I’ve taught Eugene students for two decades. It’s never been harder.

It’s never been more difficult to teach than it is right now. For 23 years, I have served in Eugene School District 4J at both the elementary and middle school level. I’ve been a classroom teacher, a specialist and an instructional leader. I’ve taught through budget shortfalls, school closures and a revolving door of leadership initiatives and changes. Let me say it again: It’s never been more difficult to teach than it is right now.

In 2019, Oregon passed the Student Success Act after years of failed initiatives. The Student Success Act injected much-needed funding into our schools, courtesy of a business tax on sales. For educators, it provided exciting possibilities. Positions were added or expanded to increase access to counseling, support literacy initiatives, provide more behavioral support and reduce class sizes, among other priorities.

Little did we know, something that would have a much greater effect on education was lurking.

Obviously, I don’t need to tell anyone that the pandemic was rough for schools. What has been even more devastating for educators is the aftermath. The needs schools are seeing post-pandemic don’t compare to what we were up against prior to the pandemic. Our students have always needed the basics, but spend one day in a school and you’ll see that the basics have changed.

Students come to school hungry, and we feed them. Students come to school tired, and we give them a place to rest. Students come to school disconnected, and we build connections. Students come to school emotionally dysregulated, and we regulate them. And … AND … students come to school ill-prepared to learn, and we teach them. We help support students through housing instability, chronic absenteeism, trauma, hunger, and personal and family addictions.

When we look at education and talk about real change, we’re talking about societal change. Hold a mirror up to society, and you’ll see a school. Everything reflected in these buildings is reflected from where we receive our students.

Families are struggling, and to really make a change, we have to look at the conditions they’re managing. We have to consider wealth distribution, housing and mental health supports. We have to ask why so many students are disconnected from school, why chronic absenteeism continues to rise, and why so many families are struggling to access the support they need. These are not problems schools created, but they are problems schools confront every single day.

The blame game is the easiest game to play because it always creates somebody who has done us wrong. We get to be the hero, and somebody else is misguided. It’s the fault of unions like the Oregon Education Association because they block change. It’s the teacher preparation programs’ fault because they aren’t preparing new teachers. It’s the districts’ fault because they’re misallocating funds. It’s the state’s fault because they have no oversight. It’s the teachers’ fault because they’re not doing their jobs.

When you play the blame game, you miss any nuance of what’s really happening. Our fourth grade reading scores in Oregon are among the worst in the nation. We want to blame somebody, or something. Yes, we’ve seen more investment than ever, and no, that investment hasn’t resulted in the dramatic change we all want to see. This is where reality has to set in.

Oregon was critically underfunded for years, and it takes time and patience to build new systems and approaches. And imagine this: It takes even more time when you throw a global pandemic into the equation. This was never going to be a problem solved quickly and easily, but it is a problem that can be solved as long as we commit to long-term resources, and long-term planning and implementation.

This is a societal problem, which means we are all complicit. No blame. I’m in this mess, just like everybody else. We do need to look at where we can improve our advocacy, teacher preparation programs, the allocation of public resources, statewide guidance and classroom practice. Of course. We should always aim to improve and always be open to fair criticism. But to place the blame for a societal problem on any single entity lacks the necessary shared understanding we need in order to see the changes we all want to see.

Reading scores are a real problem — a problem teachers carry with them every single day while they do the most important work imaginable, carrying all of society’s problems on their backs while they do it. It’s never been more difficult to teach than it is right now, and it’s never been more important to look at our broader problems and invest in our future.