Nobody Asked Me: A Teacher's Opinion on School Reopening

[Nevilledog]

https://mrsteacherlife.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/nobody-asked-me-a-teachers-opinion-on-school-reopening/?fbclid=IwAR2KZqXEsfxW663ZQVWxszaUNtGN0U6U5Umd1-4Ft0k8Kk16SxRLXVEV3IM


Everyone has an opinion about how and if schools should reopen for this coming school year. We’ve heard from the governors, the pediatricians, the parents, the education secretary, and the president. Everyone has a “study” and “research” to back up their claims, but unfortunately (as always with decisions made in education) they do not have one very important thing- experience in a classroom. In classrooms filled to max capacity with five year olds who don’t even know how to blow their own noses, where the teacher:student ratio is 1:28 or in some cases even higher. Classrooms where the teachers are already begging parents for tissues, hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes, even in a pre-Covid world. Classrooms and hallways and bathrooms filled with teenagers who think they are invincible. School buildings with no extra rooms, without central air, where there are 4 sinks for over 200 students to use. As a teacher, I do have this experience, so I have many questions about how it will be possible and safe for schools to reopen. Nobody asked me- but since many other professions are giving their opinions about reopening, I thought maybe, just maybe, (it’s a little crazy but hear me out) we should hear from a teacher.

Let’s discuss hand washing. If an average class size of kindergartners is 25, then it would take 8.3 minutes for them each to wash their hands for 20 seconds- not too bad you might think. That’s doable- let’s reopen! Unfortunately that does not account for transition time between students at the sink, the student who plays in the bubbles, or splashes another student, or cuts in line, or has to be provided moral support to flush the toilet, because they are scared. It doesn’t account for the fact that only a few students will be allowed in the bathroom at a time and the teacher must monitor whose turn it is to enter and exit the bathroom, and control the hallway behavior, and send the student who just coughed to the “quarantine room” that doesn’t exist BECAUSE THERE ARE NO EXTRA ROOMS. Where are the students in hallway waiting? In line? All together? Six feet apart? No wait, three feet is okay now. Either way, 25 children standing three feet apart is a line over 75 feet long. Who is monitoring this line? Keeping them quiet, reminding them to keep their hands to themselves?

Another thing about social distancing. Even people who are not teachers have already figured out that there is not enough room in classrooms for all students to be six feet apart. No problem, we’ll just change the guideline to three feet. But what about all of the classrooms around the country that don’t even have room to put all of their student desks three feet apart? What about the classrooms that do not have desks and have tables where students sit in groups instead? Who is providing these classrooms with new socially distant furniture? Is there a budget for this or are schools getting increased funding? LOL NO, they are getting LESS funding. Oh okay, well maybe teachers will just buy it themselves out of their own pockets, as they do so many other supplies. Well I have bought A LOT for my classroom and students over the years, but I can not personally afford to buy them all individual desks. Even if the kids do have individual desk spaces, do they have to stay there all day? Do the kindergartners ever get to come to the carpet area for a story (spoiler alert- it is not big enough for 25 kids to sit three feet apart). Do they ever get to do centers? Sit next to a friend and read together? Can they even share books? I think before anyone gets to answer these questions, or more likely brush them aside, they should have to try to teach 25 five year olds how to sit in a chair on the first day of school.. and then get them to stay there all day every day.

So after we return to school without the equipment and ability to stay healthy and safe and a teacher or student gets symptoms, what then? The teacher or student should stay home to avoid infecting others, right? Well, a few things to consider: 1. Many times the kids are asymptomatic so they will be spreading germs unknowingly. 2. Many kids already come to school sick, sometimes dosed with medicine to mask fevers and symptoms, because parents have to get to work. How do we monitor this? 3. The symptoms of COVID are very similar to the symptoms that young children exhibit throughout the fall, winter, and spring due to common cold or allergies. And if teachers and students really stayed home every time they had a cough or symptom, they would probably be absent more than present. So do we have to ignore certain symptoms? Please clarify which symptoms are okay. 4. Staff are likely to have increased absences due to self-monitoring symptoms. Are they going to have substitutes for their classes? Substitutes can already be extremely hard to find. If we do find a sub- what germs are they bringing in? Where have they been? If they test positive do all schools they have been subbing at have to quarantine? 5. If a teacher or student tests positive for COVID, who quarantines? The entire class? The school building? Do we use sick days for this or is it unpaid? Do we switch to remote learning during the quarantine? Who is teaching the remote learning if the teacher is unable to work due to HAVING THE COVID THAT HE/SHE CAUGHT AT SCHOOL BECAUSE WE CHANGED ALL THE HEALTH AND SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS JUST TO ACCOMMODATE PUSHING SCHOOLS TO REOPEN WITHOUT THE EQUIPMENT, SPACE, OR ABILITY TO KEEP STAFF AND STUDENTS SAFE?

*snip*

[WePurrsevere]

1. It seems to me that the PTB should be listening...

to the teachers (and school support staff) more since THEY are the ones who are going to be right on the front line in this situation.

Seeing how well under control they keep head lice in the lower grades lately makes me extremely sceptical about schools being able to keep kids and school staff safe and prevent them from taking COVID home to parents, grandparents, etc.

I love my daughters, and now my granddaughters, dearly but the reality is that especially when young they were all mini 'Typhoid Marys'.

[tazkcmo]

2. Meh

What do teachers know about school?






Sarcasm

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Good write up. By the time teachers and/or students get sent home after being exposed ...

here and there, we'll run out of teachers (substitute ones to cover for the stay at home teachers). An idiotic and possibly killing scenario of a very limited and valuable resource (our teachers). I guess teachers need to do what they did in Oklahoma, after the republicans in OK tried cutting their pay (low pay, overcrowded classrooms, and tax cuts that resulted in lower state-wide education spending), the teachers organized and threw the bums out.

[mr_lebowski]

4. Great stuff, but I wish this teacher was more familiar w/the concept of paragraphs

Cause that is one huge Wall o' Text.

On the positive side, this idea, clearly championed by Trump, is almost surely going to reveal itself as a horrible disaster ... just in time for the Election.

[Nevilledog]

5. I agree, but wasn't going to be presumptuous and do it myself.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

6. Nobody seems to be asking the kids either

I’ve seen a lot of parents voice their opinion and I just wonder whether they get any say in the matter. I worry about parents who want them to attend school, and the child not feeling safe or protected.