2nd Grade Teacher wears a mask

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should consider getting your hearing checked, OP, if you can't understand people who are wearing masks. It sounds like you have hearing issues and use lip movement to provide context clues.

+1

I have truly never had an issue hearing any adult or child who was wearing a mask

Hearing loss is a pretty common long term complication after having covid. Perhaps you also need to be wearing a mask

As someone who also struggles to understand people wearing masks and for sure has some hearing (fairly minor) hearing loss, I find the glibness here really rude.

And first, to be clear, my hearing loss is not Covid related. I had Covid for the first time in fall of 2022. I experienced hearing challenges before then and specifically challenges understanding people in masks.

But second, telling people to "get their ears checked' like this solves the entire problem is incredibly rude. Addressing hearing loss is more complicated and can be expensive. Also for some people the problem is not their hearing specifically but auditory processing which is specifically impacted when listening to voices without seeing lips move or being able to read expressions. I have become the issues and the advent of widespread mask wearing made me realize how much I rely on visual cues to help with understanding people

Anyway the upshot is that even with my hearing aid I still sometimes can't understand people in masks (or who have heavy accents or who speak without moving their lips much). If the mask muffles their voice and covers their lower face then turning up my hearing sometimes just makes something unintelligible, louder.

This doesn't mean I think no one should mask. I dutifully wore a mask through the pandemic and still do when it's appropriate (I'm sick or someone close to me is sick or risk of getting sick is very high). But it's so rude and selfish to write it off when people talk about the challenges of communication with masks, especially in a setting like school where communication is very fundamental.

And stop telling people "get your ears checked." It's rude and betrays how little you care about people with hearing loss, as well as how little you understand what it means to have hearing issues and how they are treated.

And stop telling to stop wearing masks cause you have hearing issues. It’s rude too. You never know what health issues the person wearing the mask has. It goes both ways.

I literally said that I am not saying people should not wear masks because of my hearing issues. And that I myself mask when appropriate.

It obviously does NOT go both ways because a lot of people expect me to just always defer to someone's mask wearing and no one gives a crap about those of us who struggle to understand people who wear masks. If this was really something that went both ways then people would have said things in this thread like "that sounds hard even though the teacher has a right to wear a mask -- have you considered asking about masks with clear panels or seeing if there is some other solution that could meet everyone halfway."

Instead people who said that they or their kids struggled to understand someone in a mask were called names. Because apparently mentioning one of the obvious and unfortunate downsides of masking is the same as being an anti-vaxxer or a Covid denier.

So yeah it should go both ways but it very much doesn't.

Dp. I agree that there have been some callous responses to you. But OP said that OP struggles with this, not their kid. If OP had said the child is having difficulties and complaining, perhaps more people would have responded with suggestions instead of anger at OP’s anger.

OP is worried about her kid understanding because she struggles with it. Kids don't always voice difficulties like this because they don't know better. My 2nd grader had bad vision decline between 1st and 2nd grade but never once mentioned having difficulty seeing at school. We caught it with a routine eye exam. Then after she got glasses she noted how much easier it was for her to know what was going on in class because apparently the teacher had been placing instructions for certain things around the room and DD was not even aware of this until she could see better.

So it's perfectly normal for a parent to wonder whether this might be impacting their kid even if the kid has not expressed a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should consider getting your hearing checked, OP, if you can't understand people who are wearing masks. It sounds like you have hearing issues and use lip movement to provide context clues.

+1

I have truly never had an issue hearing any adult or child who was wearing a mask

Hearing loss is a pretty common long term complication after having covid. Perhaps you also need to be wearing a mask

As someone who also struggles to understand people wearing masks and for sure has some hearing (fairly minor) hearing loss, I find the glibness here really rude.

And first, to be clear, my hearing loss is not Covid related. I had Covid for the first time in fall of 2022. I experienced hearing challenges before then and specifically challenges understanding people in masks.

But second, telling people to "get their ears checked' like this solves the entire problem is incredibly rude. Addressing hearing loss is more complicated and can be expensive. Also for some people the problem is not their hearing specifically but auditory processing which is specifically impacted when listening to voices without seeing lips move or being able to read expressions. I have become the issues and the advent of widespread mask wearing made me realize how much I rely on visual cues to help with understanding people

Anyway the upshot is that even with my hearing aid I still sometimes can't understand people in masks (or who have heavy accents or who speak without moving their lips much). If the mask muffles their voice and covers their lower face then turning up my hearing sometimes just makes something unintelligible, louder.

This doesn't mean I think no one should mask. I dutifully wore a mask through the pandemic and still do when it's appropriate (I'm sick or someone close to me is sick or risk of getting sick is very high). But it's so rude and selfish to write it off when people talk about the challenges of communication with masks, especially in a setting like school where communication is very fundamental.

And stop telling people "get your ears checked." It's rude and betrays how little you care about people with hearing loss, as well as how little you understand what it means to have hearing issues and how they are treated.

And stop telling to stop wearing masks cause you have hearing issues. It’s rude too. You never know what health issues the person wearing the mask has. It goes both ways.

I literally said that I am not saying people should not wear masks because of my hearing issues. And that I myself mask when appropriate.

It obviously does NOT go both ways because a lot of people expect me to just always defer to someone's mask wearing and no one gives a crap about those of us who struggle to understand people who wear masks. If this was really something that went both ways then people would have said things in this thread like "that sounds hard even though the teacher has a right to wear a mask -- have you considered asking about masks with clear panels or seeing if there is some other solution that could meet everyone halfway."

Instead people who said that they or their kids struggled to understand someone in a mask were called names. Because apparently mentioning one of the obvious and unfortunate downsides of masking is the same as being an anti-vaxxer or a Covid denier.

So yeah it should go both ways but it very much doesn't.

Dp. I agree that there have been some callous responses to you. But OP said that OP struggles with this, not their kid. If OP had said the child is having difficulties and complaining, perhaps more people would have responded with suggestions instead of anger at OP’s anger.

OP is worried about her kid understanding because she struggles with it. Kids don't always voice difficulties like this because they don't know better. My 2nd grader had bad vision decline between 1st and 2nd grade but never once mentioned having difficulty seeing at school. We caught it with a routine eye exam. Then after she got glasses she noted how much easier it was for her to know what was going on in class because apparently the teacher had been placing instructions for certain things around the room and DD was not even aware of this until she could see better.

So it's perfectly normal for a parent to wonder whether this might be impacting their kid even if the kid has not expressed a problem.

Couldn’t you ask a second grader and also do a check at home by wearing a mask? Maybe talk to the teacher and mention the concerns so that the teacher could monitor for issues as well?

When I suspected my toddler had vision problems and couldn’t talk about it, I started testing his reactions. Based on that, I took him in to the ophthalmologist.

I feel like this issue on teachers masking doesn’t have to be so heated. The teacher with leukemia, for example, doesn’t have to quit mid year, and the kid having problems doesn’t have to go a year with learning losses. It doesn’t have to be one or the other extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel you. My daughter's teacher wore one two years in a row (kinder and first). She struggled to learn to read and I think it was related. Experts say seeing the mouth form letters and sounds is important. In any event, even though I hated it and it made me angry that she was in my opinion harming a generation of kids there is nothing I could do so I didn't say anything. Basically, this is just one of those things that you can't control unless you are willing to ask for a class change or move to private.

Nothing you could do? Your mouth broken and unable to form letters and sounds? Is there a reason you couldn’t do the work with your child that obviously needed special help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel you. My daughter's teacher wore one two years in a row (kinder and first). She struggled to learn to read and I think it was related. Experts say seeing the mouth form letters and sounds is important. In any event, even though I hated it and it made me angry that she was in my opinion harming a generation of kids there is nothing I could do so I didn't say anything. Basically, this is just one of those things that you can't control unless you are willing to ask for a class change or move to private.

Nothing you could do? Your mouth broken and unable to form letters and sounds? Is there a reason you couldn’t do the work with your child that obviously needed special help?

+1
Deadbeat and absent parents.

[Anonymous]

Just because you can’t hear doesn’t mean children with good hearing can’t hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a teacher who wears a mask daily in high school. I thought it was odd as well, but he hasn’t complained about being able to hear her so it hasn’t been an issue.

Good thing he already knows how to read and spell. Unlike a second grader

As long as the second grader can hear the teacher, I don’t see the issue. If your child can’t read in second grade there are larger issues. Get a tutor. A kid who can’t read in second grade may have learning issues that go beyond whether a teacher wears a mask. And what the hell does spelling have to do with mask wearing? Spelling is written.

Lol

Someone hasn’t seen the ELA proficiency results for public k-4. Half the country is 1-3 grade levels behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a teacher who wears a mask daily in high school. I thought it was odd as well, but he hasn’t complained about being able to hear her so it hasn’t been an issue.

Good thing he already knows how to read and spell. Unlike a second grader

As long as the second grader can hear the teacher, I don’t see the issue. If your child can’t read in second grade there are larger issues. Get a tutor. A kid who can’t read in second grade may have learning issues that go beyond whether a teacher wears a mask. And what the hell does spelling have to do with mask wearing? Spelling is written.

lol

How do you take a spelling test PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should consider getting your hearing checked, OP, if you can't understand people who are wearing masks. It sounds like you have hearing issues and use lip movement to provide context clues.

+1

I have truly never had an issue hearing any adult or child who was wearing a mask

Hearing loss is a pretty common long term complication after having covid. Perhaps you also need to be wearing a mask

As someone who also struggles to understand people wearing masks and for sure has some hearing (fairly minor) hearing loss, I find the glibness here really rude.

And first, to be clear, my hearing loss is not Covid related. I had Covid for the first time in fall of 2022. I experienced hearing challenges before then and specifically challenges understanding people in masks.

But second, telling people to "get their ears checked' like this solves the entire problem is incredibly rude. Addressing hearing loss is more complicated and can be expensive. Also for some people the problem is not their hearing specifically but auditory processing which is specifically impacted when listening to voices without seeing lips move or being able to read expressions. I have become the issues and the advent of widespread mask wearing made me realize how much I rely on visual cues to help with understanding people

Anyway the upshot is that even with my hearing aid I still sometimes can't understand people in masks (or who have heavy accents or who speak without moving their lips much). If the mask muffles their voice and covers their lower face then turning up my hearing sometimes just makes something unintelligible, louder.

This doesn't mean I think no one should mask. I dutifully wore a mask through the pandemic and still do when it's appropriate (I'm sick or someone close to me is sick or risk of getting sick is very high). But it's so rude and selfish to write it off when people talk about the challenges of communication with masks, especially in a setting like school where communication is very fundamental.

And stop telling people "get your ears checked." It's rude and betrays how little you care about people with hearing loss, as well as how little you understand what it means to have hearing issues and how they are treated.

And stop telling to stop wearing masks cause you have hearing issues. It’s rude too. You never know what health issues the person wearing the mask has. It goes both ways.

I literally said that I am not saying people should not wear masks because of my hearing issues. And that I myself mask when appropriate.

It obviously does NOT go both ways because a lot of people expect me to just always defer to someone's mask wearing and no one gives a crap about those of us who struggle to understand people who wear masks. If this was really something that went both ways then people would have said things in this thread like "that sounds hard even though the teacher has a right to wear a mask -- have you considered asking about masks with clear panels or seeing if there is some other solution that could meet everyone halfway."

Instead people who said that they or their kids struggled to understand someone in a mask were called names. Because apparently mentioning one of the obvious and unfortunate downsides of masking is the same as being an anti-vaxxer or a Covid denier.

So yeah it should go both ways but it very much doesn't.

Dp. I agree that there have been some callous responses to you. But OP said that OP struggles with this, not their kid. If OP had said the child is having difficulties and complaining, perhaps more people would have responded with suggestions instead of anger at OP’s anger.

OP is worried about her kid understanding because she struggles with it. Kids don't always voice difficulties like this because they don't know better. My 2nd grader had bad vision decline between 1st and 2nd grade but never once mentioned having difficulty seeing at school. We caught it with a routine eye exam. Then after she got glasses she noted how much easier it was for her to know what was going on in class because apparently the teacher had been placing instructions for certain things around the room and DD was not even aware of this until she could see better.

So it's perfectly normal for a parent to wonder whether this might be impacting their kid even if the kid has not expressed a problem.

Agree.
A 7 yo doesn’t even know what pronunciation and enunciation is. Let alone how debilitating a masked teacher is at teaching it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher.
I’ve just been diagnosed w leukemia and some other autoimmune thing is going on as well.
I just want to finish out the year do I can retire. I’ll be wearing a mask so I can do that.
Take. A. Seat.

Nobody is talking about you. We’re talking about the health anxiety types. Best of luck with your treatment.

The thing is, you don’t know the situation of the OP’s teacher. We had a teacher mask last year—she was very private but it turned out her DH was dying of cancer and she was told by his doctors to mask to protect him. I know another teacher who was told by her doc to mask once the fall/winter illnesses start spreading, because of her propensity to get a cold that turns into a monthlong battle with bronchitis and pneumonia and she keeps running out of sick leave and must take LWOP.

Speaking as a teacher, it’s annoying to mask all day, and I don’t know many who would do it without a darn good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher.
I’ve just been diagnosed w leukemia and some other autoimmune thing is going on as well.
I just want to finish out the year do I can retire. I’ll be wearing a mask so I can do that.
Take. A. Seat.

Nobody is talking about you. We’re talking about the health anxiety types. Best of luck with your treatment.

The thing is, you don’t know the situation of the OP’s teacher. We had a teacher mask last year—she was very private but it turned out her DH was dying of cancer and she was told by his doctors to mask to protect him. I know another teacher who was told by her doc to mask once the fall/winter illnesses start spreading, because of her propensity to get a cold that turns into a monthlong battle with bronchitis and pneumonia and she keeps running out of sick leave and must take LWOP.

Speaking as a teacher, it’s annoying to mask all day, and I don’t know many who would do it without a darn good reason.

I know a teacher who has this issue, and you know what she did? She transferred to a non-classroom position within the district. Instead of being an obnoxious martyr wearing a mask and hindering her students' ability to learn -- while not significantly reducing her exposure to germs AT ALL! -- she instead got an office job far away from germy kids and significantly reduced her exposure to germs. What a genius.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a teacher who wears a mask daily in high school. I thought it was odd as well, but he hasn’t complained about being able to hear her so it hasn’t been an issue.

Good thing he already knows how to read and spell. Unlike a second grader

As long as the second grader can hear the teacher, I don’t see the issue. If your child can’t read in second grade there are larger issues. Get a tutor. A kid who can’t read in second grade may have learning issues that go beyond whether a teacher wears a mask. And what the hell does spelling have to do with mask wearing? Spelling is written.

lol

How do you take a spelling test PP?

DP.

The teacher says “please spell the word ‘popcorn’”.

And then the kids spell “popcorn” to the best of their abilities.

I don’t see the problem? You can say “popcorn” through a mask. (I can put one on and try quickly if it would help, but I’m fairly certain it’ll work.)

[Anonymous]

OP, if you are worried about your child's ability to hear, take her to the pediatrician and ask for a hearing test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a teacher who wears a mask daily in high school. I thought it was odd as well, but he hasn’t complained about being able to hear her so it hasn’t been an issue.

Good thing he already knows how to read and spell. Unlike a second grader

As long as the second grader can hear the teacher, I don’t see the issue. If your child can’t read in second grade there are larger issues. Get a tutor. A kid who can’t read in second grade may have learning issues that go beyond whether a teacher wears a mask. And what the hell does spelling have to do with mask wearing? Spelling is written.

lol

How do you take a spelling test PP?

DP.

The teacher says “please spell the word ‘popcorn’”.

And then the kids spell “popcorn” to the best of their abilities.

I don’t see the problem? You can say “popcorn” through a mask. (I can put one on and try quickly if it would help, but I’m fairly certain it’ll work.)

The teachers pre-record the words and the kids listen with headphones. There are so many spelling groups (7-8 per class) that it would be a mess to administer the test live for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher.
I’ve just been diagnosed w leukemia and some other autoimmune thing is going on as well.
I just want to finish out the year do I can retire. I’ll be wearing a mask so I can do that.
Take. A. Seat.

Nobody is talking about you. We’re talking about the health anxiety types. Best of luck with your treatment.

The thing is, you don’t know the situation of the OP’s teacher. We had a teacher mask last year—she was very private but it turned out her DH was dying of cancer and she was told by his doctors to mask to protect him. I know another teacher who was told by her doc to mask once the fall/winter illnesses start spreading, because of her propensity to get a cold that turns into a monthlong battle with bronchitis and pneumonia and she keeps running out of sick leave and must take LWOP.

Speaking as a teacher, it’s annoying to mask all day, and I don’t know many who would do it without a darn good reason.

I know a teacher who has this issue, and you know what she did? She transferred to a non-classroom position within the district. Instead of being an obnoxious martyr wearing a mask and hindering her students' ability to learn -- while not significantly reducing her exposure to germs AT ALL! -- she instead got an office job far away from germy kids and significantly reduced her exposure to germs. What a genius.

CLEARLY you don’t teach. Do you think there are a ton of non-classroom positions available right now? We can’t fill classrooms because of the teacher shortage, so districts aren’t going to give up teachers.

And for your nastiness, guess what? Teachers are entitled to their health. We don’t have to bend to ALL your whims, and we are allowed to take care of ourselves… even if it upsets you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son has a teacher who wears a mask daily in high school. I thought it was odd as well, but he hasn’t complained about being able to hear her so it hasn’t been an issue.

Good thing he already knows how to read and spell. Unlike a second grader

As long as the second grader can hear the teacher, I don’t see the issue. If your child can’t read in second grade there are larger issues. Get a tutor. A kid who can’t read in second grade may have learning issues that go beyond whether a teacher wears a mask. And what the hell does spelling have to do with mask wearing? Spelling is written.

lol

How do you take a spelling test PP?

DP.

The teacher says “please spell the word ‘popcorn’”.

And then the kids spell “popcorn” to the best of their abilities.

I don’t see the problem? You can say “popcorn” through a mask. (I can put one on and try quickly if it would help, but I’m fairly certain it’ll work.)

The teachers pre-record the words and the kids listen with headphones. There are so many spelling groups (7-8 per class) that it would be a mess to administer the test live for everyone.

Ours does it out loud:
Group A: spell “this word”
Group B: spell “that word”
Works just fine, even with a mask I suspect.