The Garrison Institute is holding a summer workshop for educators to help them deal with the growing stress of their jobs.

Last month, the Institute hosted a symposium outlining what Patricia Jennings, the organization’s head, described as a crisis in education rising, in essence, from the continued emphasis on judging the worth of a school district based on test scores.

Teachers come in for much of the pressure to improve scores and a lot of time and research has gone into getting students to do better.

But very little research has gone into helping teachers deal with the stress of being on the front lines and working with a diverse and difficult population, stress which ultimately affects how well they do their jobs and how well their students learn, Jennings said.

She pointed to a 2006 report of the National Education Association that stated that half of the country’s teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching.While there is no one reason why the number is so high, Jennings said she felt the lack of emotional support and growing stress were among the top reasons.

The danger in not addressing teacher stress she put this way: “Emotionally exhausted teachers may become cynical and callous and may eventually feel they have failed and so drop out of the teaching workforce. Others may stay—although unhappily—coping by maintaining a rigid classroom routine bitterly working at a suboptimal level of performance until retirement. In either case, burnout takes a serious toll on teachers, students, schools, districts and communities.”

The Garrison Institute is suggesting that research into contemplation and contemplative practices could be one of the answers. Last month’s symposium explored subjects like cultivating emotional balance in the classroom and awareness and concentration in teaching to help defuse stress.

The Institute is holding a summer retreat for teachers from Aug. 16 through 21 to concentrate on those issues. For details, visit www.garrisoninstitute.org or e-mail Erin Koch at retreats@garrisoninstitute.org.