Inside the great teacher resignation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the issues with all of this teacher blaming was that in many areas of the country, teachers were back teaching in person fall of 2020. Yet somehow they are still the target of crazy levels of parental angst.

DH was an experienced teacher who retired a few years earlier than originally intended due to how unpleasant everything outside the actual classroom was. And he was not the type of teacher anyone would have wanted to retire early—students from years past made a habit of visiting him as adults as they enjoyed his class so much.

I agree with others who suggest fomenting ongoing parental ire is part of a larger goal to destabilize public education. Add the book banning campaigns we are seeing in both school and public libraries to that larger goal as well.

If you are still so angry about what happened in the pandemic that you can’t see this, try taking a deep breath and a few steps back to see what is happening across the country, even in places where kids were in school almost the whole time.

I’m a child of public school teachers. Historically I’ve been a strong supporter of public schools.

But then the schools closed. One of my kids lost out on a year and a half of speech therapy and other services. Another other couldn’t even get an IEP created because they shut down the office that did evaluations. Through this, I was told that it wasn’t reasonable to expect anything from the schools, which was consistent with the actions the school took. Private schools and services were available but obviously expensive.

I’d love to be a strong supporter of public schools again, particularly given that I have kids with special needs, making private schools particularly challenging/expensive. The problem is, what good are schools if you can’t count on them?

Historically I’ve been worried that private school vouchers would pull money, teachers, and higher-achieving students out of public schools, sending them into a death spiral. Unfortunately, public schools already seem to be in that death spiral even without vouchers. Based on the large influx of money we saw go to schools over the last couple of years, I have very little confidence that more money would allow schools to pull themselves out of their current mess.

I don’t think that providing private school vouchers is a good path to go down. But it’s really hard to look at where we are now and not think it is nonetheless the best path. The comments here from teachers simply emphasize that belief. I know we're reading the comments from the more extreme people, but those extreme people are often the ones willing to put the most time and energy into things like the union, giving them much more power and influence over what happens to our kids.

You were lucky to even get services. We got nothing despite serious issues and had to pay for private several times a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of temper tantrums, how does being so angry and irate at teachers 2 years later help your child learn this year?

Is your vitriol helping children get help or is it making the situation worse?

Or are only teachers expected to put your child above their family/yourself?

Is that how you’d characterize the situation of the tens of millions of people that worked through the pandemic in public-facing and/or crowded conditions? Including the people that made sure you had food, utilities, medical services/supplies, public safety services, and countless other essential (and nonessential) goods and services?

No it is how I characterize this thread and people who are still rehashing this argument after 2 years.

There are different issues now. Are they related? Sure
If you want to help and not just spew anger then help. If not your anger is just anger and only you can change that.

Schools and teachers can help by acknowledging their past mistakes and promising to act differently in the future.

Ok we are so very very sorry. The pandemic was mishandled by school boards, the president who threw out the CDC pandemic playbook, superintendents and the NIH. Teachers taught these people and are therefore responsible for their actions. It is true, even teachers themselves made errors of judgement and wanted to work from home. In the next global emergency we will act differently. This new, improved and better plan will be based upon the needs of the pandemic of 2020, not whatever future situation the world will be facing.

Thank you for demonstrating my point. It’s a problem that teachers haven’t acknowledged the harm they did to kids through their actions. It’s not even clear many of them fully understand that harm or the role they played.

It is currently a larger problem that people like you who continue to harbor anger against teachers don’t understand the harm or role even the they are currently playing in hurting children and schools.

Using your argument the harm teachers “did” to kids was in the past. The harm you are doing is in the present and can now be changed. So do it. Be the person you expect teachers to be. Stop being angry. Help or at the very least, stop harming.

Don’t cry over spilled milk.

+1. The fact that these comments are about teachers admitting that they were wrong and not helping kids tells you what you need to know: these are tantrums and should be treated as such. I've got a kid with special needs who suffered from pandemic closures. I want to see that addressed, but the tantrum throwers aren't my allies in that and her teachers are.

The teachers that negotiated no in-person special education services during the pandemic, even after in-person classes resumed? Those aren’t the actions of allies.

DP
Where are you that this was negotiated?

Quoting myself. I see the previous response.

I’m also in FCPS without negotiation.

I guess that’s the difference between areas with unions with collective bargaining rights and those without. In Maryland the school districts were meeting with the unions throughout the process and before any changes. It was always the teachers’ unions that held things up- not the administrators union, not the facilities/support workers union, and not even the union representing school nurses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

They never left work. When is your next temper tantrum? Oh, right. Now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

Parents like you are why they aren't continuing to teach. They did work. Teaching virtually per the government's decision is working. You had the tantrum as you cannot handle your kids all day every day.

The data says otherwise. Virtual school was a tremendous failure, on multiple levels. Student performance dropped significantly. Kids with special needs lost their education services and supports. Millions suffered from losing access to safe and supportive educational environments.

It wasn't a failure for many of our kids. It was a failure for kids who didn't do the work, show up for class, etc.

+1,000,000. And don’t try with the tired “but the poors!” line again. We see right through you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

Parents like you are why they aren't continuing to teach. They did work. Teaching virtually per the government's decision is working. You had the tantrum as you cannot handle your kids all day every day.

The data says otherwise. Virtual school was a tremendous failure, on multiple levels. Student performance dropped significantly. Kids with special needs lost their education services and supports. Millions suffered from losing access to safe and supportive educational environments.

DP While all that may be true to blame teachers and cynically refer to "temper tantrums" is a large part of why teachers are leaving the field. Many of the decisions made by authorities during the pandemic have turned out to be wrong or misguided but it's easy to criticize and cast blame and not so easy to understand how difficult it was to make snap decisions in a once in a lifetime situation.

Almost no one criticizes the snap decisions in March 2020. It was keeping schools closed in fall 2020, after we knew much more about Covid, which continued on into 2021 in some cases. And when they did reopen, some schools reopened with silly hybrid schedules and added days off.

It is revisionist history to claim these were "snap decisions" made by local "authorities." The decisions were heavily influenced by teachers, through strikes, threats of strikes, protests, and organized political activity.

Teachers in MD cannot strike so stop going on about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

Parents like you are why they aren't continuing to teach. They did work. Teaching virtually per the government's decision is working. You had the tantrum as you cannot handle your kids all day every day.

Huh? What parent working outside the home full time can?

Most of the DCUM demographic was allowed to work at home in their PJs for 2020 and 2021. They lied and claimed to be “on the front lines” and “first responders,” because DCUM is anonymous, but it was a transparent crock of crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the issues with all of this teacher blaming was that in many areas of the country, teachers were back teaching in person fall of 2020. Yet somehow they are still the target of crazy levels of parental angst.

DH was an experienced teacher who retired a few years earlier than originally intended due to how unpleasant everything outside the actual classroom was. And he was not the type of teacher anyone would have wanted to retire early—students from years past made a habit of visiting him as adults as they enjoyed his class so much.

I agree with others who suggest fomenting ongoing parental ire is part of a larger goal to destabilize public education. Add the book banning campaigns we are seeing in both school and public libraries to that larger goal as well.

If you are still so angry about what happened in the pandemic that you can’t see this, try taking a deep breath and a few steps back to see what is happening across the country, even in places where kids were in school almost the whole time.

I’m a child of public school teachers. Historically I’ve been a strong supporter of public schools.

But then the schools closed. One of my kids lost out on a year and a half of speech therapy and other services. Another other couldn’t even get an IEP created because they shut down the office that did evaluations. Through this, I was told that it wasn’t reasonable to expect anything from the schools, which was consistent with the actions the school took. Private schools and services were available but obviously expensive.

I’d love to be a strong supporter of public schools again, particularly given that I have kids with special needs, making private schools particularly challenging/expensive. The problem is, what good are schools if you can’t count on them?

Historically I’ve been worried that private school vouchers would pull money, teachers, and higher-achieving students out of public schools, sending them into a death spiral. Unfortunately, public schools already seem to be in that death spiral even without vouchers. Based on the large influx of money we saw go to schools over the last couple of years, I have very little confidence that more money would allow schools to pull themselves out of their current mess.

I don’t think that providing private school vouchers is a good path to go down. But it’s really hard to look at where we are now and not think it is nonetheless the best path. The comments here from teachers simply emphasize that belief. I know we're reading the comments from the more extreme people, but those extreme people are often the ones willing to put the most time and energy into things like the union, giving them much more power and influence over what happens to our kids.

Same. Same.
My kid didn’t get an IEP for speech until mid year 2nd grade because he was virtual for first. It sucked. But now he has more hours than I expected and is making progress on his goals and his speech path is great. I hope she doesn’t leave. In fact all of my kid’s teachers are great, experienced and I feel so lucky to have them. In our public school!

I in fact decided to stop teaching the pandemic year because I knew the school was going virtual and I refused to do it because I couldn’t see teaching virtually as appropriate for my age group and thought it was awful for kids.

I wrote many of the above comments because teacher bashing is awful right now. No one else is sticking up for teachers, so I figure I’ll bite back anonymously.

I am also not a union member, just to bust your theory there.

Enjoy vouchers and destroying the public school system, hopefully it will work great for your kids! I mean, the rest of the kids won’t matter, in fact it might work out great because then your kids will be even further ahead and winners because the rest of the kids will be even further behind. You know the “public school ones.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

Temper tantrum? It's called "resignation" or "quitting", lady. Like, you know, 1200 Twitter employees had a "temper tantrum" yesterday.

Resigning would have been preferable. Instead they quit, but still expected to be paid until they were willing to do them again.

Nope. They worked. They got paid. Cope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: In hindsight, I would have done the complete opposite of closing the schools. I would have kept schools open though the summer and told them to take the schedule they had all ready planned for March - May and repeat it June- August. Let both the employees and students pick which block to attend so that individual staff and kids contacted hours and vacation time was honoured but just shifted.

The medical field practiced de-densification, ie reducing the number of people in a room and building to reduce spread. This would have had the same principle.

Lol. There is no way in hell (and it would fee like hell) that teachers would work in schools with no a/c in the hottest months of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the issues with all of this teacher blaming was that in many areas of the country, teachers were back teaching in person fall of 2020. Yet somehow they are still the target of crazy levels of parental angst.

DH was an experienced teacher who retired a few years earlier than originally intended due to how unpleasant everything outside the actual classroom was. And he was not the type of teacher anyone would have wanted to retire early—students from years past made a habit of visiting him as adults as they enjoyed his class so much.

I agree with others who suggest fomenting ongoing parental ire is part of a larger goal to destabilize public education. Add the book banning campaigns we are seeing in both school and public libraries to that larger goal as well.

If you are still so angry about what happened in the pandemic that you can’t see this, try taking a deep breath and a few steps back to see what is happening across the country, even in places where kids were in school almost the whole time.

I’m a child of public school teachers. Historically I’ve been a strong supporter of public schools.

But then the schools closed. One of my kids lost out on a year and a half of speech therapy and other services. Another other couldn’t even get an IEP created because they shut down the office that did evaluations. Through this, I was told that it wasn’t reasonable to expect anything from the schools, which was consistent with the actions the school took. Private schools and services were available but obviously expensive.

I’d love to be a strong supporter of public schools again, particularly given that I have kids with special needs, making private schools particularly challenging/expensive. The problem is, what good are schools if you can’t count on them?

Historically I’ve been worried that private school vouchers would pull money, teachers, and higher-achieving students out of public schools, sending them into a death spiral. Unfortunately, public schools already seem to be in that death spiral even without vouchers. Based on the large influx of money we saw go to schools over the last couple of years, I have very little confidence that more money would allow schools to pull themselves out of their current mess.

I don’t think that providing private school vouchers is a good path to go down. But it’s really hard to look at where we are now and not think it is nonetheless the best path. The comments here from teachers simply emphasize that belief. I know we're reading the comments from the more extreme people, but those extreme people are often the ones willing to put the most time and energy into things like the union, giving them much more power and influence over what happens to our kids.

You were lucky to even get services. We got nothing despite serious issues and had to pay for private several times a week.

Pp here. Honestly, interacting with the office that handled evaluations was horrible, but once we got past that (which did involve a bit of a fight and threats in both directions) the teachers and therapists were great. Except when they weren’t working, or when they were only doing virtual services (including the virtual services while the kids were in the classroom, which I found particularly frustrating).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of temper tantrums, how does being so angry and irate at teachers 2 years later help your child learn this year?

Is your vitriol helping children get help or is it making the situation worse?

Or are only teachers expected to put your child above their family/yourself?

This. And if teachers are such terrible people, then endlessly screaming to put your kids back under their auspices makes you a terrible parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of temper tantrums, how does being so angry and irate at teachers 2 years later help your child learn this year?

Is your vitriol helping children get help or is it making the situation worse?

Or are only teachers expected to put your child above their family/yourself?

Is that how you’d characterize the situation of the tens of millions of people that worked through the pandemic in public-facing and/or crowded conditions? Including the people that made sure you had food, utilities, medical services/supplies, public safety services, and countless other essential (and nonessential) goods and services?

No it is how I characterize this thread and people who are still rehashing this argument after 2 years.

There are different issues now. Are they related? Sure
If you want to help and not just spew anger then help. If not your anger is just anger and only you can change that.

Schools and teachers can help by acknowledging their past mistakes and promising to act differently in the future.

Not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Byyeeee.

School is not childcare. We remember.

Sorry, I don’t care about that anymore.

Old news.

I want my kids taught by experience teachers. I don’t want to drive them away.

We all want our kids taught by skilled, reliable teachers. But then our teachers refused to come to work. They came back, but how long until their next temper tantrum?

Health concerns are a temper tantrum? MCPS issued a blanket denial of ADA accommodations to teachers who wanted to return, but needed some additional safeguards in place. Then, Central Office was in shock that people quit rather than disregard their doctors’ recommendations.

If you were surprised by rejections of requests to stay home, then you don’t seem to understand what the ADA says.

Health concerns aren’t a temper tantrum. Refusing to do your job, while still demanding pay, is a temper tantrum. Some of this even went on after teachers got priority access to vaccines.

Asking to return with safeguards is not the same as asking to stay home. MCPS refused to offer any specific guarantees or even a small set of options to teachers with documented physical disabilities, including the seriously immunocompromised. As a result, people either took FMLA or resigned. Hope you like the long-term subs.

They did return with safeguards. Teachers were prioritized for vaccinations. Masks were required. HVAC filters were upgraded when possible, and they purchased HEPA filters. They even did the silly hybrid schedule, even though it didn’t make any sense.

The teachers that were complaining simply didn’t want to fulfill the demands and expectations of their jobs, which had always included classroom management and the associated risk of exposure to illnesses.

Ok. Sure.

So, they quit and more will. Congrats!

This was 2 YEARS ago. If it were a boy/girlfriend you would be bordering on obsession. Go help someone. Exercise, make peace with it. It has been 2 years.

It started two years ago, although some teachers were still trying to close schools this year! Others still haven't acknowledged their role in the catostrophic decisions to keep schools closed as long as they did and to limit educational services even longer. That suggests they may try to do the same thing in the future.

But go ahead and pretend I'm the only one worried about this. Except I'm sure you've seen the numbers indicating public perception of teachers is at a record low. Are you really going to pretend you don't know why that is?

Are you saying things like Hawley introducing the “parent bill of rights” is backlash from schools closing for covid?

https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-introduces-parents-bill-rights-defend-parents-role-education

That is an extraordinarily immature way of handling anger on the part of Senator Hawley.

I don’t think I’m pretending nor are other posters when they say this is concerted effort by the GOP to defund public education.

Sorry, meant to add, this doesn’t have to do with COVID it has to do with stirring up anger and discontent among voters. That is the larger influence undermining public perception of teachers.

[The perception is that teachers are unwilling to work in schools and enjoyed a two-year vacation Now that they're back, they think their job is to teach anti-racism instead of algebra. Not to mention pushing the trans agenda. Reasonable people are disgusted with today's teachers.

The only “perception” of either of those things is held by idiots, so nobody cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of temper tantrums, how does being so angry and irate at teachers 2 years later help your child learn this year?

Is your vitriol helping children get help or is it making the situation worse?

Or are only teachers expected to put your child above their family/yourself?

Is that how you’d characterize the situation of the tens of millions of people that worked through the pandemic in public-facing and/or crowded conditions? Including the people that made sure you had food, utilities, medical services/supplies, public safety services, and countless other essential (and nonessential) goods and services?

No it is how I characterize this thread and people who are still rehashing this argument after 2 years.

There are different issues now. Are they related? Sure
If you want to help and not just spew anger then help. If not your anger is just anger and only you can change that.

Schools and teachers can help by acknowledging their past mistakes and promising to act differently in the future.

Ok we are so very very sorry. The pandemic was mishandled by school boards, the president who threw out the CDC pandemic playbook, superintendents and the NIH. Teachers taught these people and are therefore responsible for their actions. It is true, even teachers themselves made errors of judgement and wanted to work from home. In the next global emergency we will act differently. This new, improved and better plan will be based upon the needs of the pandemic of 2020, not whatever future situation the world will be facing.

Thank you for demonstrating my point. It’s a problem that teachers haven’t acknowledged the harm they did to kids through their actions. It’s not even clear many of them fully understand that harm or the role they played.

You are not getting apologies. You are not getting reparations. You are not getting future promises.

GROW UP AND MOVE ON. Or keep holding your breath and impotently stamping your feet like a toddler. Your choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of temper tantrums, how does being so angry and irate at teachers 2 years later help your child learn this year?

Is your vitriol helping children get help or is it making the situation worse?

Or are only teachers expected to put your child above their family/yourself?

Is that how you’d characterize the situation of the tens of millions of people that worked through the pandemic in public-facing and/or crowded conditions? Including the people that made sure you had food, utilities, medical services/supplies, public safety services, and countless other essential (and nonessential) goods and services?

No it is how I characterize this thread and people who are still rehashing this argument after 2 years.

There are different issues now. Are they related? Sure
If you want to help and not just spew anger then help. If not your anger is just anger and only you can change that.

Schools and teachers can help by acknowledging their past mistakes and promising to act differently in the future.

Ok we are so very very sorry. The pandemic was mishandled by school boards, the president who threw out the CDC pandemic playbook, superintendents and the NIH. Teachers taught these people and are therefore responsible for their actions. It is true, even teachers themselves made errors of judgement and wanted to work from home. In the next global emergency we will act differently. This new, improved and better plan will be based upon the needs of the pandemic of 2020, not whatever future situation the world will be facing.

Thank you for demonstrating my point. It’s a problem that teachers haven’t acknowledged the harm they did to kids through their actions. It’s not even clear many of them fully understand that harm or the role they played.

You are not getting apologies. You are not getting reparations. You are not getting future promises.

GROW UP AND MOVE ON. Or keep holding your breath and impotently stamping your feet like a toddler. Your choice.

Ok. Then watch public support for public schools and teachers continue to be in the gutter.