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- 3rd and 5th 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 6th 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.
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