Reply to Allegedly there are several options for the fall none of which include being back full time?

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Reply to "Allegedly there are several options for the fall none of which include being back full time?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I'm sure if someone did a poll of all the retail workers, warehouse workers, waitresses and whatever other job you'd find a percentage of them refusing to go back to work.

I don't think teachers are any different in that regard.  Some teachers are willing to go back to work.  Others aren't.  The big difference is that teachers have unions to protect them.  People without unions just have to quit or find something else to do.

I put medical workers in a separate category.  [b]Risk of deadly infection has always been part and parcel of their line of work, and it's natural for them to accept it.[/b]  It's like people signing up to be cops.  They accept that there are potentially deadly health risks to being a cop.

Most people who signed up to be teachers never expected to be on the front lines of a pandemic.  I'm not surprised that many of them are balking.   [/quote]

What? No. Dealing with sick people is part of their work. Risking deadly infection is not. The medical workers who are going to work, are doing so because it's their job and somebody needs to do it. Just like teaching is teachers' job and somebody needs to do it.

If a teacher told me, in real life, that it's ok for all of those essential grocery store workers etc. to have hazardous workplaces, but it's not ok for the teacher because the teacher didn't go to school all those years for that, I'd have to turn and walk away, because anything I said or did if I remained would not be polite.[/quote]

Regardless, comparing teachers to healthcare workers is apples to oranges.

My point is that if you work in a hospital, there's an expectation that you will be on the front lines of any healthcare crisis.  Being on the front lines is part of their job description, and most people signing up understand that going in.  It's like signing up to be in the army reserve and then refusing to go into combat.

Most teachers never had that expectation when they signed up, so it's not at all surprising to me that many of them are balking at F2F teaching.  They signed up to teach.  Not put their lives on the line for a pandemic.

I'm sure many of these types of teachers would be more than willing to sign up for distance learning, and I think it's partly why most schools districts are offering some type of full time distance learning option.  In addition to the other benefits, it shields the most vulnerable teachers from harm.

As for retail workers and other people forced into service, I don't think most of them are doing it out of their own goodwill or some kind of noble sacrifice.  They have to work, or they're going to get fired.  So they go in.  Many of them are very concerned about the health risks, but they have no agency.  If they complain they risk getting fired.

Teachers on the other hand have unions to protect them.  They have the leverage to negotiate an acceptable level of risk, so they're going to use the tools they have available to them.

You can shame them all you want, but at the end of the day its their lives on the line.[/quote]

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