Greetings from California, the COVID capital of the US .-.
This is very "local politics," but despite being at less than 15% ICU bed capacity, someone recently had the audacity to write
this Opinion letter demanding that schools reopen because "COVID-19 poses limited risk to children."
I'm annoyed. I support working on a solution for children of parents who must work outside the home. The second comment currently on the article is quite good, I feel. The safest place for children is in school, for sure. But demanding that school resume at the top of the biggest infection peak of this pandemic, right before the Christmas/New Year's double header, is irresponsible. They are already recruiting college students as emergency teachers because we have a shortage right now. Unfortunately, I can tell you from painful experience that being a skilled teacher has a steep learning curve. It is not a job that you can do to spec with a college degree and warm body. There is a lot of specialized and subject-specific knowledge required.
On a personal level I want to add that one of the reasons why I stopped teaching was due to new, yearly mandated trainings on how to respond to school shooters. The training involves, among other things, listening to different sounds and ruling them in or out as gunfire vs. not gunfire. As someone who spent my early childhood in a rough neighborhood, I already know what gunfire sounds like, and in fact, I hit the ground when I hear cars backfiring. I understand and accept risk in my life but had 2-3 of my own students expelled due to a "credible threat" a few years ago. It annoys me that we are now being asked to die on the job.
Actually, we were also told that if there was a major disaster, we were all expected to stay on campus with our students, possibly for multiple days, and would not be permitted to care for our own children. We were told that this is what having an
in loco parentis responsibility meant. There was not negotiation available to meet the needs of, say, single parents.
Yes, there are other dangerous professions. Obviously. I am annoyed in part because the patriarchal order is supposedly in place in part because men are being signed up for the dangerous jobs, and thus incurring respect and better pay. It is frustrating that now that the chips are down, the strapped, under-paid female-dominated profession of teaching is being told "all this, and also, we expect you to risk being shot or dying of infectious disease for the benefit of others' children."
Every teacher knows how fast a disease goes through a school.
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Topic: Untamed Virus Containment Thread:COVID-19: Lurking Omni-Flu Edition (Read 413199 times)