NPR Article on Public Schools

[Anonymous]

Here’s the link: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/23/1057979170/school-closures-mental-health-days-families-childcare-thanksgiving-break

A district in our area (not DC) closed the entire week of thanksgiving with maaaaaaaybe a weeks notice and a teacher friend of mine was publicly pushing hard core for her district to do the same, short notice and pressure on parents be damned. Our district is already closed all week so I don’t have a dog in the fight.

I totally am sympathetic that teachers are burnt out. But that being said, almost every other working parent could say the same. And kids are already behind and every day in school counts.

I’m not a teacher or healthcare, but an essential industry where inflation and supply chain issues are killing us. This is beyond the hardest time in my career in 2 decades. I get it. But somehow parents in similar situations are the worst because they can’t handle last minute school closures?

A FB comment from a teacher to this article was basically like “sorry you might not get paid to miss work because of this and might not be able to pay bills but I don’t care”

[Anonymous]

Schools now have learned they can close whenever they want for any reason. Any change to this will require political action.

[Anonymous]

I am both a teacher and a parent. I teach at a private school but send my kids to public (I can’t justify the cost to send them to my school even with the significant discount). Anyway, we didn’t shut down for the 7 weeks FCPS did in March/April 2020. I kept working while my kids were off for seven weeks. It was maddening.

My kids aren’t behind because I supplement significantly at home but many of their peers are way behind what I am teaching my students. The time off, the virtual learning, the stress of the pandemic have all taken a hard toll on kids.

I am embarrassed by how others in this profession are behaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools now have learned they can close whenever they want for any reason. Any change to this will require political action.

I agree!

[Anonymous]

The parent in the article who said this is spot on.

We all feel like we're witnessing the death of public education up close and personal.

I've never seen as many people go to private school as I have in the past two years. Trust in the public education system is quickly crumbling. It is so sad, and it's going to get worse.

[Anonymous]

thank g-d the mainstream media is accurately reporting on school closures. finally!!!

[Anonymous]

Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am both a teacher and a parent. I teach at a private school but send my kids to public (I can’t justify the cost to send them to my school even with the significant discount). Anyway, we didn’t shut down for the 7 weeks FCPS did in March/April 2020. I kept working while my kids were off for seven weeks. It was maddening.

My kids aren’t behind because I supplement significantly at home but many of their peers are way behind what I am teaching my students. The time off, the virtual learning, the stress of the pandemic have all taken a hard toll on kids.

I am embarrassed by how others in this profession are behaving.

I was highly, highly critical of school closures and the hypocritical response to them on the left. But, I do see that my kid’s school is working extremely hard and with some staff shortages. I actually would be in support of additional time off this year but ONLY if carefully planned far in advance and with childcare options in place (free). where is all the covid money going??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

Then we really, really need to adapt the European model of year round school. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Let’s go already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

actually what the article says is school districts are chosing to hoard money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

actually what the article says is school districts are chosing to hoard money.

(and the article also says that schools inexplicably lack the ability to require staff to schedule time off in advance to avoid shortages.)

[Anonymous]

Years ago in the past we had several days off for Thanksgiving. That was pretty normal. Teachers and school staff are people and should get time off to travel and see their families too. They also are entitled to use their leave, just like the parents of the kids they teach get to. The issue is a shortage of subs. So, sign up and sub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

Then we really, really need to adapt the European model of year round school. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Let’s go already.

That would be a nightmare for MS and HS where kids work, swim team and other activities.

That would be a nightmare for working parents to have to constantly arrange child care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

Then we really, really need to adapt the European model of year round school. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Let’s go already.

That would be a nightmare for MS and HS where kids work, swim team and other activities.

That would be a nightmare for working parents to have to constantly arrange child care.

And yet Europe somehow manages! It boggles the mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen - you need to understand that we live in a society where there is a balance between supply and demand. Teachers are in serious demand and in low supply. The counties need to keep them as happy as possible and they don’t have any money to give them decent pay increases. So they give them time off. We had huge turnover at my kids school over the last 1 1/2 years. I will gladly take a couple days off rather than go back to online or have 50 kids in a class. If you want to keep your kids in school, take care of your teachers. Seriously.

Then we really, really need to adapt the European model of year round school. 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Let’s go already.

I recently had a long conversation with my SIL about this. She's a former 2nd grade teacher (15 years), then elementary principal, now high level administrator in her school district. She says that while parents push back against the idea of year round school because change is hard, they aren't the real obstacle. Most families are two-income, and summers are hard in terms of childcare. Most families only take a couple weeks of actual vacation in the summer because they have to work, so the rest of the summer is just trying to keep the kids occupied and safe until school starts again. So while there would definitely be push back, a lot more families would get on board with this than you think.

The obstacles is teachers. This schedule is often one of the key selling points for many people who enter the profession, and long-timers have structured their entire lives around it. There are teachers who would support a year round model for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that it would make the actual act of teaching easier because you wouldn't have to deal with annual learning loss and re-acclimating kids to the classroom. And there are teachers who already essentially teach year round because they teach summer school most years. But as a group, there is a lot of resistance to a year-round model among teachers and that's the primary reason most districts haven't attempted it, even though it's an issue that comes up regularly.