Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If teachers don't want to go back, fine that's their choice. But this hostage taking of students and families has to end. Let's put all unwilling teachers on unpaid furlough and have schools redirect the funds for subscriptions to Khan or other online education. Yes, those online providers aren't perfect, but they're FAR better than that crappy DL we had so far.

You’re nuts. No one is taking you hostage. Teachers did not cause the pandemic, schools shut downs, distance learning, or any of the other conditions you’re upset about. Teachers aren’t the ones who came up with hybrid learning, either. Those are superintendents and politicians who have zero interaction with children and make far more money than we do.
Btw, I’m sure your children’s teachers aren’t sitting around hoping you lose your income and can’t feed your family. You’re a bad person.

This is what's going to happen to a lot of people if there isn't 5-day-a-week, all-day school, though.

Yup, not to mention how many parents are going to have to make tough choices. Some lower income parents are going to choose to leave their young elementary school kid(s) home alone so they can go to work. And two things are likely to happen:
The teacher is going to report the parents when the kid slips and says he/she is home alone.
The teacher is going to report the parents when the kid doesn't sign on to DL at all-ever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If teachers don't want to go back, fine that's their choice. But this hostage taking of students and families has to end. Let's put all unwilling teachers on unpaid furlough and have schools redirect the funds for subscriptions to Khan or other online education. Yes, those online providers aren't perfect, but they're FAR better than that crappy DL we had so far.

You’re nuts. No one is taking you hostage. Teachers did not cause the pandemic, schools shut downs, distance learning, or any of the other conditions you’re upset about. Teachers aren’t the ones who came up with hybrid learning, either. Those are superintendents and politicians who have zero interaction with children and make far more money than we do.
Btw, I’m sure your children’s teachers aren’t sitting around hoping you lose your income and can’t feed your family. You’re a bad person.

This is what's going to happen to a lot of people if there isn't 5-day-a-week, all-day school, though.

So you do think teachers should be your pandemic babysitters, despite the risks of being in crowded classrooms and all other businesses operating at half capacity. This is the same logic that causes parents to send in their kids when they have the flu. Why does everyone seem to think that the onus is on the school system and not on businesses to change THEIR models?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m tired of all the rhetoric about schools. “Think of the parents!”
I’m thinking of them, and I’m not sufficiently impressed that schools should open at their convenience, regardless of health and safety measures for everyone else involved.

Think of the parents? Who is talking about parents? How about think of the kids? Open schools so kids can get an education, FFS. That’s what’s on my mind.

Literally nobody is thinking of the parents. If anything it's the teachers continually attacking parents for:

1. Treating school like childcare. When it is, in fact a form of childcare. Your kids are in school from about 9-3 M-F and it's not free. We all pay taxes for it.
2. Not caring about our children.

Teachers have made it clear they are not comfortable accepting ANY risk at all. Even though the rest of us are accepting risks at our jobs and lives every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If teachers don't want to go back, fine that's their choice. But this hostage taking of students and families has to end. Let's put all unwilling teachers on unpaid furlough and have schools redirect the funds for subscriptions to Khan or other online education. Yes, those online providers aren't perfect, but they're FAR better than that crappy DL we had so far.

You’re nuts. No one is taking you hostage. Teachers did not cause the pandemic, schools shut downs, distance learning, or any of the other conditions you’re upset about. Teachers aren’t the ones who came up with hybrid learning, either. Those are superintendents and politicians who have zero interaction with children and make far more money than we do.
Btw, I’m sure your children’s teachers aren’t sitting around hoping you lose your income and can’t feed your family. You’re a bad person.

This is what's going to happen to a lot of people if there isn't 5-day-a-week, all-day school, though.

Anonymous wrote:If teachers don't want to go back, fine that's their choice. But this hostage taking of students and families has to end. Let's put all unwilling teachers on unpaid furlough and have schools redirect the funds for subscriptions to Khan or other online education. Yes, those online providers aren't perfect, but they're FAR better than that crappy DL we had so far.

You’re nuts. No one is taking you hostage. Teachers did not cause the pandemic, schools shut downs, distance learning, or any of the other conditions you’re upset about. Teachers aren’t the ones who came up with hybrid learning, either. Those are superintendents and politicians who have zero interaction with children and make far more money than we do.
Btw, I’m sure your children’s teachers aren’t sitting around hoping you lose your income and can’t feed your family. You’re a bad person.

Anonymous wrote:
That is ridiculous. You think video chatting with a gynecologist is equivalent to an office visit? Okay then. Why are doctors paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, then?
It actually is possible to get an education online. It’s just not possible to babysit virtually, which is the big sticking point.
If you sit at a desk, isolated, all day, then your job has nowhere near the level of exposure that teachers are facing. Do you also have to clean your office every day and purchase your own supplies to do so? I already spend over a thousand dollars on supplies and materials for my class every year. Do you pay for your office supplies, too? We teach in cramped conditions with people who think social distancing is a funny joke and whose parents send them to school sick. I don’t care about a cloth mask! I have my own. I care about cleaning supplies being regularly sent to my classroom, the bathrooms being outfitted with soap, and a comprehensive sick child policy being put in place. I care about a plan to have children wear masks or to enforce social distancing. I care about windows that don’t open and ventilation systems that are thirty years out of date.

It is possible to. But in reality, mostly the kids aren't.

My kids are in high school, so it's not about child care.

Masks, soap, windows/fans, temperature checks, SCHOOL.

If teachers don't want to go back, fine that's their choice. But this hostage taking of students and families has to end. Let's put all unwilling teachers on unpaid furlough and have schools redirect the funds for subscriptions to Khan or other online education. Yes, those online providers aren't perfect, but they're FAR better than that crappy DL we had so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Right, and everyone was outraged. Yet people don’t understand why teachers are now demanding protections for OUR safety be put in place. I don’t remember people complaining about all the health care providers (dermatologists, gynecologists, even GPs) providing telehealth appointments during the height of the pandemic, either.
Home health aides don’t have degrees, also not comparable to a teacher with a masters degree.

The outcomes of a doctors visit can be fully achieved in a televisit. That’s just not true for school on any front. If you’re telling me that 40 minutes of Zoom equates to a full day of education, I call BS. And I also wonder what the heck teachers are getting paid for if that’s the case.

As for PPE and protocols, teachers are in the same boat as many other professions. I work with the public and am expected to buy my own masks. No big deal. I don’t look for my employer to buy these for me. The entitlement of teachers has really become apparent during the last three months.

That is ridiculous. You think video chatting with a gynecologist is equivalent to an office visit? Okay then. Why are doctors paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, then?
It actually is possible to get an education online. It’s just not possible to babysit virtually, which is the big sticking point.
If you sit at a desk, isolated, all day, then your job has nowhere near the level of exposure that teachers are facing. Do you also have to clean your office every day and purchase your own supplies to do so? I already spend over a thousand dollars on supplies and materials for my class every year. Do you pay for your office supplies, too? We teach in cramped conditions with people who think social distancing is a funny joke and whose parents send them to school sick. I don’t care about a cloth mask! I have my own. I care about cleaning supplies being regularly sent to my classroom, the bathrooms being outfitted with soap, and a comprehensive sick child policy being put in place. I care about a plan to have children wear masks or to enforce social distancing. I care about windows that don’t open and ventilation systems that are thirty years out of date.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Right, and everyone was outraged. Yet people don’t understand why teachers are now demanding protections for OUR safety be put in place. I don’t remember people complaining about all the health care providers (dermatologists, gynecologists, even GPs) providing telehealth appointments during the height of the pandemic, either.
Home health aides don’t have degrees, also not comparable to a teacher with a masters degree.

The outcomes of a doctors visit can be fully achieved in a televisit. That’s just not true for school on any front. If you’re telling me that 40 minutes of Zoom equates to a full day of education, I call BS. And I also wonder what the heck teachers are getting paid for if that’s the case.

As for PPE and protocols, teachers are in the same boat as many other professions. I work with the public and am expected to buy my own masks. No big deal. I don’t look for my employer to buy these for me. The entitlement of teachers has really become apparent during the last three months.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Right, and everyone was outraged. Yet people don’t understand why teachers are now demanding protections for OUR safety be put in place. I don’t remember people complaining about all the health care providers (dermatologists, gynecologists, even GPs) providing telehealth appointments during the height of the pandemic, either.
Home health aides don’t have degrees, also not comparable to a teacher with a masters degree.

Say what? It's reasonable to expect home health care aides to endanger themselves while doing their job because they don't have master's degrees? Doctors and nurses should take on risks because they're well-paid, and low-paid essential workers should take on risks because they don't have college degrees, but teachers - well, teachers what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Right, and everyone was outraged. Yet people don’t understand why teachers are now demanding protections for OUR safety be put in place. I don’t remember people complaining about all the health care providers (dermatologists, gynecologists, even GPs) providing telehealth appointments during the height of the pandemic, either.
Home health aides don’t have degrees, also not comparable to a teacher with a masters degree.

You're shifting the goalposts, PP.

It's not the height of the pandemic in Montgomery County.

And nobody is saying that all teachers must go back to work with zero protection.

Anonymous wrote:I’m tired of all the rhetoric about schools. “Think of the parents!”
I’m thinking of them, and I’m not sufficiently impressed that schools should open at their convenience, regardless of health and safety measures for everyone else involved.

Think of the parents? Who is talking about parents? How about think of the kids? Open schools so kids can get an education, FFS. That’s what’s on my mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Right, and everyone was outraged. Yet people don’t understand why teachers are now demanding protections for OUR safety be put in place. I don’t remember people complaining about all the health care providers (dermatologists, gynecologists, even GPs) providing telehealth appointments during the height of the pandemic, either.
Home health aides don’t have degrees, also not comparable to a teacher with a masters degree.

Anonymous wrote:
So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.

As it happened, doctors and nurses were pitching fits because they didn't get to wear protective equipment and also didn't have access to testing.

As for money - home health care aides earn about $12/hour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sick and tired of parents saying that schools should be the only institutions to open up at full capacity without any infection control protocols in place. Parents aren’t special. If you can’t care for your children, then you should surrender them.
See how that works both ways?

Nobody said anything about them doing back without any infection control protocols. The discourse I am hearing as that pretty much nothing will be acceptable to teachers no matter what the protocols are. They want 100% DL or nothing.

There have been numerous articles showing data that kids not only don't spread it to each other but don't spread it to adults.

Districts are all putting loopholes in the language about precautions so they can shrug innocently when the first day of school rolls around and there’s almost nothing in place. I expect to receive a “cute” cloth masks with a cheesy teaching theme print, a single large bottle of sanitizer, and class rosters of 30-35 students, plus my advisory and home room above 35 students.

If only there were something you could do, using materials you already have anyway, if you considered the employer-provided masks to be inadequate.

Why should teachers —once again— pay out of their own pockets for materials needed for work. Maybe we should make cops buy their own bullets?

You don't have to pay out of your own pocket. All you have to do is wear the masks you already have.

What if teachers don’t already own washable cloth masks? I don’t. I have a couple boxes of N95 that we share as a family of four. We reuse the masks until they get gross, but the truth is that we sheltered in place largely. Those masks would go much faster with daily use.

Well I’m a Doctor and I have three n95 masks. Total. So if you have a few boxes, as a teacher, you’re well ahead of many emergency room workers.

Are you caring for COVID patients?

not PP but yes this is standard among many physicians treating covid patients. I'm in moco. 1 or 2 is standard, some hospitals I asked while working with PUI and they did not give me one.

And I'm going to go ahead and guess that you can't just pitch a fit and say "you don't feel safe" returning to work am I right?

So when health care providers around the country were striking, writing articles and speaking to the press about lack of access to protective equipment and protocols you felt they were “pitching a fit”? Doctors and nurses are literally paid to care for sick people. They also get to wear protective equipment, have access to testing, and make much more money than teachers. There’s also no expectation that they go home and continue working on their own time. The jobs have nothing in common in terms of expectations and compensation. They work with one patient and then move on-they aren’t expected to hang out with a big group of unmasked patients in a small room all day, entertaining them and teaching through their masks.