Underpaid, unappreciated by many, overcrowed in classrooms, forced to pay for their own supplies. Not really surprising -- I would not last long in that situation when you add in life-threatening.
Education needs a massive reform.
Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
141–150 of 954 posts
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say that's a false dichotomy. Lots of kids won't have access to a safe environment during the day without school. There will be no visibility for those suffering abuse. Physical abuse will be worse with a kid at home with an abusive parent all day, under stress. There will be less access to food for many children. The virus holds the potential of devastating effects on school children and their families if kids g…
I 100% support your view IF they get smarter about protecting teachers and staff (masks, at a minimum). I would love to buy my wife a fogger so she could be sure her room was disinfected properly at the end of every day. Of course they are sold out and it's likely someone would complain about that, too.
Our state (NM) has proposed mask wearing, social distancing, isolation by classroom, and alternating schedules to achieve 50% capacity. Yet still they may not open. At the same time, teachers don’t generally get much support financial or otherwise, school is such a messy endeavor already I can understand the hesitation to move forward with any plan.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
She's in Colorado. The teachers' union agreed to a pay cut & freeze during the Bush financial crisis; pay had had only started to rise again a few years ago. This is somewhat of a digression, but the extremely low rate of teacher pay (for a job that requires a Master's degree) limits the pool of available teachers greatly. The people taking these jobs typically must have some other way of supporting their family; eit…
> There is no good economic argument made to become an elementary school teacher. AMEN. I would NEVER recommend ANYONE become a teacher based on my wife's experiences. You used to be able to write off expenses as "non-reimbursed employee expenses" but they cut that out so teachers get the token $200 writeoff. We spend almost 10x that annually supporting her in the classroom. It really is glorified day care in most pe…
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#144My 65 year old parent, an educator in a sunbelt state, told their superintendent that if the distict came back for in person classes too early, they would walk on the spot. they'll be online-only for at least the fall.
Based on what? This risk of an adult being infected by a child is almost zero. https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/hunting-down-covi... The flu is also deadly for 65 year olds. Will your parent refuse to work during flu season when the risk of getting infected from a child is much, much higher than with covid?
Good thing every school building only has a single adult in it.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#145My 65 year old parent, an educator in a sunbelt state, told their superintendent that if the distict came back for in person classes too early, they would walk on the spot. they'll be online-only for at least the fall.
Based on what? This risk of an adult being infected by a child is almost zero. https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/hunting-down-covi... The flu is also deadly for 65 year olds. Will your parent refuse to work during flu season when the risk of getting infected from a child is much, much higher than with covid?
Covid isn't the flu, champ.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#146A protest sign I saw is an apt response to the situation: "Why should we go to school if you won't listen to the educated?"
Because education is valuable regardless of whether or not everyone listens to you?
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#147I feel like there is too much emphasis on these and not enough on the ones that earnestly want to go back to work. There should be a balance here, as we really do need a lot of students to have access to schools in the fall. Remote learning doesn't work for everyone and leaves a lot of people behind. The overall consequences of another lost semester may be far worse than the consequences of reopening.
The ones who want to go back are either working with special needs kids or have no family of their own. There's a difference between "I'd love to be in a classroom teaching again" and "I want to be in a room full of 20+ potentially infectious children." The government has a responsibility to its constituents that goes beyond "a return to normalcy."
We're hitting 75K positive tests a day in this country and that number is increasing daily. That's WITH social distancing by kids. What do you think is going to happen when a school has 800 kids running around? That's 800 daily potential avenues for disease transmission.
Seriously, who cares if some people "fall behind?" They can catch up at their own pace. I'm pretty sure that most parents would rather their kids graduate at 19 or 20 than be buried at 8 or 9.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#148I feel like there is too much emphasis on these and not enough on the ones that earnestly want to go back to work. There should be a balance here, as we really do need a lot of students to have access to schools in the fall. Remote learning doesn't work for everyone and leaves a lot of people behind. The overall consequences of another lost semester may be far worse than the consequences of reopening.
The consequences of losing a semester for students are highly debatable considering the primary and in many cases only function of schools outside of feeding students is babysitting.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Let's be perfectly clear, this isn't something abstract. The consequences are dead kids Yes, the serious risk of increases in childhood “morbidity and mortality” if schools remain closed are exactly what the American Academy of Pediatrics cited as a key consideration when strongly urging that planning center on a return to in-person schooling with the start of the coming school year.
Appeal to authority, not a real argument.
The counterargument doesn't even bother to appeal to a (relevant) authority - it just says "but muh economy :'("
I'm not sure why this is valid response.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#150I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home.
All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out of my current state.
So good luck everyone with the education system.