Never waste a crisis. Last spring, after a solid year and a half of teacher action, when they pushed back against the conditions that were strangling the profession, teachers were lauded as heroes as they switched to distance learning in a couple of days. The memes and accolades were everywhere. Fast forward to today when many teachers are protesting going back to unsafe conditions, and suddenly they are the villains of the story, lazy and unprofessional, and no offense to the clerk at Wallmart, but if he can do it, so should teachers. You have to think this new narrative is a little by design.
By now I think we have all heard if the clerk at Wallmart can do it, why can't teachers as if they are the same. On the other end of the spectrum, if nurses and doctors can do it, so can teachers. You know, because teaching is the same as both jobs.
It is probably a surprise to all the nasty commentators on news stories, but teachers are neither. Sevice workers deal with a customer or two at a time for a few minutes, often in places where social distancing can occur. Not crammed into classrooms and schools, which are already as close as you can get to Petri dishes.
Then nurses and doctors, the true heroes of the pandemic, signed up for this, that's the job they chose. Their bravery and dedication are truly admirable, and their PPE is truly impressive as well. I am not sure if my batman mask and gallon of hand sanitizer are going to get the job done, and it's scary.
Teachers proved they could get the job done remotely, or they had until politicians wanted to open the economy and their low wage workers needed daycare.
Schools aren't daycares, and it's not teachers fault the powers that be have not mandated companies provide daycare, or the government hasn't done their $%#ing jobs.
Suddenly distance learning became a failure and only the people that wanted to open schools cared about the learning gap and poor and disabled kids, something those people pushing to open schools had never cared about before. Since there has been education, all of those things existed, and the same people trying to force teachers and students into unsafe situations ignored them like it was their job. They pushed that they cared and teachers didn’t. That’s called gaslighting and it is both wrong and reprehensible.,
Science, medical experts, plenty of examples of how bad it's going to be, have no effect on their decisions as they push ahead. Everything can be dismissed because they say we have to open schools and it is only those ingrate and lazy teachers standing in the way.
Then these trolls that call teachers lazy and say if you are scared just quit don't realize teachers are fighting for them as well. When schools open, the virus will spread, and things will get worse, and after a week when just a handful of schools opened that has already played out over and over again.
That hasn't slowed Trump, DeSantis, and so many other politicians across the country from still pushing for schools to open. They have to know how dangerous it is and they don't care, now it's probably true and they really don't care, but hey if they can stick it to those teachers who had become "defiant" over the last few years, then all the better. How dare teachers stick up for themselves (and their families and students too) we will show them and turn the uninformed against them.
I think we should all admit that distance learning didn't work for a lot of students, but school has been out for months. Why haven't we funded schools so they can make sure that it works better for more? Nope, we would rather invest in plexiglass screens, and hand sanitizer, something that nobody thinks will keep them safe over the long haul.
When teachers rally and protest against going to school, it isn't just their safety they are concerned about, but their families, and their children and their families, and all the people that will be put in a worse position when schools inevitably shut down, that they are fighting for as well.
Instead of supporting these efforts, the powers-that-be fan the flames against teachers. They twist the knife in their back.
Teachers long-neglected and disrespected are heroes in my book, and they were long before the pandemic. They already sacrifice and give so much, they shouldn't be required to give their health or their lives too.
Teachers shouldn't have to protest and rally to teach remotely until things are safe. That should be the status quo and those people pushing to send teachers back, they are the villains of the story.
