Classrooms in Crisis? The Top Teacher Issues Shaping the Future of Education

By Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC

For many teachers, this is the eve of start-up season. Back to school 2025, starts tomorrow with the pounding feet of students down the nicely-cleaned halls with everything bright, polished, and shiny. Let’s pause for a moment and do a search of the top trending topics in education this past month across the globe-

August 30, 2025: In the UK, a new Department for Education report labels the situation a "behaviour crisis," estimating that each pupil loses 45 days of learning per year due to disruptions like talking, refusal to work, and even physical or verbal abuse. Just one-third of teachers feel confident handling misbehavior, and many classrooms are no longer calm environments. 

August 18, 2025: In the U.S., 81% of teachers identify student behavior as a serious issue, surpassing salary concerns. Disruptive behavior is cited as a key factor pushing educators toward burnout and even exiting the profession  

August 30, 2025: According to the New York Post, in New York City, teachers are turning to platforms like DonorsChoose to raise funds for basic classroom essentials—despite a record-high projected $42,168 per pupil spending. Requests have totaled $4.1 million, with educators reporting reimbursement programs are inadequate for real classroom needs.

General Themes:

Surveys indicate that an overwhelming number of teachers feel overworked. In the UK, 41% described their workload as "unmanageable," and 89% reported exhaustion during term time. Furthermore, many teachers are overwhelmed by the mental health load on their classrooms while trying to meet the social and emotional needs of learners while also dealing with the post covid 19 student skill regression, disengagement, and chronic absenteeism that is felt on a larger system level.

Summary: What is Most Pressing?

Issue	Why It Matters
Behavioral disruptions	Undermines learning and pushes teachers toward quitting
Resource shortages	Educators spending personal funds erodes morale
Teacher Retention crisis	Poor working conditions, not lack of interest, is the root problem
Burnout & mental health	Overwhelming workloads damage teachers’ health and retention
Large class sizes	Limits individual support and emotional connection with students
Socio-emotional demands	Teachers are not equipped to manage student mental health on top of academics

Good News! The Importance of Classroom Culture

In spite of the challenges listed above, classroom culture is a gamechanger in education because it is the foundation for how students learn, interact, and grow. Think of it as the invisible current that drives everything in the room and if it is strong and positive then learning flows. Likewise, if it is weak or negative, then progress stalls.

As educators, we cannot control the larger systems around us, so our best focus is on the immediate world we create in the classroom with our students. In fact, there are small things we can do that create big results while contributing to a positive classroom culture.

1.     Teach and Model Resiliency-

Our youth have BIG feelings and with fears of failure or even overwhelm, learned helplessness (the action of giving up on trying) and screen time overload (escapism with technology) become major issues that can derail focus on learning. In fact, rather than dealing with issues, escapism with cell phone scrolling or online gaming become a convenient distraction and with immediate availability, they can serve as digital pacifiers with youth not leaning into challenges as they focus on escapist outlets.

Resource: “Twenty” is a new school engagement and resilience program filled with videos, reflections, and quizzes for students who can solve the issues of six other animated characters struggling with screen time, school engagement, executive functioning, mental health and more. If students are dropping off on their engagement, they can complete work on more than 60 lessons which are pre-loaded on to a learning management system for which they have their own unique login and account.

2.     Teach Goal-Setting-

Life does not just happen! With self-agency, students learn to set a lane or charter a course. This means that they develop skills to be in the driver’s seat of life instead of being the passenger with life driving them. The classroom is a microcosm of life and when students set goals, they learn the power of self-determination as well as self-agency in being able to take charge of their lives through action.

3.     Teach Self-Regulation-

Youth can have big feelings, but “wearing” feelings, “throwing feelings around”, or expecting people to walk on emotional eggshells around feelings is not helpful. Instead, youth benefit from learning to identify, honor, process, and self-regulate feelings so that they can sort out the difference between big deals as well as little deals on the way to their greatest successes. Learning cannot happen without self-regulation.

4.     Teach Vision-Building and Give Students Back Their Why of Learning

When youth have a north star or a bright light on the horizon, then they have focus as well as direction. Learning at school makes sense because they are then able to link the hard work of now with the goals of the future. As a result of vision-building (visualizing the future), students become more engaged in their learning.

SEL Toolbox

Youth have the opportunity to develop a social and emotional toolbox of skills through discussions, exercises, and small group work in your class while building a strong culture as well as community with skills that extend beyond the classroom helping them to be set up for success with life.

Do not invent the wheel if the wheel has already been created. Tweak it instead! For example, the program “Twenty” is a new resiliency resource from Grades 5 to 10 with over 60+ lessons that have integrated mind mapping (goal bus) small group exercises, videos, and pre-loaded quizzes as well as reflection prompts already loaded on to a learning management system. Topics such as screen time overload, resiliency, future planning, critical thinking, goal-setting, self-regulation, healthy relationships, executive functioning and more are covered as 6 animated characters get into situations that students in your class can problem-solve. The heavy-lifting has been done for you and you can click on any applicable lessons while pushing play or have students work from their own individual log-in copies. Also, these lessons help you to build a strong classroom as well as school community as students learn a toolbox of skills for managing mental health, building resiliency, strengthening executive functioning and goal-setting.

Visit: https://www.softskillstrainingcenter.com/challenges  and log in to the FREE TEACHER’S COPY while having each student log into the same link using the VERIFIED SITE MEMBERS copy and you will be able to access engaging lessons following six animated characters that students engage in with a video, small group mind mapping goal bus activity, and then follow-up with quizzes as well reflections on:

Other modules include lessons on resiliency and future planning which includes stories and poems. Finally, students can also engage in an interactive reading and spelling program for addressing skill gaps.

In the rush of a busy school day, quick SEL lessons are a teacher lifesaver which are easy to grab, simple to use, and powerful enough to shift the entire mood of your classroom. With just a few ready-made tools, you can turn unexpected moments into meaningful connections that help students thrive both academically and emotionally.

The future of education is very much guided by the strong classroom cultures built along the way!

About The Writer:

Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC is an educator of 20+ years with diverse experience in all levels of elementary, high school, and post secondary education as a teacher, counsellor, and clinical supervisor. With extensive experience in research and counselling, she understands the impact as well as sources of disengagement as well as chronic absenteeism on learners at all levels. She is also the creator of these new innovative programs “Twenty”  & “LOTUS” sponsored by Soft Skills Training Center and Patterson-Sterling Consulting and Counselling Services.