Teacher Rant

Teacher Rant

What do people want from teachers? We walk into a classroom every single day knowing we could get shot and accept that risk. We have our canned food weapons,  our intruder drills to prepare for that day someone might come in and try to kill me and we work 12+ hour days for barely enough money to live on.  We decorate our rooms with our own money, we buy pencils and supplies for students from our own money, we even make student protection shields with our own money. A global pandemic hits and we completely rearranged instruction to make sure our students would get what they needed with 24 hours notice.  We made sure they had food everyday.  We made sure they had school supplies and electronic devices to do their work on.  We recorded lessons from home and contacted parents and students every single day to make sure they were okay and to offer help if needed.  We did this every day- willingly and without complaint.  Now we are asking you to listen to us this one time and postpone school or start online.  We are telling you we are scared and we are afraid – afraid for ourselves, for our families, and for those students we love as our own children.  All we are asking is for you to understand that while research suggests children may not be as susceptible to the virus, adults definitely are. We’re telling you that schools are full of adults and many are high risk. We are explaining our reasons over and over.  And you call us snowflakes or lazy and imply that we just want more time off work.  It’s bad enough we get judged for having summers “off” (which we don’t; I just don’t get paid for that time), but to imply that we haven’t done anything during these quarantine months is not only insulting but hurtful.  We are not babysitters.  I didn’t pay $30,000+ plus to go to college and receive multiple advanced degrees to babysit your kids.  That’s not my job.  My job is to teach them, to prepare them for the future, to give them what they need to be successful beyond high school. My job is not to watch them so you can go back to work.  Your problem is not with the teachers - your problem is with the government.  They’re the ones making you choose.  They’re the ones who have let us down.  They’re the ones who are responsible for this failure.  They are the ones who are responsible for the fact that we are now 6 months into a pandemic and numbers are on the rise.  They are the ones to blame for us not feeling comfortable going back to school. Put the blame where it belongs - the federal government.  Please stop blaming the teachers who barely make a living wage, the teachers who are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, the teachers who work every single day and spend their own money and take time away from their own families to make sure YOUR children have what they need.  I won’t apologize for wanting to stay alive so I can continue doing what I love to do - teaching your children.