Abbott Elementary Season 2

Fresh off an Emmy win, it's time for the teachers of 'Abbott Elementary' to go back to school. Featuring a special appearance by Gritty.

Sadly for Janine, she unwittingly booked Gritty for the first day of school for the teachers and not the first day for the students. When Jacob uses her computer to find a video, he sees one of the messages and immediately asks Janine if she’s in need of help. Gregory with his type-A personality is having a hard time with this in particular, and he vents to Barbara about the first-grade curriculum. Janine is also in need of support and guidance; after breaking up with Tariq, she’s been struggling to keep up with her bills. A large contributing factor to burnout among teachers is the pressure to fit a large workload in a short period of time with limited resources. She tells him, “Being a teacher is being asked to do the impossible year after year, and our only solution is to show up every day and try our best.” He rejects this notion, saying it’s unfair. He comes to the conclusion that “everything is chaos, and we all lose,” but this is okay, because this realization is basically the first step toward mindfulness. Accessibility is a theme throughout the episode, and the entire series, as Barbara is elated to create an accessible environment for a new student in a wheelchair. This year, Melissa is tasked with expanding her workload with a combined second- and third-grade classroom after gaining ten additional students because a nearby charter school took the third graders with high test scores, leaving not enough students to fill a class. The season-one episode in which Janine attempts to create a “gifted” program at the school but learns to celebrate the fact that all people learn in different, and equally respectable, ways is a great example of the subtle manner the show promotes equity. Well, “adjusting” may be a stretch, as Janine is trying to convince us, and herself, that the breakup has not and will not interfere with her life. When helping Ava allocate the funds they received from the grant in the season-one finale, Barbara made sure to use part of the money to get a ramp installed in the school.