Reply to WaPo: How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools

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Reply to "WaPo: How D.C. and its teachers, with shifting plans and demands, failed to reopen schools"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I like how all the daycares and nearly all private schools managed to open. But the public schools that the poor and middle class depend on couldn’t. And when you ask why, they accuse you of wanting free babysitting. Public school is not free!! 65% of our taxpayer dollars go to it. We all pay a lot and received absolutely nothing. Also, babysitters work hard, don’t denigrate them. [/quote]

When you ask why they try to shut you up by accusing you of “hating your children,” being “entitled,” or, gasp, worst of all, “white.” It’s such a naked ploy to end all opposition to indefinite school closures. Sad that it has been so effective. For evidence, just check out the comments on the WaPo article. [/quote]

This. When I think about WTU's messaging over the last 10 months, the word that comes to mind is "flailing". There were valid arguments for closing schools in March, and keeping them closed until June. And there were and continue to be valid arguments for making serious changes to school for the 2020/2021 school year in order to protect teachers, students, and families. And I think if we'd opened in September, we would have closed in November, and I think that would have been the right choice probably based on how cases have spiked.

But among the arguments I've heard are:

-- School isn't childcare. Sorry, but school is childcare whether you want it to be or not, especially for early grades. If you really don't think school is childcare, be prepared to see ECE programs cut and many, many teachers and aides laid off because one of the primary purposes of those programs is to provide high quality, low-cost childcare (which, by the way, isn't some dumb service but actually and important and vital function) to thousands of city children. So if school isn't childcare, it's a lot less valuable to many people, which means the professionals providing that service are less valuable. Why should I pay taxes for an ECE program AND pay for separate childcare for my kids. Makes no sense.

-- Parents who complain hate their kids. What? Parents are complaining because they love and are worried about their kids. What a bizarre, backwards argument. I am complaining and have been complaining because I can see the myriad of ways in which this situation is hurting my kid, and it upsets me. If I hated my kid, I'd just lock her in her room or let her watch TV all day and not care. But I love her, so I'm doing my best with an impossible set of circumstances and I'm enraged that the people I thought also cared about my kid don't seem to care at all what is happening.

-- DL is just as good as in-person. In fact, better! This one is amazing to me. I get that some kids might prefer DL for a variety of reasons, but for teachers or schools to argue that this is a sufficient replacement for in-person teaching seems like career suicide. For two reasons. First, because if it's possible to provide an education this way, then we spend way too much money on education. And second, because IME most DCPS teachers (many of whom are fantastic in-person) simply do not have the skill set to teach online. They're skill set is in in-person teaching, not in navigating technology or communicating via email all the time. When you argue that DL is an equal substitute for in-person learning, you are nullifying a lot of your own experience as an asset. This is dumb! Don't do this.

What the union and teachers should have done is agree that they are essential, agree that there is no true substitute for in-person school, and then used that as leverage to get all the PPE, pay increases, etc. that they deserved. And parents would have backed them up because who wouldn't want their very essential teacher to get the protection and pay that she deserves to that she can teach? The choice to try and downplay the value of their profession, to minimize their own essential nature, was so weird and counter-intuitive to me and I will never understand it. [/quote]

This is a great synopsis, thank you.  I guess it’s part of the talking points (is there a memo?) but the repeated claim here and on all the various news comment boards that parents “hate their kids” and just want “babysitting” is so wrong and hurtful that it made it impossible to hear the rest of the message.  Really a tone deaf communications strategy.[/quote]

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