Lucas Smolcic Larson writes in the Island Packet about the views of teachers concerning the return to school.
The S.C. McClatchy newspapers asked educators if they felt ready to return to school during the coronavirus pandemic. Over 250 teachers, librarians, coaches and other educators from every corner of the state responded to the survey. The vast majority work at public schools, with about two-thirds reporting they will be required to teach students face-to-face starting this month or next.”
The teachers quoted are anonymous, for obvious reasons. Most are worried. Some are fearful.
Here are a few of the responses:
Lowcountry, more than 10 years. Everyone is confused, overwhelmed and plans are changing daily. Bottom line, I do not feel safe or valued.
Upstate, more than 10 years. My husband and I are both teachers. We have three young children. We updated our will last week. The stress and anxiety we are all feeling is affecting my entire family.
Midlands, 5-10 years. I expect to be exposed and possibly contract COVID. I am attempting to prepare my home and family if this occurs, and I have to quarantine … We have to look to our medical professionals as to how to handle this situation … They could not opt out of not going to work and neither can the educational professionals. Now is the time for us to step up, mask up and do our part to help our children.
Lowcountry, more than 10 years. It’s not a question of if there’s (going to be) an outbreak at school but WHEN. I feel like a pawn for the politicians and administrators. We teach so as to empower students in our classrooms, yet here we are totally dis-empowered as teachers. These cracks were evident before COVID-19, but the pandemic has widened them into canyons.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I guess Trump’s words at the 2020 RNC are supposed to give comfort to teachers.
…………………
…When the China Virus hit, we launched the largest national mobilization since World War II. Invoking the Defense Production Act, we produced the world’s largest supply of ventilators. Not a single American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator. We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our front line healthcare workers. To protect our nation’s seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits, and personnel to nursing homes and long term care facilities. The Army Corps of Engineers built field hospitals, and the Navy deployed our great hospital ships.
We developed, from scratch, the largest and most advanced testing system in the world. America has tested more than every country in Europe put together, and more than every nation in the Western Hemisphere COMBINED. We have conducted 40 million more tests than the next closest nation.
We developed a wide array of effective treatments, including a powerful anti-body treatment known as Convalescent Plasma that will save thousands of lives. Thanks to advances we have pioneered, the fatality rate has been reduced by 80 percent since April.
The United States has among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country in the world. The European Union’s case fatality rate is nearly three times higher than ours. Altogether, the nations of Europe have experienced a 30 percent greater increase in excess mortality than the United States…
In a second term, I will EXPAND charter schools and provide SCHOOL CHOICE to every family in America. And we will always treat our teachers with the tremendous respect they deserve….Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites who drive their cities into the ground while fleeing far from the scene of the wreckage. These same liberals want to eliminate school choice, while they enroll their children in the finest private schools in the land….
“A second federal judge in a matter of days has ordered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to stop enforcing a rule that would direct more coronavirus relief aid to private schools. Both judges said DeVos’ approach flouted the clear language in the CARES Act, the coronavirus relief package passed in March.
“An executive agency like the Department has no authority to rewrite Congress’s plain and unambiguous commands under the guise of interpretation,” wrote James Donato, a judge for the Northern District of California.”
This is what they work on rather than assisting public schools in the pandemic- private schools are the sole focus. 90% of students and families attend public schools, but since ed reformers oppose public schools ideologically, they refuse to do any work at all for them.
It’s really outrageous for publicly paid employees to simply refuse to do 90% of their job, but that’s where we are.
FLOUTED. Perfect word for what she is doing.
Great reporting.
Take care teachers and journalists!
Public school students and teachers are political pawns in the pandemic. Trump and McConnell are refusing to give states the money they need to open schools safely. Career teachers are caught between all the political posturing, reckless incompetence and lack of funding needed to make classrooms safer.
Our Gov in MD (Gov Hogan) held a press conference yesterday and basically declared that the virus is going away and that districts should immediately start phasing in F2F instruction. School is set to start within the next 1-2 weeks and most large districts had gone to virtual learning until Jan 2021. Of course he offered up 10 million in funds to help “make it safe”. He basically threw the teacher’s union under the bus. What a nice guy…..expect him to run for POTUS in 2024.
Still opposed to unions, anyone? They’re going to have to start calling “right to work” states right to die states. And don’t forget about the racism.
“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein
Can “we” solve the problems with the same level of strategies, without considering
the strategic value, of the same level of strategies?
To wit, the standardized testing paradigm.
Public school students and teachers are political pawns in the
standardized testing paradigm.
Preaching standardized testing dissent, BUT practicing standardized testing
obedience (giving standardized tests) is obviously actions trumping words.
Word clouds didn’t stop the testing virus. They won’t stop ‘Rona.
Stop, children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s goin’ down
There’s battle lines bein’ drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speakin’ their minds
Gettin’ so much resistance from behind
It’s time we Stop, hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s goin’ down
Buffalo Springfield
STOP taking a knee to the “experts” proofing the discourse, with their
high-pitched whines, sowing division along linguistic blather.
Their edifice is crumbling.
Your fate is NOT centrally or directly dependent on THEIR assessment,
unless YOU grant them the power over YOUR life.
If the people’s best interest is in their heart, is the evidence found in society,
the economy, pray tell, WHERE is it?
The life you save may well be your own…