I’m a Teacher, and I’m Furious

I’m a teacher, and I’m furious. Why? Too many people are asking us to take huge risks but are unwilling to make even the simplest sacrifices themselves.

Look at the president. He has been pushing to get our students back in the classroom and has gone so far as to threaten cuts in funding for schools that don’t follow orders. Yet he refuses to use his executive power to ask all people to wear a mask, one of the simplest ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19. He won’t issue such an executive order because it might offend his base, and he is unwilling to make that sacrifice.

But it’s not just people at the top who have been demanding huge sacrifices while making few or none of their own. Scrolling through social media, looking at people’s photos and posts, has felt like a slap in the face to teachers everywhere.

In one post you’ll see a group of friends at a barbecue, side-by-side and sans masks, ignoring all advice on stopping the spread of Covid-19. Keep scrolling, and you’ll see one of the parents from the barbecue saying that her children’s school better open in the fall because remote learning is just too hard. Scroll on, and you’ll see another parent from that barbecue posting her disappointment that her daughter’s college is only doing online courses for the fall.

I totally get how these parents feel. Remote learning IS too hard for many students. And it’s hugely disappointing to have to start college online. What I don’t get, however, is the fact that these parents do not see the connection between their actions — or inactions — and what school will be like in the fall.

Unlike that college I just mentioned, many schools will be open for in-person learning in the fall. Many of us teachers will be in small, poorly ventilated classrooms with students who, like their parents, do not practice social distancing or wear masks when out in public.

I desperately want to return to in-person teaching, but it angers me to think that I am being asked to go back to a classroom filled with many students who, along with their parents, do not take precautions to keep themselves, and the rest of us, safe. How can anyone — whether it’s the president or parents — ask teachers to take the huge risk of going back to the classroom when they are unwilling to make even the simplest sacrifices themselves?