Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are the reason schools are closed, and they have an obvious financial incentive to keep them closed. They collect their full salary regardless of whether schools are open and keeping them closed drives up the price of private tutoring which our kids now all need because distance learning is so ineffectual. If schools were open, no one would hire teachers as tutors.

This!

Lol--so these scheming teachers probably also cooked up Covid in a lab as part of their diabolical plan to live a life of luxury on the public dime by....tutoring?

Do you also think USPS employees sabotaged their own sorting machines to drive up the cost of privatized delivery services so they could cash in with sweet side hustles delivering for Amazon?

I'm familiar with the everyone's-a-crook-trying-to-steal-my-hard-earned-money worldview from my elderly relatives, but this takes it to another level of delusion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a massive conflict of interest because teachers said it was too unsafe to open regular schools and therefore created this crazy need for private pods in the first place!

Imagine if the water company turned off your line but the next day showed up with a truck of bottled water to sell it to you for 10X the cost.

Teacher here, and one who did not oppose in person learning, done safely. We did make our opinions known through the teacher survey. Speaking out more publicly than that would have put many of us in very hot water with our staunchly pro-DL colleagues. Most of us lay low for that reason. What if we had been highly vocal, do you really think that would’ve changed the mayor’s mind? And if it did, what if a child or colleague would have died? The precautionary principle took over on many fronts.

+1

In fact, our union sent out an email just this morning that basically said - we know that some of you wanted to return to the classroom but please respect all the work that has been done on your behalf to keep you and your colleagues safe. Since the union recommends we stay home, it must be the right thing to do! SMH

+1000. I know teachers who wanted to return in person but when the school had town hall meetings about it, it was hard to speak up when there were other colleagues insisting on DL. The union email is just telling us all to shut up and go along.

Yes, as a self contained teacher I desperately want to go back in person. I made DL work but let’s say the kids won’t grow to their fullest potential during DL.

I think I can do 40% and that makes me extremely sad but my opinion felt shameful, like I was saying teachers lives don’t matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a massive conflict of interest because teachers said it was too unsafe to open regular schools and therefore created this crazy need for private pods in the first place!

Imagine if the water company turned off your line but the next day showed up with a truck of bottled water to sell it to you for 10X the cost.

Teacher here, and one who did not oppose in person learning, done safely. We did make our opinions known through the teacher survey. Speaking out more publicly than that would have put many of us in very hot water with our staunchly pro-DL colleagues. Most of us lay low for that reason. What if we had been highly vocal, do you really think that would’ve changed the mayor’s mind? And if it did, what if a child or colleague would have died? The precautionary principle took over on many fronts.

+1

In fact, our union sent out an email just this morning that basically said - we know that some of you wanted to return to the classroom but please respect all the work that has been done on your behalf to keep you and your colleagues safe. Since the union recommends we stay home, it must be the right thing to do! SMH

+1000. I know teachers who wanted to return in person but when the school had town hall meetings about it, it was hard to speak up when there were other colleagues insisting on DL. The union email is just telling us all to shut up and go along.

Anonymous wrote:I’m finding it pretty shocking that currently employed DCPS teachers are charging high rates to provide in-person tutoring after school hours, while their union has fought the notion that they return to work. Loads of them working with various tutoring agencies. Something about this rubs me the wrong way - like public resources becoming unofficially but effectively privatized.

Teachers are people not property owned by the city or DCPS or parents. Their time during their work day *might* be a public good or provide a public benefit but they are in charge of themselves and how they spend their time after hours.

Since you can't really believe that teachers are slaves, I assume that your issue is that some teachers are willing to work in person privately but not for regular school. That my be a valid issue but it seems that tutoring a kid or two is a lot different than being exposed to many kids for 6.5+ hours a day plus interacting with dozens of other adults.

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are the reason schools are closed, and they have an obvious financial incentive to keep them closed. They collect their full salary regardless of whether schools are open and keeping them closed drives up the price of private tutoring which our kids now all need because distance learning is so ineffectual. If schools were open, no one would hire teachers as tutors.

This!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After 13 years of teaching in DCPs we finally received guidance on tutoring.

You can never tutor students from a school you work
At. That should have been a no brainer, but my former Cap hill ES would facilitate/encourage parents to hire tutors from the school.
You can’t tutor/pod support during contract hours. Again, no brainer.
You can use dc resources, lap top, platform, curriculum, for tutoring. You can’t advertise your services by starting that you are a dcps teacher.
So, if you want to hustle- get your own device, materials, and work with kids outside of your contract hours & outside of your school. This really isn’t hard.’

This is a similar policy to all corporate jobs. Side hustles have to be on your own time, with your own equipment, and your own ideas.

yes, I am the pp you are quoting.

This makes good sense. This was more for the folks on this thread who were saying that teachers should not be allowed to tutor even after contract hours.

Anonymous wrote:After 13 years of teaching in DCPs we finally received guidance on tutoring.

You can never tutor students from a school you work
At. That should have been a no brainer, but my former Cap hill ES would facilitate/encourage parents to hire tutors from the school.
You can’t tutor/pod support during contract hours. Again, no brainer.
You can use dc resources, lap top, platform, curriculum, for tutoring. You can’t advertise your services by starting that you are a dcps teacher.
So, if you want to hustle- get your own device, materials, and work with kids outside of your contract hours & outside of your school. This really isn’t hard.’

This is a similar policy to all corporate jobs. Side hustles have to be on your own time, with your own equipment, and your own ideas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a massive conflict of interest because teachers said it was too unsafe to open regular schools and therefore created this crazy need for private pods in the first place!

Imagine if the water company turned off your line but the next day showed up with a truck of bottled water to sell it to you for 10X the cost.

+100%

If the experts (so no, not you, Nancy, on dcum) said the city’s water supply was compromised and the city kept scratching their heads saying we’re trying to figure out how to make this umm um water safe...then yes, yes I would gladly buy the bottled water being sold to me! Bring on the deer park until the faucets can be trusted!

And what if the union representing the person selling you the water screamed that it wasn’t safe no mater what no mater what public health metric the water met and no matter what accommodations the system was trying to come up with unless you went to all bottled water until an arbitrary date? You’d still be all about that deer park?

Why all the teacher blame?

I’m a parent. The federal government screwed up the COVID response.

If a building is burning down and the Trump Fire Department deliberately doesn’t come to put out the fire, you don’t blame teachers for not going back in the building. The problem is the Trump administration and its Republican backers, many of which, like Betsy DeVos and Charles Koch, hate teachers already.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a massive conflict of interest because teachers said it was too unsafe to open regular schools and therefore created this crazy need for private pods in the first place!

Imagine if the water company turned off your line but the next day showed up with a truck of bottled water to sell it to you for 10X the cost.

+100%

If the experts (so no, not you, Nancy, on dcum) said the city’s water supply was compromised and the city kept scratching their heads saying we’re trying to figure out how to make this umm um water safe...then yes, yes I would gladly buy the bottled water being sold to me! Bring on the deer park until the faucets can be trusted!

And what if the union representing the person selling you the water screamed that it wasn’t safe no mater what no mater what public health metric the water met and no matter what accommodations the system was trying to come up with unless you went to all bottled water until an arbitrary date? You’d still be all about that deer park?

After 13 years of teaching in DCPs we finally received guidance on tutoring.

You can never tutor students from a school you work
At. That should have been a no brainer, but my former Cap hill ES would facilitate/encourage parents to hire tutors from the school.
You can’t tutor/pod support during contract hours. Again, no brainer.
You can use dc resources, lap top, platform, curriculum, for tutoring. You can’t advertise your services by starting that you are a dcps teacher.
So, if you want to hustle- get your own device, materials, and work with kids outside of your contract hours & outside of your school. This really isn’t hard.’

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are you so resentful towards teachers?

Because they refuse to educate my children for completely selfish, nonsensical reasons even as they continue to collect their full salaries.

Don’t want to do your job? Fine. Quit. But if you are taking a paycheck, do the honorable thing and earn it.

Lots of other people are doing their jobs every day — think of pediatricians taking care of sick kids every day — without all this drama and carrying on.

They are not refusing to educate your children.
They are doing their jobs.
They are earning their paycheck.

You are not entitled to free babysitting service.

Grow up.

If distance learning is so successful, why did DCPS end last school year three weeks early? Distance learning is a joke, and everyone knows it. It is a waste of everyone’s time. Why do you think parents are hiring tutors and creating learning pods? Because public school teachers are refusing to do their jobs and parents, who already have their own jobs, can’t be substitute teachers any longer.

Also, stop with the “free babysitting service.” It’s not free because we paid for teachers’ services with our extremely high taxes. Parents are the ones getting stiffed by teachers. And don’t you have any pride in your work? If you’re disparaging your own job as nothing more than babysitting, maybe it’s time you find another job, one you actually want to do.