Readers, once again I share lyrics from “Just Dropped In” by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Eagles of Death Metal, and others.* Originally intended to be a warning about LSD, those lyrics just fit this year too well. “Just Dropped In” makes me think of school openings, as we step carefully into the abyss — because national attempts to open schools have become surreal in many locations.
We are living in a time of jagged sky. And as we drop in to see what condition our condition is in, I’d like to share with readers: “Children of all ages now make up 10% of all U.S cases, up from 2% in April,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Yes, children fare better when they get this disease, with “only” 109 recorded deaths in school-age kids as of September 30, according to “COVID-19 Cases Rising Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen” in Education Week (https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/09/30/covid-19-cases-rising-among-us-children_ap.html). Searching for this information is surprisingly difficult, I should note. Sources contradict each other. Information that ought to be readily available is simply… not.
Most cases are among kids aged 12 to 17. As is true for older COVID victims, black and Hispanic children do not do as well as white children. According to the CDC: More than 75% of children dying from COVID-19 are minorities. (https://www.fox5dc.com/news/cdc-more-than-75-of-children-dying-from-covid-19-are-minorities) Still, children overall are least likely to suffer serious complications. If this were only a disease of children, few people except for medical researchers would even be concerned.
But children go home. Many children go home to multigenerational households, especially now that COVID has eaten up so many jobs, leaving people and families without money for the rent or mortgage. Some children go home to shelters. One reason for the strong push to open New York City schools has been a profound concern for homeless students: From https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/19/nyregion/student-homelessness-nyc.html: “By day, New York’s 114,085 homeless students live in plain sight: They study on the subway and sprint through playgrounds. At night, these children sometimes sleep in squalid, unsafe rooms, often for just a few months until they move again. School is the only stable place they know.”
It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around a number like “114,085” when talking about homeless children in one location. That’s more than twice the average number of people who visited Disneyworld each day — back when people visited Disneyworld. Those students are holding onto the edge of a harsh reality by their fingertips, and any honest person must admit teachers are sometimes the only rescuers those children will find.
Teachers are mandated reporters for a reason. A mandated reporter is a person legally required to report suspicions of child abuse or neglect to relevant authorities. Teachers see the bruises, they find the lice, they hear the stories. Sometimes they grapple with the drug paraphernalia that comes to show and tell.
Online schooling has opened up its own ruthless realism — and teachers are left to decide what to do about the gun spied on a home desk or the obvious hoarding that has piles of trash climbing the wall. No one wants to call family services without excellent reason, but when enough discarded food and other refuse comes into view, questions of health, sanitation, possible insect and rodent infestation, and fire safety necessarily follow. Simply, what does the teacher do when Ben sets up his laptop in the kitchen and she sees all the dead flies floating on top of the scum in the water in the sink?
On the coast, teachers have been fleeing fires while simultaneously trying to begin online instruction. Those teachers especially are trying to crawl out of some pretty dark holes. So are their students, especially any students with asthma or breathing challenges. Even if no one has to evacuate, that air may be gray with ash. Does it seem those fires are over? Forest Fires have mostly fallen out of the news, but according to the California Statewide Fire Summary for October 11, 2020. “More than 13,400 firefighters continue to work towards containment on 21 major wildfires across the state.” (https://www.fire.ca.gov/daily-wildfire-report/).
We are careening from one monster piece of news to the next right now. Except there’s seldom time to put news in context before the next cataclysmic event starts being twittered. News fatigue results, as teachers, parents and almost any adult who is not a news junkie begins to duck potentially useful outside information.
Teachers, we have to fight the almost inevitable burn-out that can results from this endless stream of bad news, weird news, and unavailable news.
Eduhonesty: Hugs, teachers, parents and anyone else who has stumbled on this blog. The issues I have raised here cannot be addressed in sound bites. I would just like to continue to plead — please be KIND to each other, readers. Teachers, we cannot know how complicated our students’ home lives are. We may need mom to keep Freddy online — but mom may not have the option to stay home from work. If Freddy’s sister is in charge, and she is managing erratically, please don’t get upset with mom or dad. If Freddy keeps popping in and out of class like Casper the Friendly Ghost, remind yourself that many of our supervising adults and babysitters are far less familiar with technology than the average classroom teacher. And mom or dad, please, please don’t get mad at the teacher. She didn’t create the crazy hybrid schedule. There’s a good chance she had no voice in this year’s in-person, online or hybrid schedule at all. That online platform you hate? There’s a good chance she had no voice in that selection. She may hate it too, even as she frantically tries to become proficient so she can do the best teaching job possible in impossible times.
P.S. Incidentally, about that barrage of news: don’t drop the $421 million in personal debt that the POTUS owes some unknown parties. That’s the piece from the last few weeks that should not slip away. That’s a great deal of leverage possessed by an as-yet-unknown party. Don’t let POST-COVID POTUS become too big a distraction.
P.S.S. Many teachers and districts might as well be “eight miles out of Memphis without a spare, eight miles straight up downtown somewhere.” The situations today’s teachers are confronting can be impossible. You can’t regularly work 12-plus hours a day to make the online and in-person lessons while setting up the tech to include various lost and challenged students still struggling to log on — and also take care of your family, get your own kids into their online classes, keep your kids in those classes, somehow get yourself and other family members fed, the dog walked, and the laundry done, while also helping students and family members with homework and classwork. You can’t.
So don’t try too hard. Do your job as educator as fiercely as possibly during the school day. Then give yourself a break and make bread pudding. Take the kids to the park. Find a way to relax. https://www.eduhonesty.com/there-are-no-venusian-robots-calming-down-in-fraught-times/
*If you are younger and somehow missed the song “I Just Dropped In,” I strongly recommend giving it a listen. It’s emblematic of an earlier, and I think kinder time.