I know I have a class, but I don’t know where it is. Last year, however, it was different. It was the end of lunch, the fifth period was starting. I knew I had [a class], I just didn’t care.”
Ceramics and jewelry teacher Chantal Tori dreams of a classic field trip nightmare, but for an art teacher, it’s especially terrifying. “My school nightmare always happens after a big break or at the end of summer. I have taken everybody on a school trip to a museum and everybody is tearing the art on the walls, spray painting everything or breaking everything, and I’m just standing in the middle of the room being like, ‘No! Don’t! Please stop!’ and nobody is listening. Or sometimes, the [dream] happens in my classroom.”
Gavin Cree’s dream is perhaps the most unique, transporting him back to his high school days only to skip class. “It’s usually a high school setting. I’m going to class all semester and I have this one class that I forget about. I just forgot to go to it, and days pass by in the dream and I just don’t go to class. It’s usually a Spanish class, and I’m just blowing off this class. Then, it’s the end of the semester and I’m like, ‘Oh wait! I have this class and I haven’t been showing up! Better show up now then.’ So I go and I don’t know anything and it’s just a disaster.”
Teachers have dreams about school just like students. Some of these dreams are even worse than what you could imagine.
