Public and Private Schools in a fog of war
How We Decided to Send Our Daughter Back to School https://nyti.ms/3d3X16P
An important excerpt from the article is one parent's decision making process:
"Her teacher, whom I credit for my daughter thriving academically in remote learning, has been a total rock star during the pandemic. Her cheerful voice blares through our home as she diligently delivers lessons and encourages her students through the screen.
So when she indicated that she was excited to return to teach students in person, I was persuaded. Not that the virus would disappear, or that there was zero risk or that the science wouldn’t change in just a few months.
I was persuaded that I could come out of this dreadful school year feeling exactly as I felt on that summer day two years ago when I watched my baby girl get on the school bus for the first time: that I could trust the educators in her school to keep her safe."
As a private tutor and former classroom teacher with 48 years of experience, I am profoundly concerned that the mother's (who is also a journalist) conclusion that potentially puts teachers in the crosshairs of a decision where we are least able to predict, command, and or control outcomes. "...I could trust the educators in her school to keep her safe." Specifically, there are too many variables that no teacher can control in order to guarantee in any way that any child in their classroom will not be exposed to and/or contract COVID-19.
Let me be crystal clear, no teachers or administrators that I know ( and I am the third generation of classroom teachers in my birth family) has ever been trained on how to keep anyone safe from exposure to any virus, particularly one as deadly as COVID-19. Unfortunately for the entire planet, the " invasion" of politics and competitive capitalism into the COVID-19 crisis from its inception at one of the busiest travel times of the year ( November 2019 - January 2020) has generated a tsunami of misdirection and misinformation that has negatively impacted trusting the healthcare guilds we had historically trusted.
Pre-COVID-19, rightly, naively, or wrongly, me and my fellow educators had trusted the CDC, WHO, AMA, APA, MDs, DOs, and all other medical professionals. From personal outcomes and those generally observed throughout society, we had no reason(s) not to trust the trained, battle-tested, degreed, certified and regulated healthcare provider community. But regarding the current pandemic, that trust has been mortally wounded. Now that our healthcare leaders are no longer in fear of retaliation from POTUS45 or his team and POTUS46 has launched supportive initiatives, that trust is gradually being restored.
But here is the dilemma for the majority of public school teachers: COVID-19; unvaccinated, uncontrolled, and being managed by 50 different state protocols with unrestricted national and global travel, is beyond our individual and collective skill-sets to indepently manage inside classrooms. Personal hygiene practices have always varied widely. Management of proximity and reasoning/ active listening to manage student behavior are dangerous in a COVID-19 world. I have only ever had to raise my voice or physically block a student to prevent them harming themselves or others. That training violates all current social distancing requirements.
Teachers ( and angel patents) are, more often than is acknowledged, the last line of defense in keeping classrooms supplied with paper towels, hand sanitizer, and liquid soap, among other now-life-saving-and- critical need items. Ventilation systems in varying states of maintenance and repair create freezing and or tropical conditions in classrooms with few or no operational windows. Repairs can take hours, weeks, in some cases entire school years. Finally, another myth is that teaching is a 40/ hour weekly gig with long breaks and summers off. This has never been true for teachers, no matter what union reps, principals, or Superintendents like to say when speaking to media or school boards. Teaching through flu and other illnesses is an unwritten mandate that is universally applied, especially by the most beloved teachers.
For me, a return to public brick-and-mortar classrooms/ offices/ all shared work spaces must acknowledge and address the realities in this essay, at a minimum. Moreover, when we return, everyone must acknowledge the breadth, depth, and height of the global village necessary every day to keep our children and communities safe.
(C) VernonNickersonSchoolcoach 2021
