Constant teacher absences
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Anonymous
OP, any time someone posts a similar concern, they are judged, blamed, and scoffed at. However, you are identifying a real problem, which is systemic, and not the fault of any single teacher. Teachers, like all of us, have times when their work attendance is poor and that poor attendance has consequences. It doesn't matter if the absences are justified, the fact is that teachers with excessive absences are not doing their jobs effectively and it hurts their students. DCUM will tell you that you need to fill in the blanks as parents, but I don't agree that every family in a class of 20 should be ready to react based on absences that are not planned or expected. There really should be more backup built into the system with highly trained teachers to step in to help make up gaps in classes where the teachers have used large amounts of leave. This type of backup will probably never be available, but it would take pressure off teachers and benefit students, especially those whose families can't, for whatever reason, step in to fill holes created by circumstances they have no control over (and often no information about). My best advice grounded in reality and personal experience with a teacher to missed a great deal of time and then left mid-year is that you have to accept that you need to step in to do more. Rather than complaining about the absences, perhaps you could ask for help working with your child to help keep them on track. |
Anonymous
| You do realize teachers have leave. And as long as it’s approved, they can use their leave. What a terrible person you are OP. |
Anonymous
This! I taught for 18 years....teachers have been burning out for a while and the pandemic stress only made it worse. I left for a different field and although I loved the kids and teaching-the exhaustion and stress was not worth it. I have several friends who left...whats going on in education is not sustainable for teachers, parents, or our kids. Something has to give. |
Anonymous
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I get it, OP. It sucks. I am a teacher and the amount of guilt I felt taking maternity leave, the number of emails I responded to, zoom sessions during which I tutored, and papers I graded while on "leave" was shameful (and frankly, probably fraud--no work should be done on short term disability, which is what FCPS "maternity" leave is). My spouse is also a teacher, so every time baby got sick one of us missed school that first year.
I wish so badly there were highly qualified subs in rotation. I would sign up for the position in a heart beat to be a high school math sub if I were paid my same salary, and just rotate to whatever high school math class needed coverage for that week/day/quarter. As a classroom teacher, if this existed I could leave plans like "cover a lesson on graphing radicals using transformations" with a sheet of problems instead of spending 3 hours trying to create fool proof materials that aren't a total waste of time, yet a barely breathing monkey can still implement them. Or advocate for true maternity leave, so the constant in and out isn't an issue because a full year replacement is hired. You know why teachers come back after only 6 weeks like I did? Because we aren't on paid leave unless we are burning vacation days, and we have to save leave to cover inevitable sick days like you are seeing. Please, advocate the county in that direction. Don't berate the teacher for taking her earned time off. Unless she's taking off to go to disney, it's not her fault her baby is sick. It's the county's fault that they aren't paying enough to attract qualified subs. It's society's fault for making teaching so unappealing no one wants to do it. |
Anonymous
If that's true, then you are really just complaining about the teacher being out in the last month. In case you haven't noticed, covid prevalence has been very high. People with kids keep getting hit with unexpected quarantines. Sh*t happens. |
Anonymous
My DH has been in a jam at work where an employee of his takes parental leave in drips and drops so that the employee effectively works a full time job half time, and has for a year. There is no back-up. Yet nordic countries clearly allow a lot of parental leave for everyone, men and women. Do they have more backup in each occupation, or do they just not have very many kids, or some of both? I often wonder this - for every part of our society. |
Anonymous
+1000 OP should try being a teacher and see what it's like. |
Anonymous
OP here. Thank you for such a thoughtful and mature response. Yes I am appalled at the teacher brigade that pounced on me because I’m concerned about my child’s teacher constantly being absent. It is absolutely affecting the class. The subs come in and most of the kids don’t take them seriously and as a result nothing is being taught. My concern is that the teacher isn’t doing her job seriously and it’s affecting our kids. We expect healthcare workers to show up even if they have sick kids. Well teachers need to show up too because there are a lot of families counting on them especially given how last year was such a wash. And for the record, I was always very supportive of teachers taking a leave of absence in the midst of COVID and choosing what they are comfortable with. My mother was a teacher so I am well aware of what a demanding job it is. Yes they deserve higher pay and more respect but I also think showing up to work and taking your job responsibly is required in any profession. All the other teachers in the school are there and I know most of them have kids. Of course there are days when teachers have appointments, emergencies, personal issues but to make this a regular occurrence is not acceptable and you all can call me terrible or whatever you want for that. |
Anonymous
OP here. Thank you for responding. I understand how hard it is. I totally understand the problem goes much deeper. Funding for education seems like an afterthought in this current political environment. I always support candidates that have been endorsed by teachers and I don’t expect perfection from teachers at all. I am fully aware of what a demanding and often thankless job it is. I also know the maternity leave in this country is abhorrent! It’s truly sad that this country would rather cut corporate tax and fund the military as opposed to supporting the future of our children. |
Anonymous
So the teacher does not take her job responsibilities seriously because she was on maternity leave and then took other leave during the height of the pandemic?! How do you know she or her family didn't have Covid? Would you have preferred her to come into the classroom? This statement says more about YOU than it does about the teacher. I understand your frustration about your child but, as others here have explained, we have a teacher shortage. And we are in a pandemic. Maybe instead of complaining on DCUM you can ask yourself what you can do to help the situation. |
Anonymous
I was the PP who talked about backup. You are right. We should have it in all professions. In other professions, the gaps created by longer term absences are usually filled by people like your husband who work their own jobs and then some. I've worked in government for many years and have gone almost a year doing two full-time jobs because of an unfilled position. It's totally unfair. No one should have to live like that. I wound up so burnt out that I could hardly function. At the same time, I don't understand why it is acceptable to do nothing to address gaps created by teacher absences. And I'm not talking about occasional absences, but school years like OP is talking about where cumulative absences care causing real harm to the kids. Maybe the answer is, as a PP suggested, is providing longer periods of paid parental leave. Obviously, districts need a supply of high-quality long-term subs available to fill in. The status quo is so unfair to teachers because it leaves them to manage the fallout of exercising leave to which they are entitled without any support. At the end of the day, the reason your husband steps in to cover for co-workers is that there is an expectation that the work has to get done. Why does that expectation not exist in education? It's not the teachers' responsibility to solve this problem. |
Anonymous
There's the explanation, then. The principal assigned this teacher the AAP class, knowing she would be out on maternity leave. He figured the AAP kids can afford to miss instruction but the regular classes can't or his SOL scores will tank. |
Anonymous
Agree that this is the likely scenario. |
Anonymous
Than why did you post at all? |
Anonymous
I know. 4 whole months of mat leave. Gah... the NERVE of the woman. Do you not know that teachers have leave they are allowed to take? Maybe she was sick for a week, should she have come to work anyway? Maybe she had covid. To me, 2 days/week could easily be meetings or training. Teachers can't just say "nah, I don't feel like going 5 days", and principals can't say why teachers are away. |