Serious question. At this point, why can't teachers wear n95 masks? Data has shown they adequately protect even healthcare workers that are constantly exposed to heavy viral loads.
Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
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Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#22It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle. Whether we like it or not we're going with the Sweden Model. I've got school age kids myself, and I understand the risk. This is going to be a situation that could become hard to manage but our society's economy is constructed in such a way that relies on daytime programming for children and teens outside of their home. The teachers are going to have to help bear the…
Or maybe they'll choose not to. It's a market economy. Maybe $30k per year isn't worth risking the life of one's family.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#23My mother is an elementary school teacher, and I don't want her to go back to school this year. The federal government is worse than useless, and the state government is feckless and unwilling to make the tough calls to protect people's lives. She's been a teacher for ~15 years and still makes less than $30k a year teaching. She loves helping the kids, but her life isn't worth it.
Check out Outteach for your mother: https://outschool.com/teach
No relation, saw one of their engineering jobs on HN and your comment made me think of a solution for your mother's situation (it's teaching over Zoom).
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#24Maybe all nurses should quit, too.
idk if it's a tongue in cheek comment or what but when you sign up to work in the medical system it's kind of implied (and probably explicitly written in your work contract) that you'll encounter dangerous and unpleasant situations, much less for teachers, especially when the whole thing is unnecessary and preventable in the first place.
It's also kidn of implied that teachers signed up to work with snivelling children who spread germs. That being said, there's evidence this particular virus doesn't even spread easily among children.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#25My 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.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#26I 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.
> 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.
I'm curious - how few would have to die so that the "overall consequences of another lost semester" is not worse?
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#27Serious question. At this point, why can't teachers wear n95 masks? Data has shown they adequately protect even healthcare workers that are constantly exposed to heavy viral loads.
> “They said we’d have masks and face shields and everyone is going to be covered, but it’s a school district — sometimes we don’t have soap,” he said.
We've had trouble getting enough N95s for healthcare staff, let alone teachers.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#28Maybe all nurses should quit, too.
Nurses also make significantly more than teachers do, as well. North Carolina where my wife is a teacher: Registered Nurse RN Salary $62,560 North Carolina Avg Teacher $37,631 And some other numbers: 2017-18 National Average Starting Teacher Salary: $39,249 U.S. Registered Nurse RN Salary $73,550 U.S. National Average Salary $50,620
No salary would be worth my life. Not everyone cares about money as much as people on HackerNews. And nurses definitely have more exposure to covid-19 than teachers.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#29Human ingenuity has accomplished some marvelous things in the last century. I can't help but wonder how easily we could have tooled up for mass production of affordable PAPRs to distribute for times when remote work isn't very effective, like teaching children.
Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk
#30Why wouldn't a teacher quit if they possibly could? The pay is peanuts, certainly not worth any serious immediate risk to your health.