Glashow Multi-genre blog post 3

The Lubbock Times

       The Teaching Profession at a Crossroads

            With all that educators had to manage over the past year, will anyone still want to enter the teaching profession after this?

 

February 21, 2021 Lubbock, TX.  Elementary school teacher Rebecca Romero woke up on Friday, March 13, 2020, wondering what her school board would decide about closing schools. Throughout the week, one activity after another had been cancelled, and parents were clamoring for an answer. Nobody know where the Coronavirus was, or how easily it could be spread. After two months of hearing about its devastating effects in China and parts of Europe, especially Italy, it had finally been detected in the United States. And just this week, the first cases were identified up in Houston.

By 7:30am word was out that schools would be closed on this Friday, and the school board would reassess the situation by Sunday. As was the decision of almost every school district in the nation, physical schools would stay closed for the rest of the semester, and most would determine a way forward for teachers to teach remotely.

Ms. Romero, divorced, had two girls of her own- 3^rd and 5^th graders, and her 68-year-old mother lived with them, sleeping in the spare bedroom. The situation worked out well, as grandma was always around and would watch the girls anytime she was needed. Ms. Romero was lucky. As a teacher she was home with her kids those first few weeks, only venturing out for groceries. She had many friends though, who worked as laborers or in the service industries. Some lost their jobs right away. Others had to make tough decisions between leaving their jobs or finding a way to have their kids cared for.

Within a few weeks, her employer indicated the school system wanted to get remote learning up and running. The school system, one of the poorest in the state, had few resources to provide extra computers to students that did not have them. The Romero’s shared one laptop and had an old desktop setup in the spare bedroom. Their inexpensive internet service was notoriously spotty.

Over the next few weeks, a flurry of e-mails would indicate that the teachers would teach from home using Google Classroom, the same system they already used. Nobody knew how it would respond with everyone connecting remotely. A series of on-line conferences were scheduled to get teachers up to speed. Though the Romero’s would need 3 computers for online schooling, her school said they were not eligible because they already had computers in the house.

When Ms. Romero’s classes re-started, as expected they were beset by technical issues. Though she could normally connect and communicate with a number of students, others would come and go, and at least 25% of her students she had not seen at all after a month. Her 2 daughters, on the other hand, were constantly being knocked offline, while sharing a single computer.

Though not ideal, her 6^th graders who showed up were at least getting the lesson plans. It was the ones who were not attending she was most concerned about, less because of the missed work than about their personal situations.

Ms. Romero began to reach out to other teachers, especially those who had siblings of kids in her class. They began to compile lists of missing kids and would communicate this list with the school’s office. But the administration had so much already to deal with, just trying to communicate with students and teachers who were showing up, that they did not have time to follow up. So, despite the pandemic, Ms. Romero and a few of her colleagues began to knock on doors. Sometime a child would recognize Ms. Romero and open the door. It became clear that a number of them were home alone. She promised to follow up at a later time, when she could converse with a parent. Other visits revealed that some of the families had move out. Neighbors often did not know where they went. Ms. Romero became consumed by the plight of these families, so much so that it affected her effort towards her current students, many of whom grew frustrated with the constant technical issues anyway and stopped showing up.

The pandemic hit some communities harder than others, and not only the infection itself, but the ability to maintain jobs and a workable family life. White collar workers who could work remotely benefited, while those who had to work outside the house suffered from job loss or a high risk of infection from COVID-19. The virus hit Black and Hispanic communities at a disproportionate rate to Whites.

By mid-summer, the community was clamoring for their kids to return to school. Having them occupied in classrooms during the day outweighed the fear of the virus. And schools talked about requiring masks, separating desks, and eliminating group activities like gym and recess, and requiring lunch to be eaten in the classroom. For Ms. Romero, this meant a return to school for herself and her daughters. Though in a way she relished the changed, she was very fearful of getting COVID, especially because her mother was overweight and had diabetes.

A discussion with her union revealed that if she did not return, she might lose her job. Her best chance would be to obtain a medical exemption, and potentially be put on leave. It was unclear how long she would be able to obtain coverage until the school system’s benefits ran out. At this time Ms. Romero is on paid leave while the merits of her case are being reviewed by the school system’s lawyers.

Ms. Romero’s experience during the pandemic is indicative of the ever-increasing obligations that teachers must face. Even before the pandemic, the sphere of teacher and school responsibility had increased significantly. From merely providing instruction to students, and extra academic help if necessary, to, in many cases (especially in poorer communities such as the one illustrated above) becoming a more stable and nurturing environment that the student’s home itself. Schools have become a main source of food distribution for a large part of the student population, not just providing free lunches, but up to 3 meals a day, including on weekends. Schools have become day cares, providing reduced or free before and after care, with kids able to spend up to 12 hours at school. Additionally, through school-supported programs- from healthcare, to mental health, to social services, children have much better care than they would get through Medicaid or other state or county programs.

 If Ms. Romero’s case is not upheld, she is willing to return to the classroom. The county has begun to vaccinate teachers, and her mother is on a vaccination list as well. Anyway, Ms. Romero is still concerned about several students, and she feels like she can help them if she has better access to the school and her network of fellow teachers. She is not sure how it has become her obligation, nor how long she can manage the stress of being responsible for so many others, being that she is already the primary caretaker of 3 family members at home. but the county, the parents and society in general seems to rely on teachers and schools as the first line of defense towards the success and wellbeing of their most vulnerable kids.