Don't Offer Prayers to Teachers if You Plan to Send Your Children to School During a Pandemic
In case you’ve been under a rock, we are still very much in a pandemic. Americans are dying. American medical professionals are exhausted. America is a country of unrest. And the American passport is about as useful as the coaster that has fallen off of the coffee table and under the edge of the couch.
We are in a bad space and time in America. So, let’s send the children back to school and all will be well. Right? Let the “experts,” who haven’t stepped foot inside of a classroom since they graduated tell it - WE MUST GET CHILDREN BACK TO SCHOOL.
Teachers have to go back to school. They make way too much money to sit at home and not “watch” the children of America’s more important employees. Teachers must go back to work. Virtual learning in a culture where millions of people earn online degrees will not work for our technologically savvy young people, right? Right now, many of the people championing for face-to-face learning have children in their own homes navigating the worldwide web with relative ease.
Yesterday, I watched my Facebook timeline fill with nervous posts and sentiments of various teachers, nurses and other school staff personnel going back for their first day of school. Most of us have been told that we have to be on campus whether parents elect to have their children attend school in-person or virtually. School staff members with underlying health issues and valid health and safety concerns must still be on campus.
What came next on social media? The outpouring of prayers and well-wishes.
“You all are heroes.”
“Praying for a great school year.”
“Thank you for all that you do.”
As I read the posts, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of those parents and community members offering virtual support will elect to send their children back to campus during the pandemic. Truth is, educators do not need the prayers of the very people who will inundate schools with students during a pandemic. No one who cares about the well-being of children will purposely put children in shared spaces during the spread of a deadly virus.
Right now, a parent is pissed with me for writing that last sentence. Another parent is mad that I typed that sentence in bold. Several dozen parents are fixing their mouths to ask the question “how am I supposed to work?”
To all of the aforementioned parents: have you considered asking the jobs where you work long and hard hours (probably for less money than you deserve) to provide designated safe spaces on your job site for child care? Have you emailed local and state leaders about your concerns? Have you applied pressure to the very government that has acted as if a one-time $1,200 stimulus check was enough to sustain your household during unprecedented times?
Maybe you have made such efforts, however, I’m willing to bet that most have not.
SCHOOL is supposed to be that place to fix it for the community. School districts and school personnel are to alleviate the issues of the community where children are involved. Right? When children are hungry - schools are to feed them. When adults refuse to invest in technology (aside from the $1,500 iPhones) - schools are supposed to supply students with Chromebooks and free WiFi. When students don’t log in to the computer from their respective homes - teachers are supposed to call every number on file, send emails, post videos and beg students to participate. When the country is in the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of 150,000 people - schools are supposed to open up so that everything outside of the schools can return to a degree of normalcy. Right?
Don’t pray for teachers if you plan to send your children to campus for face-to-face learning. Schools should be empty of students until we are on the other side of the pandemic.
Most parents know and acknowledge the dollar amount that their children represent when it comes to state funding. Many parents make it a practice to be critical of what schools don’t do, because after all schools are supposed to be a one-stop-shop for everything children need to know. When the school year starts, whether teachers are teaching virtually from their classrooms or from their homes - there shouldn’t be a single student in the building. The children we know and love, whom did not ask to be in this world - should not be in a setting with large groups of children.
I hear you in the back. You’re concerned about the absence of socialization. You’re screaming “they’ll miss out on all of their activities.” Do you really think we’ll be decorating cafeterias for homecoming dances this fall? Do you think the talent shows will go on as normal? Our dear ‘Friday Night Lights’ have already been sacrificed for the foreseeable future. What socialization dynamic do you think will be restored within the next few months?
I get it. This is hard. You’re not a teacher. I get it. I get it. I get it. Being a teacher doesn’t mean that we know everything. We never stop studying either. As a parent, you know more than you give yourself credit for and guess what? The things you don’t know are accessible for you to learn on the same devices you have in your hands and lap right now. No parent has been asked to homeschool at this point. Teachers are still responsible for implementing curriculum, writing lesson plans, assigning coursework, grading assignments and providing feedback. If you were asked to homeschool, all of the aforementioned would now be your job.
It is inevitable that both students and teachers will contract Covid-19 once schools welcome in students. Students and teachers already have Covid-19 - don’t allow your naiveté to make you believe otherwise. The notion that opening schools will return the country to some much needed normalcy is asinine. Some of the most beautiful dynamics of the school experience are on hold for now.
Are you seriously willing to risk the lives of your children and their teachers for a mere desk, a chair and a face shield?
It’s raining outside right now in Dallas. Pray you don’t get wet and then walk outside.
