What About the Teachers? Teachers Returning to School During a Pandemic
“My anxiety sent shocks of pain and chills throughout my body at the announcement.”
My Facebook friend posted this status in reaction to the announcement that Virginia schools are set to reopen for face-to-face instruction soon. Like most educators, she is fearful about returning to school for face-to-face instruction when the pandemic has no end in sight and when vaccinations are hard to come by. Not to mention the nightly reports showing people who are bedridden in the hospital with COVID; or worse. With the decision to reopen schools, many educators fear that they are having to choose between their careers and their health.
So, let’s start here. I understand that many politicians, community leaders, some parents, and students are anxious to reopen schools because they are faced with the harsh realities of some students falling behind academically because of the wealth gap in America. Simply put, over the last couple of months I have watch videos by Vox, Vice, and other news outlets that explore how the wealth gap in America makes learning inequitable by creating a virtual at-home education gap. I remember watching one video that followed how two families managed with schools moving to virtual learning. One family had the financial means to pay for a learning pod for their children. Learning pods, which can cost around $17 to over $100 an hour depending on where you live, are small groups of students who learn together outside of the classroom with a teacher or tutor who provides supplemental support. Some families have even hired educators to teach their children. In this same news report, the other family had to have one parent quit their job to stay at home with their children, and the children had to share laptops and iPads for virtual instruction. In addition, many reports also explored how some parents felt unequipped to provide adequate support for virtual learning or homeschooling. Considering these factors, many people have expressed the viable solution to solve this dilemma would be to reopen schools.
However, what about the teachers? What about their health? What about their families? What about their well-being?
Back in August, when schools announced they would reopen for face-to-face, hybrid, or virtual-only learning, I was nervous for everyone I knew who had to go back into a classroom; which some consider are Petri dishes. As the school year began, I began to receive messages from some of my friends saying they had contracted or been in contact with the virus. For some of my friends, I was especially concerned for them and their families because they lived with family members who have compromised immune systems or are older adults. However, one COVID case put it all into perspective. One day, while on Facebook, I read that someone I went to college with, who was a teacher and had returned to work, was taken from the virus. What was even worse, her parents, who she lived with, had contracted the virus; and one of them was taken from the virus a few weeks later. This showed that returning to work in a pandemic presented more than a health risk; people are risking their and their families’ lives.
I tell these stories to say the well-being of teachers should be put at the forefront of these conversations and taken just as seriously as when leaders are discussing students’ learning and safety. Teachers should have the ability to provide instruction for students in a safe environment; without the fear of putting them and their families at risk.
Teachers know all too well the consequences when a student in their class comes to school sick; the teacher ends up sick, and sometimes that illness is passed along to their family at home. One of my friends said, “People send their children to school when they are sick when it is not a pandemic. I know they are going to send them to school when they are sick if they have the virus…”
Teachers also know the realities and limitations of their school districts. Before the pandemic, many schools struggled to provide basic instructional resources for students. Many teachers would either go without, find options to be creative, or pay for the instructional resources out of their own pockets. These same teachers also know that the plans their districts have prepared to reopen school may seem protective in theory but in practice, it falls by the waist side. A Teen Vogue article by Abdullah Shihipar, that discusses the struggles of going back to school during a pandemic, sights how safety measures such as requiring masks, mass testing, ventilation, and physical distancing present challenges or are often ignored or altered by adminstration, teachers and students.
Lastly, teachers also know that their profession is sometimes treated as a child care service. Last summer, some of my friends and I were on a call. The conversation of going back to school came up. I mentioned how it was not safe and how I preferred virtual learning. One of my friends, who teaches K-12, rebutted my statement by arguing they preferred for students to be in school because some students only eat while they are at school, or they may not be in a safe environment at home, or there is a lack of internet access which will help to increase the educational divide among students. However, I side with Steve, who is mentioned in Shihipar’s article, who mentions school is not a child care service. A school is a place for learning, and teachers are there to educate students with their expertise. Teachers are responsible for providing students with a nurturing and safe learning environment; for both teachers and students.
So I ask, if the instruction can be virtual, why not keep it that way until everyone who wants a vaccine can get one or until there is herd immunity?
