Why are most teachers too scared to return to in person teaching, but most parents want schools open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because parents don't have to see what the conditions are like in the schools. They don't have to deal with how filthy or understocked schools are. Parents don't have to contend with the incredibly unrealistic expectations that children will sit still for seven hours a day in a mask. They won't be the ones trying to control a classroom full of kids who are frustrated and bored and restless from a day with no gym, no recess, no games, and none of the things that keep kids motivated to do academic work. They don't have to watch twenty kids without a break while simultaneously educating them, assessing them, and keeping them safe from a deadly virus.

My district is going back. If it is a nightmare, then I will leave. I don't have the emotional bandwidth to teach my special education students in this dystopian nightmare. None of my colleagues do. I know that none of this will work for my students, but we are supposed to smile and pretend that it will. I can't plan because they have given us absolutely no information about who, what, or how we will be teaching. The summer has been so full of anxiety and dread. On top of that, I see parents pitching fits about how they want teachers to be fired and an enormous amount of vitriol being expressed towards us. It's discouraging and it is starting to impact my mental health, on top of all the stress and uncertainty we are ALL experiencing.

Do you see that parents' mental health is also impacted? They don't know how they are going to do their own jobs while managing distance learning, and worried that their kids are going to fall behind because DL just doesn't work for many. In some cases they are worried about losing their jobs because they can't pay for extra child care. This is not teachers' fault but we are all struggling.

[Anonymous]

No one is running schools the way some of you suggest. Bathroom break schedules? That is not what anyone is suggesting..
Day camps, daycares And others are figuring this out and making changes as needed the problem is schools and teachers won't even try. The best they can come up with is distance learning and yelling they don't want to die. no one who is back at work doing their jobs with appropriate PPE and making modifications to their jobs wants to die either. But you know millions of us are doing just that and are doing just fine. I work with adults with disabilities who also have trouble using PPE appropriately and if some of the adults that I work with can figure this out trust me these kids can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its like Teachers got frozen in time and are stuck on March 20th when the US shut down and we thought everyone who left their house would get COVID and die.

Fast forward, we know so much more now. People are SAFELY returning to work with PPE, safeguards, modifications to their work space/hours/business but we still hear teachers crying about not wanting to die.
It is like they haven't realized that 90% of us are back in offices, businesses and going about or daily lives with masks and other precautions.
Oh!!! But the kids can't be safe!!!
Well, yes they can as proven by Day cares, camps, sports and playdates. THey can also wear masks. Gasp, I know!!!
You can also turn gyms, cafeterias, libraries into classrooms to spread kids out. You can also change the schedule a bit. Hell have 2 groups, one in the am, one in the after. Or get even more creative and have an evening session for those who want/need.

Teachers just dont' get it and I don't get why they want to DL. By all accounts it is more stressful, more work and really limitied learning can take place at gradeschool level. Why in the hell are they wanting this?

It also makes me wonder about my children's safety in their care. What about fires, active shooters, hurricanes? Will they run away and leave the kids to fend for themselves because they don't want to die??

I honestly believe most teachers " do get it" and most don't really think it's that risky. And no, DL isn't necessarily more stressful and more work. For some subjects it probably is. And possibly even for lower elementary school as a whole. But for MS and above not really. And a lot of the stress we dealt with in the spring was because it was so suddent and we had no idea how to even approach DL and were spending hours and hours trying to figure it out. My guess is that for many teachers (at least those in the upper grades) once the kinks get worked out it will be a lot less stressful than it was in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op...

OP here. Maybe you didn't read my entire original post, but I AM a teacher. I do not feel that I am at any higher risk of getting Covid than my students are. In fact, I think my students are at a higher risk of getting Covid than I am. On a personal level I prefer to teach virtually. Yes, it some ways it's more work, but it beats dealing with the commute, crappy discipline issues with middle schoolers and the expectation to spend several hours after school working for free to run a club. My point is not all the teachers screaming that it's too dangerous to go back, are motivated by fears for their safety. A lot of them just want to work from home. Why is this so hard to accept?

Thank you for your refreshing honesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like someone else said. Say goodbye to snow days!!!
Now there is no reason they can DL on those days.
Oh, and don't forget to find childcare for your kid as well since he/she will be DL and you can't be the support since you will be 'working' leading your own DL sessions.

Welcome to the real world.

OP again. Actually I don't buy that there will no longer be snow days (once things return to normal) It's not at all realistic to think that 2-3 years from now, when school announces at 6am that school will be canceled, teachers will be able to suddenly put together a DL lesson for that day, and kids will be able to just login to Zoom and join a class.

[Anonymous]

Why not? Serious question why could you not just log on to Zuma 8 a.m. and teach like you normally would. Several of us bring work home at the end of the day if we expect inclement weather and not being able to make it in. I see teachers being able to do the same now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its like Teachers got frozen in time and are stuck on March 20th when the US shut down and we thought everyone who left their house would get COVID and die.

Fast forward, we know so much more now. People are SAFELY returning to work with PPE, safeguards, modifications to their work space/hours/business but we still hear teachers crying about not wanting to die.
It is like they haven't realized that 90% of us are back in offices, businesses and going about or daily lives with masks and other precautions.
Oh!!! But the kids can't be safe!!!
Well, yes they can as proven by Day cares, camps, sports and playdates. THey can also wear masks. Gasp, I know!!!
You can also turn gyms, cafeterias, libraries into classrooms to spread kids out. You can also change the schedule a bit. Hell have 2 groups, one in the am, one in the after. Or get even more creative and have an evening session for those who want/need.

Teachers just dont' get it and I don't get why they want to DL. By all accounts it is more stressful, more work and really limitied learning can take place at gradeschool level. Why in the hell are they wanting this?

It also makes me wonder about my children's safety in their care. What about fires, active shooters, hurricanes? Will they run away and leave the kids to fend for themselves because they don't want to die??

I honestly believe most teachers " do get it" and most don't really think it's that risky. And no, DL isn't necessarily more stressful and more work. For some subjects it probably is. And possibly even for lower elementary school as a whole. But for MS and above not really. And a lot of the stress we dealt with in the spring was because it was so suddent and we had no idea how to even approach DL and were spending hours and hours trying to figure it out. My guess is that for many teachers (at least those in the upper grades) once the kinks get worked out it will be a lot less stressful than it was in the spring.

As a primary teacher I have pointed this out in response to those who say teachers “won DL” or that teachers won’t want to give up DL, but IME nobody I know who teaches elementary grades sees this DL as being less stressful or easier. When I have posted this I have been told I speak for myself or “.00000001 % of the teachers”, but I honestly don’t know anyone looking forward to DL as a primary grade teacher.

[Anonymous]

Next generation gonna be dumb as shit cause it was left to their parents to teach them and it was just too much headache for them lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, but the problem is that the old restaurant that gave us food poisoning still has our credit card and keeps charging us for meals that they don't even deliver any more! They just keep sending us hastily scribbled recipes and say it's our responsibility to cook for ourselves now.

I like this analogy,

I honestly think the teachers on here taking hard line stances are trolls or otherwise not serious. Any teacher, particularly of young elementary, who says with a straight face that they have a telework job is being obtuse.

Despite how much chaos it has caused for me, I do support schools being closed. Just don't gaslight me to tell me that this is an acceptable situation, rather than the best of all of the terrible options that exist right now.

+1. Also the loudest voices tend to be the ones heard. There is one teacher on my local moms listserv who is constantly flooding it with anti-open posts but I get the sense that literally nothing will make her happy. She has a hysterical answer to anyone who dares to bring up a counter point. I think she’s posted on here to as I recognize some of the same arguments. Most of the teachers I know IRL have a more nuanced view of it and would go back if asked.

+100. The debate over reopening schools should be driven by science and objective metrics. Instead we allow the loudest and shrillest voices ( "I don't wanna DIE!!!") to drown out any reasonable suggestion on hybrid approaches or other ways of improving the quality of education for students.

I’m willing to go back to the classroom now with good mitigation and protocol. I really do think we need a specific set of objective metrics we can use towards the reopening of school buildings. Hopefully those will come soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys,
My boss expects me to drive to work. I don't want to die. What should I do? I don't want to die. It is not like I can take safety precautions like driving the speed limit, not driving distracted, wearing a seatbelt.

You see the rate of traffic fatalities. He is such a jerk expecting me to do the job I get paid to do.

I'm honestly starting to think that this is something we will start to hear. That it's unfair for employees to risk their lives driving to work. After all look at how many thousands of people die in year in car accidents? How is it fair to expect employees to RISK THEIR LIVES driving to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys,
My boss expects me to drive to work. I don't want to die. What should I do? I don't want to die. It is not like I can take safety precautions like driving the speed limit, not driving distracted, wearing a seatbelt.

You see the rate of traffic fatalities. He is such a jerk expecting me to do the job I get paid to do.

Not my fault your job doesn’t allow you to telework.
Teachers can.
Buckle up and drive safe.

The PP was being sarcastic and highlighting the fact that almost everything we do involves some risk.

[Anonymous]

I don't see how some teachers think they won't be distance teaching for snow days in the coming years. if you can do it now you certainly can do it the few snow days we have a year. Or is it just that you don't want to be inconvenience to have to find childcare like the rest of us?.
To quote several teachers on this board just be a parent and hire someone.

[Anonymous]

anyone else feel like this is some psychology experiment? Like teachers who had very little power in the past now get a little bit of power by refusing to work and are now becoming these tyrants she'll claim parents want them and their children to die?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, but the problem is that the old restaurant that gave us food poisoning still has our credit card and keeps charging us for meals that they don't even deliver any more! They just keep sending us hastily scribbled recipes and say it's our responsibility to cook for ourselves now.

I like this analogy,

I honestly think the teachers on here taking hard line stances are trolls or otherwise not serious. Any teacher, particularly of young elementary, who says with a straight face that they have a telework job is being obtuse.

Despite how much chaos it has caused for me, I do support schools being closed. Just don't gaslight me to tell me that this is an acceptable situation, rather than the best of all of the terrible options that exist right now.

+1. Also the loudest voices tend to be the ones heard. There is one teacher on my local moms listserv who is constantly flooding it with anti-open posts but I get the sense that literally nothing will make her happy. She has a hysterical answer to anyone who dares to bring up a counter point. I think she’s posted on here to as I recognize some of the same arguments. Most of the teachers I know IRL have a more nuanced view of it and would go back if asked.

+100. The debate over reopening schools should be driven by science and objective metrics. Instead we allow the loudest and shrillest voices ( "I don't wanna DIE!!!") to drown out any reasonable suggestion on hybrid approaches or other ways of improving the quality of education for students.

This. I wish these same loud, shrill voices had the guts to speak up during staff meetings when principals ask us to give up our free time taking on more and more duties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how some teachers think they won't be distance teaching for snow days in the coming years. if you can do it now you certainly can do it the few snow days we have a year. Or is it just that you don't want to be inconvenience to have to find childcare like the rest of us?.
To quote several teachers on this board just be a parent and hire someone.

Like a snow day is the biggest perk of the job
I’ll gladly give up snow days to keep from getting sick and dying how bout you?