"Maybe it is selfish for people to be angry at other people for leaving. But that's only natural... That's how we survive."

The school that I work at is essentially in its fourth year in operation. The first year, 8 faculty members left in the middle of the year. The second year, there were 6. Last year, there were 2. The number was decreasing, and it was an optimistic sign that our school culture was improving, that we were moving towards better establishing ourselves as a stable community supporting the academic and personal growth and development of students and their families. Three weeks in to this new school year, 2 faculty members announced their leaving within the next week. This sparked a variety of reactions, emotions, and comments from the rest of the faculty that I found at the least very thought-provoking. These 2 faculty members are leaving to take other jobs. I don't know all the personal details of why they're making these moves to other jobs at this time three weeks in to the new school year, nor do I need to know. I know they both have contributed so much to this school and value our students so much that they would not be making this move at this time unless they pretty much had to. I trust them in that. I have to. That's what a safe, productive urban school has to be built on. But no one can overlook that something like this does have a huge impact on students. In a profession that is so based in relationships, in an urban community where it is not uncommon for students to come in with pre-existing emotional scars from parents walking out of their lives at a young age, and in a school that has already historically had a hurtful teacher turnover rate, the damage that teachers leaving can do has the potential to be absolutely devastating. It's so different than perhaps in the corporate world when, for the most part, people celebrate you and throw you a little good-bye party when you've contributed a lot to the company and now are moving on to bigger and better things. In education, you're almost blamed for leaving in the middle of the year because our work in education is so personal, so built on relationships and community, and when you leave in the middle of the year, you leave a void in that community. Should it be this way? I want to be empathetic to my peers who are upset and angry over our fellow faculty members leaving, but I have to explore the possibility that they're angry because of selfishness. They hurt because of the difficulty that they'll have to deal with and the pain of the students that they'll have to see. But saying that makes me feel insensitive. Maybe what I need to understand is that I can't understand because I've never faced loss like some of our students have, like some of our faculty have. I've never had someone who was (or who was supposed to be) a guardian, a role model, a mentor to me walk out of my life, abandon me, forsake me. I can't understand how much that hurts. I can't understand how much that complicates your feelings and your experiences. Maybe it is selfish for people to be angry at other people for leaving. But that's only natural. That's only human. That's how we take care of ourselves. That's how we protect ourselves. That's how we survive. Is it wrong for my peers to be angry? I can't answer that. You feel how you feel. It's about how you cope with it and what you do next that matters.

So what's my role in this? What am I supposed to think? What am I supposed to do?