When did teachers become the enemy?

I'm not nostalgic for 2020. Dear God, who could possibly be nostalgic for 2020? And yet...remember the year 2020 when teachers were heroes? Remember when schools first closed and we struggled to master new technologies and make materials available to students. and making sure they got fed and trying to instill some sense of normality and the whole world was like, 'wow, the teachers are great'? The behind-the-scenes work we'd always done was suddenly visible to parents, and Draper James offered us free dresses (haha, I was joking), and we were second only to healthcare workers, first responders, and InstaCart when it came down to heroism.

What a difference a year makes. Those of us who were celebrated for our creativity and resilience at the beginning of the pandemic are now lazy, cowardly, worthless slackers who just want to be paid to sit on our butts.

I teach in a county that is still virtual. We're at about 200 cases per 100,000 and going back to school in a couple of weeks. This is the second attempt to open schools. The first was in January when cases were double what they are now. Teachers protested as the situation was exponentially worse than when the school first went virtual and the county compromised. Teachers taught from their classrooms, but students stayed online. This solved exactly zero problems and pleased no one.

I'm a teacher and the parent of a fourth grader, so I have friends on both sides of what's becoming an increasingly acrid exchange across the country. The parents I know are dying to get their kids back to school. Teachers are dying to get vaccinated and have their classroom air conditioners fixed before that happens.

I get it. We cannot have both; The kids must either go back to class or stay virtual. There is an element of disagreement that is inevitable. But the way each side caricatures the other? this is killing me

"These parents just don't want to raise their own kids. All they want is a free daycare and they don't care about our safety.”

“Teachers just want to be paid to sit at home and not do their work. If they prevail, we will never return.”

The falsity of these two stories breaks my heart.

Parents have real concerns. Some kids really, really don't thrive in the virtual school — especially kids with learning differences or special needs. Depression and anxiety are through the roof in elementary school-age children. And people have jobs. Even if you're lucky enough to be able to work from home, it doesn't feel good to leave your preschooler in front of a computer for school all morning and then say, "Mom has a meeting on your lunch break. There's a sandwich on the counter and a towel on the floor so you can eat in front of the TV. Make sure you log back in by 1:00 am.” And that's it In the best case Scenario.

But we must stop blaming teachers. Several teachers have died in the counties near us that have been face to face. My state is not vaccinating teachers yet and I don't know when they will start. I have colleagues who are immunocompromised, who have spouses or children who are at high risk, who care for elderly parents. It's literally life or death for them. And even for those of us who aren't at high risk, there are concerns. Our students choosing to stay virtual? Your quality of education will definitely suffer once students are in our classrooms and that worries me. I worry for the mental health of students and teachers as we get back to school but living with all of the COVID restrictions taking away so much of what made the school experience so valuable.

Parents and teachers have the same goal: we all want children to be safe in the classroom again. So, let's stop blaming teachers.

Man, teach virtually sucks. It's so much harder and so much less rewarding than being in the classroom and I can't wait for it to be over. And I have a kid who has to go back to school because I want the other fourth graders in his life to laugh at his jokes. You are not funny. Her. I can not.

So if we have the same goal, why not join forces? Why don't teachers and parents take care of the things that really make a difference; Vaccines for teachers, funding for safe classrooms, and societal precautions to make everyone safer. (Remember how we kept the schools closed but the bars open? Yes, maybe we could prioritize that differently.)

Teachers and parents are smart as hell and incredibly resourceful. Together we could get kids back to school, keep everyone safe, and close this learning gap that everyone is so worried about.

If parents and teachers would shift their focus from berating and caricaturing each other and instead focus on solving some actual problems, we could turn this thing around. And our children need us badly. You need an education, not a feud. They need us to lead, not to bloat on social media. The children are not well and we must all work together to fix this.

Let's stop blaming teachers. Share your comments below!

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By: When Did Teachers Become the Enemy?