Hey, Teacher: Don’t Leave Those Kids Alone
Two years of disrupted learning is long enough.
When the pandemic first struck- in the terror and uncertainty of those first “two weeks to slow the spread,” which became the first of many- the workers of the world were divided into two categories: Essential and nonessential.
Essential workers- from nurses to sanitation engineers to grocery store clerks- were cheered and appreciated, some were even paid adequately for the first time in their underpaid careers. Essential workers were encouraged to keep on working, while everyone else sheltered in place.
Nonessential workers were those professions impossible to do remotely and unsafe to do in-person at the time- like hair-stylists and manicurists. For the good of everyone, nonessential workers were encouraged to stay home.
Public school teachers, for whatever reason, found themselves in the latter group, rather than the former. That, more than science or Donald Trump, set the tone for the last two years.
Teachers are essential workers; treating them as anything else was a mistake from the outset.
“Remote learning,” which we are learning now was something of an oxymoron, is still plaguing school districts across the country.