This post is for the parents on social media who are demanding teachers return to the classroom: “You chose to be teacher,” they say. Well, yes, but no one in those past education classes foresaw 2020. No one foresaw a pandemic.
This post is for the teachers on social media who reply when parents insist they cannot manage online learning in their homes: “You chose to be parents.” The parents of today’s young children lived in a certain world when they made their parenting choice, and that world does not look anything like today.
Let’s try to be as kind as we can. Parents, there’s an excellent chance that your teacher is scared. He or she has been buying classroom supplies for school every year, laying in hand sanitizer before hand sanitizer was cool because, in some schools, those bathrooms always seem to run out of soap. In an educational system where teachers in poor districts have been buying their own paper and spring ink cartridges for years, parents please understand that some teachers have spent their working lives short of supplies. They don’t trust the “authorities” to keep them safe if we all re-enter the classroom. After all, those authorities have been doing a bang up job so far, yes? Where was the soap? Where are the N-95 masks and germicidal wipes? Even in districts that can afford all the basic supplies, the purchasing process can take weeks or even months. That assumes those supplies exist, too.
And teachers? Not many households can get by on one income today. In many regions, the cheapest, smallest lodging still costs over four figures. Vehicles must be run and maintained in a time when people are afraid of mass transit. Mass transit’s not an option anyway in much of the country. Grocery budgets, health care costs, clothes, shoes, supplies for school, party supplies, presents for birthday parties, baseball bats, phones, light bulbs, cleaning products, flowers in spring, batteries, burgers and fries — in big chunks, and little dribs and drabs, the money gets sucked away.
Schools provide childcare when parents must work. That single-mother nurse may not have anyone else to reliably watch her children all day while she earns the money her kids and she use to survive. While it’s not too tough to find someone to cover for an hour or two in the afternoon, all day is an entirely different and much less affordable option. Yes, she chose to have kids. She could not have foreseen this future, however. Maybe she did not realize just how much trouble “Bob’s” heavy drinking might become. Or she did not realize her folks would move to Florida. She almost certainly did not plan for a pandemic.
Eduhonesty: Readers, do what you can to support the scared teachers and worried parents right now. Support each other. Teachers, please keep in mind that the demanding parent who insists we open schools may be afraid for his or her livelihood and simultaneously afraid of going to work. Parents, please understand that your teachers may be worried about themselves and your children for good reason. Visualize passing periods during your school years. How wide were those hallways? How many kids did you accidentally bump when changing classes? In many areas, schools should be closed.
Sometimes NO good solution to a problem exists. We can’t make the world the way we want it. We can’t go back in time and put the microbe back in the box.,
We can make our own world kinder, however. We can use virtual and real classrooms to share information, support each other, and provide pep talks and supplies, doing our best to make this school year work. Let’s give each other virtual hugs and let any pent up animosity go.
Instead of sniping at each other — I suggest we snipe at whoever we decide is responsible for the appalling surge of COVID in the recent past.