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My mother was a teacher for 20+ years and my wife is a teacher. I know exactly how schools are handling this. They're quarantining people that aren't sick, tha

My mother was a teacher for 20+ years and my wife is a teacher. I know exactly how schools are handling this. They're quarantining people that aren't sick, that's why they don't have staff. They've scared away substitutes with unscientific fear mongering about super spreader events in school. This is a problem of over-testing and unnecessary quarantining not a shortage.

ModernMech 5y ago
Just curious then, how does your wife's school handle the case of a faculty member dying of Covid and not being able to find a replacement or sub? Do they just put more work on everyone else? In my district, they replaced the history teacher with the music teacher because she died right before the holidays due to Covid (if you're wondering, the history teacher doesn't have a background in music). They manage this by siphoning teacher prep time, which means the history teacher is covering music instead of prepping for history class. What is your district's protocol? > They're quarantining people that aren't sick, that's why they don't have staff. Is your position that no one has been quarantined who legitimately needed to be? Or hospitalized? Or died? Or retired? It's 100% people who aren't sick being quarantined, and that's why schools don't have enough faculty and staff? > They've scared away substitutes with unscientific fear mongering about super spreader events in school. Coming from a family of teachers, I'm sure you're aware that many if not most substitute teachers are older, retired, and often have multiple comorbidities related to Covid. Some of them are immunocompromised and can't even get vaccinated. Couple this with the fact that many schools do not have vaccination, testing, or masking requirements. Do you think it's unreasonable for such people to not want to subject themselves to a school environment at this time? > This is a problem of over-testing and unnecessary quarantining not a shortage. I understand you think this is fear mongering and people being quarantined who are healthy, but at the same time people are also actually dying and being hospitalized with very severe illness. You can call it a problem of quarantining healthy people and over testing, but that doesn't relate to the fact that vacancies are being created by Covid, and they aren't being filled because people look at the shitshow that education has become with Qanon craziness infiltrating school boards, and the demonization that they are getting online (being called lazy and that they should all be fired) and they nope out real quick. Why bother? I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. It doesn't make the field more attractive for new teachers. It doesn't help retention. It doesn't give kids a better environment for education. An alternative solution might be to impose a vaccination mandate, increase testing, better facilities with improved ventilation, and hazard pay for teachers along with a big freaking raise. But that seems to be a non starter. Instead we've chosen a path of disrespect, and that's actually a big component of this. Coming from a family of teachers, I'm sure you've heard this. Moreso than feeling afraid, teachers feel disrespected and disillusioned. They are ostensibly front-line essential workers, but they are called lazy, called unpatriotic, are underpaid, and overworked. There is a huge gap between the rhetoric/reality about how essential teachers are to managing this pandemic, and the attitudes and compensation they receive. Also, it's pretty condescending to suggest that this is all in teachers' heads, and they are just the victims of a fear mongering campaign. Stopping testing doesn't prevent teachers from being hospitalized or dying (and teachers are indeed dying). It also doesn't prevent their family members from being hospitalized or dying and teachers having to leave their jobs to take care of their family. It doesn't take many vacancies due to deaths or hospitalizations or retirements to completely throw a school into disarray -- especially considering the massive class sizes that many have to deal with. There's no extra slack other teachers can pick up. They are already stretched to the extreme when things are fully staffed.
- CountDrewku 5y ago
  >faculty member dying of Covid and not being able to find a replacement or sub? Hasn't happened, and the numbers show that would be rare. >Is your position that no one has been quarantined who legitimately needed to be? Or hospitalized? Or died? Or retired? It's 100% people who aren't sick being quarantined, and that's why schools don't have enough faculty and staff? Nope, didn't say that. Strawman. >Do you think it's unreasonable for such people to not want to subject themselves to a school environment at this time? Maybe they should focus on why they're only able to get old immuno-compromised individuals to substitute. >I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. By allowing staff that's not actually sick to teach, therefore you're not loading extra burden on fewer teachers. By also allowing students in the classroom, lessening the need to make lessons for quarantined individuals. >I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. School isn't for teachers, it's for educating kids to be productive members of society. Any teacher worth their salt knows this. >They are ostensibly front-line essential workers You're right, so they need to start acting like it instead of following the lead of their unions (e.g. Chicago) and completely shutting down the system for what's essentially a cold at this point. I don't see nurses, emt's, or firefighters doing these things. The entire problem here is that you're basing your stance off of false assumptions. COVID has never been an issue in schools because children do not contract it at a high rate and they do not spread it at a high rate. So, going to remote learning was never a good solution to begin with. You know what the biggest burden my wife had was during all of this? Creating multiple lesson plans to try and teach to remote kids who were sitting in their rooms pretending to pay attention in Google Classroom while actually playing video games not giving a shit about school for a year. She 100% would have preferred being in person and reiterated that daily to me.
  - ModernMech 5y ago
    > Hasn't happened, and the numbers show that would be rare. Okay, but it has happened to other people, and even if it is a rare occurrence, it can throw an entire school district off axis. That's been shown to be true even if it hasn't happened in your wife's particular school. > Nope, didn't say that. Strawman. What you said was "They're quarantining people that aren't sick, that's why they don't have staff". So now you're telling me now you are open to other possibilities. For instance the possibility that they don't have faculty/staff because sick people are being quarantined, or that many teachers are retiring and not being replaced? > By allowing staff that's not actually sick to teach, therefore you're not loading extra burden on fewer teachers. Okay, but what about in the cases where teachers are too sick to teach? Or when they have to take care of others who are sick? > School isn't for teachers, it's for educating kids to be productive members of society. Any teacher worth their salt knows this. School isn't for teachers, but you still need teachers to teach school. And if things aren't good for teachers, you're not going to be able to hire new ones. This is the very attitude that is causing so many to leave the field or avoid it entirely. Any teacher worth their salt also knows their worth, and they know when they're being exploited and disrespected. > You're right, so they need to start acting like it Well they have been acting like it for a very long time throughout this pandemic. Teachers have been teaching in person all year. They have actually died in service of their discipline and the nation due to this diseases despite the fact that you don't know any personally. They have done so at great cost to themselves financially, emotionally, and mentally while around them others, who are neither essential nor workers, have profited massively. What they are asking for now is to be supported and listened to, and not be called lazy, unpatriotic, un-American, traitors who deserve to be fired. > The entire problem here is that you're basing your stance off of false assumptions. I'm not basing my stance off of assumptions, I'm basing it off of experience. I am a teacher and what you say about students is just plain wrong. Maybe for small children it's true, but the kids I teach are teenagers and they spread covid just fine. The first week in class there was a massive outbreak as students mixed together after summer break -- over 250 cases were recorded. Some people got very sick. We went remote for a week, cases died down, and then we were back in the classroom. The rest of the semester went on uneventful. This only worked because we had proper precautions. We had a vaccination mandate with 90% compliance. We had mandatory masks, mandatory and available testing, and mandatory quarantine. These are the kinds of measures that are nonstarters at public schools, but experience has shown they are needed to keep things open and running and teachers happy. Teachers were giving the requested tools, and they got the job done. In other cases teachers are being disrespected, minimized, even demonized, and in those cases teachers aren't getting the job done, because they can't. Yes it's true that young children don't spread it according to the statistics. That's a relief! But I don't know how many times it needs to be said that children are not the only human beings in a school community, and the school is not a closed system. When community spread is as high as it is right now, it really doesn't matter how much children do or don't spread Covid! > You know what the biggest burden my wife had was during all of this? Creating multiple lesson plans Very true, I had that same problem! Based on my experience, I think there are approximately 0 teachers I know who would prefer teaching online to teaching in the classroom -- teaching to children in person is the entire joy of the profession. Without that, it's really not that rewarding of a job. But that's another issue of a lack of administrative support for teachers. Technology support staff could have been hired to help essential teaching workers through this time, but that never happened.

ModernMech 5y ago

Just curious then, how does your wife's school handle the case of a faculty member dying of Covid and not being able to find a replacement or sub? Do they just put more work on everyone else? In my district, they replaced the history teacher with the music teacher because she died right before the holidays due to Covid (if you're wondering, the history teacher doesn't have a background in music). They manage this by siphoning teacher prep time, which means the history teacher is covering music instead of prepping for history class. What is your district's protocol? > They're quarantining people that aren't sick, that's why they don't have staff. Is your position that no one has been quarantined who legitimately needed to be? Or hospitalized? Or died? Or retired? It's 100% people who aren't sick being quarantined, and that's why schools don't have enough faculty and staff? > They've scared away substitutes with unscientific fear mongering about super spreader events in school. Coming from a family of teachers, I'm sure you're aware that many if not most substitute teachers are older, retired, and often have multiple comorbidities related to Covid. Some of them are immunocompromised and can't even get vaccinated. Couple this with the fact that many schools do not have vaccination, testing, or masking requirements. Do you think it's unreasonable for such people to not want to subject themselves to a school environment at this time? > This is a problem of over-testing and unnecessary quarantining not a shortage. I understand you think this is fear mongering and people being quarantined who are healthy, but at the same time people are also actually dying and being hospitalized with very severe illness. You can call it a problem of quarantining healthy people and over testing, but that doesn't relate to the fact that vacancies are being created by Covid, and they aren't being filled because people look at the shitshow that education has become with Qanon craziness infiltrating school boards, and the demonization that they are getting online (being called lazy and that they should all be fired) and they nope out real quick. Why bother? I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. It doesn't make the field more attractive for new teachers. It doesn't help retention. It doesn't give kids a better environment for education. An alternative solution might be to impose a vaccination mandate, increase testing, better facilities with improved ventilation, and hazard pay for teachers along with a big freaking raise. But that seems to be a non starter. Instead we've chosen a path of disrespect, and that's actually a big component of this. Coming from a family of teachers, I'm sure you've heard this. Moreso than feeling afraid, teachers feel disrespected and disillusioned. They are ostensibly front-line essential workers, but they are called lazy, called unpatriotic, are underpaid, and overworked. There is a huge gap between the rhetoric/reality about how essential teachers are to managing this pandemic, and the attitudes and compensation they receive. Also, it's pretty condescending to suggest that this is all in teachers' heads, and they are just the victims of a fear mongering campaign. Stopping testing doesn't prevent teachers from being hospitalized or dying (and teachers are indeed dying). It also doesn't prevent their family members from being hospitalized or dying and teachers having to leave their jobs to take care of their family. It doesn't take many vacancies due to deaths or hospitalizations or retirements to completely throw a school into disarray -- especially considering the massive class sizes that many have to deal with. There's no extra slack other teachers can pick up. They are already stretched to the extreme when things are fully staffed.

CountDrewku 5y ago
>faculty member dying of Covid and not being able to find a replacement or sub? Hasn't happened, and the numbers show that would be rare. >Is your position that no one has been quarantined who legitimately needed to be? Or hospitalized? Or died? Or retired? It's 100% people who aren't sick being quarantined, and that's why schools don't have enough faculty and staff? Nope, didn't say that. Strawman. >Do you think it's unreasonable for such people to not want to subject themselves to a school environment at this time? Maybe they should focus on why they're only able to get old immuno-compromised individuals to substitute. >I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. By allowing staff that's not actually sick to teach, therefore you're not loading extra burden on fewer teachers. By also allowing students in the classroom, lessening the need to make lessons for quarantined individuals. >I don't see how lifting quarantine requirements and testing less makes things better for teachers. School isn't for teachers, it's for educating kids to be productive members of society. Any teacher worth their salt knows this. >They are ostensibly front-line essential workers You're right, so they need to start acting like it instead of following the lead of their unions (e.g. Chicago) and completely shutting down the system for what's essentially a cold at this point. I don't see nurses, emt's, or firefighters doing these things. The entire problem here is that you're basing your stance off of false assumptions. COVID has never been an issue in schools because children do not contract it at a high rate and they do not spread it at a high rate. So, going to remote learning was never a good solution to begin with. You know what the biggest burden my wife had was during all of this? Creating multiple lesson plans to try and teach to remote kids who were sitting in their rooms pretending to pay attention in Google Classroom while actually playing video games not giving a shit about school for a year. She 100% would have preferred being in person and reiterated that daily to me.
- ModernMech 5y ago
  > Hasn't happened, and the numbers show that would be rare. Okay, but it has happened to other people, and even if it is a rare occurrence, it can throw an entire school district off axis. That's been shown to be true even if it hasn't happened in your wife's particular school. > Nope, didn't say that. Strawman. What you said was "They're quarantining people that aren't sick, that's why they don't have staff". So now you're telling me now you are open to other possibilities. For instance the possibility that they don't have faculty/staff because sick people are being quarantined, or that many teachers are retiring and not being replaced? > By allowing staff that's not actually sick to teach, therefore you're not loading extra burden on fewer teachers. Okay, but what about in the cases where teachers are too sick to teach? Or when they have to take care of others who are sick? > School isn't for teachers, it's for educating kids to be productive members of society. Any teacher worth their salt knows this. School isn't for teachers, but you still need teachers to teach school. And if things aren't good for teachers, you're not going to be able to hire new ones. This is the very attitude that is causing so many to leave the field or avoid it entirely. Any teacher worth their salt also knows their worth, and they know when they're being exploited and disrespected. > You're right, so they need to start acting like it Well they have been acting like it for a very long time throughout this pandemic. Teachers have been teaching in person all year. They have actually died in service of their discipline and the nation due to this diseases despite the fact that you don't know any personally. They have done so at great cost to themselves financially, emotionally, and mentally while around them others, who are neither essential nor workers, have profited massively. What they are asking for now is to be supported and listened to, and not be called lazy, unpatriotic, un-American, traitors who deserve to be fired. > The entire problem here is that you're basing your stance off of false assumptions. I'm not basing my stance off of assumptions, I'm basing it off of experience. I am a teacher and what you say about students is just plain wrong. Maybe for small children it's true, but the kids I teach are teenagers and they spread covid just fine. The first week in class there was a massive outbreak as students mixed together after summer break -- over 250 cases were recorded. Some people got very sick. We went remote for a week, cases died down, and then we were back in the classroom. The rest of the semester went on uneventful. This only worked because we had proper precautions. We had a vaccination mandate with 90% compliance. We had mandatory masks, mandatory and available testing, and mandatory quarantine. These are the kinds of measures that are nonstarters at public schools, but experience has shown they are needed to keep things open and running and teachers happy. Teachers were giving the requested tools, and they got the job done. In other cases teachers are being disrespected, minimized, even demonized, and in those cases teachers aren't getting the job done, because they can't. Yes it's true that young children don't spread it according to the statistics. That's a relief! But I don't know how many times it needs to be said that children are not the only human beings in a school community, and the school is not a closed system. When community spread is as high as it is right now, it really doesn't matter how much children do or don't spread Covid! > You know what the biggest burden my wife had was during all of this? Creating multiple lesson plans Very true, I had that same problem! Based on my experience, I think there are approximately 0 teachers I know who would prefer teaching online to teaching in the classroom -- teaching to children in person is the entire joy of the profession. Without that, it's really not that rewarding of a job. But that's another issue of a lack of administrative support for teachers. Technology support staff could have been hired to help essential teaching workers through this time, but that never happened.