Reply to Constant teacher absences

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So if her baby is in the NICU and she gets health insurance through her job, you want her to quit her job, lose her health insurance, and ensure that your kid has only subs for the rest of the year?

Yeah, okay.[/quote]

I'm not the OP. If that is the case, then all the more reason that school administration should have had a plan in place for a regular substitute and additional support for the class to avoid disadvantaging the students while the teacher goes through this difficult time.[/quote]

Are you profoundly dim? They couldn't just magically "have a plan." THERE IS A CRITICAL TEACHER SHORTAGE.[/quote]

Yep. And they (parents who post threads detailing their being upset at a teacher being absent and not being given all their personal and medical leave timesheets can’t understand that threads like this are part of the problem.

TEACHERS KNOW BEING IN THE CLASSROOM IS CRITICAL TO STUDENT SUCCESS. Frankly, some of the most stressful periods of my and my colleagues’ teaching careers has been planning for long term absences they have to take due to medical issues, maternity, and/or taking care of a child or parent who is gravely ill. The planing and work they do to attempt to give your child continuity of learning and the best they can offer while out is immense. Whether or not there is a long term sub—or a sub at all— there to implement those plans is NOT THE TEACHER’S FAULT. teachers ALWAYS have to develop plans when they are out except for when they are on admin leave for professional /disciplinary issues. Just because you see inconsistent subs who don’t always do a great job implementing the plans doesn’t mean the teacher is lazy or owes you anything. Teachers have family members like moms and dads who get diseases like cancer or need to be cared for while otherwise severely ill. They have parents who are dying and they understandably want to be with them in their last days and take time to bereave. You —not any other parent or person— have no right to demand to know what is happening in that teachers life. I know it affects your children, and I truly believe it sucks not having a consistent teacher for an extended period of time, but the people to blame are NOT the very few teachers we have left who won’t disclose private medical or personal information to all their students’ parents in the hope that the parents might “decide” they can take their earned leave anyway.

I’m sure it makes a lot of you feel better that just like before a teacher has surgery or has to be out to deal with a family medical issue, they spend weeks if not months catching up with grading, figuring out what lessons were actually never taught b/c there were no subs and retracting them etc. 
that’s a part of the job and we accept it. What is hurtful is the fact that so many people feel like they have the right to scrutinize and ridicule or lambast as “lazy person abandons her students” instructors who have dying family members, serious health issues, children who get sick with sometimes serious chronic diseases, just like the rest of the you. We earn paid leave just like you and we often have to take unpaid FMLA. That teacher does not owe you a detailed explanation of what is going on, how her hours will be accounted for, oh and how much paid v unpaid leave they will take.

There is a huge sub and teacher shortage in this country that is getting worse and worse. 
These kind of attacks and social media discussions debating the validity of a teachers right to take Leave just make it worse. It impacts your child. It impacts my child too. Trust me that this teacher knows that and is going to do the best she can in the situation she is in to provide lessons for your children even though she is on Leave.[/quote]

I was going to write something very similar. All of this is so on point-teachers are human and do not owe parents a detailed explanation of what is going on personally in their lives. Their leave is their leave and their business. Be kind.[/quote]

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