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Schools Are Closing Classrooms on Fridays. Parents Are Furious.
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Teachers are saints and deserve so much more than they get. It's really terrible that Republicans seem to want to turn schools into the next culture war front because it's going to make it worse for everybody.
As a parent, I also hope that there is some help from the Federal government because many kids can't just get an entire day off of school every week or even virtual learning. It's not sustainable. My wife teaches and I also work.
As a parent, I also hope that there is some help from the Federal government because many kids can't just get an entire day off of school every week or even virtual learning. It's not sustainable. My wife teaches and I also work.
BAsed on the OP this was handled very poorly. You can't give a 48 hour notice and not expect working parents to freak out. Also for inner city school systems, there's a higher rate of jobs that can't be worked remotely, and households are less often two parent households where there is more flexibility.
I think it's also good to challenge the assumption that this is "good for teachers." My wife teaches at an inner city school not *that* different from Detroit and they were remote for Fridays last spring, and she fucking hated it. The student engagement for remote in our district is very low, and she'd basically be talking at a screen for an hour with no feedback, no input, I'd hear her upstairs, "Hey everybody, anybody there? Hello, any signs of life?" In our district, the school is also very important for nutrition, meals, and with my wife's school, laundry. For her school it was a mistake to close on Friday's last spring, but her school had to follow the practices of the rest of the school district, which ranges between very low income levels to modest middle income, generally diverse populations for all schools in our district, but hers is mostly non-white, high percentage of english language learners, the most at risk population for outcome declines related to COVID.
In our district Friday's were cleaning days as well, but now 20 months into the pandemic, I think it's worth questioning the deep cleaning mentality. In ~20+ months, as best as we know, there's been near enough to zero covid transmission from surfaces, so called "fomite" transmission, perhaps a few confirmed cases through a surface, compared to ~50m known cases through typical transmission in the air. A lot of the deep cleaning mentality is either based on faulty assumptions from the beginning of the pandemic, the same thing that caused people to leave mail or groceries outside for X days which was utter hogwash and corrected by the science pretty quickly, but the habit started and it's difficult to disrupt. Like the restaurant that'll pack in hundreds of people, and then make a big show about using bleach on every surface. Or the hotels that have special tags on every door that "this room was deep cleaned," and yet the hotel bar has people shoulder to shoulder from 4PM to 8PM every night. For private businesses, I get that a lot of the theatre is marketing. For public policy in government-run institutions like schools, I think there needs to be better justification.
I think it's also good to challenge the assumption that this is "good for teachers." My wife teaches at an inner city school not *that* different from Detroit and they were remote for Fridays last spring, and she fucking hated it. The student engagement for remote in our district is very low, and she'd basically be talking at a screen for an hour with no feedback, no input, I'd hear her upstairs, "Hey everybody, anybody there? Hello, any signs of life?" In our district, the school is also very important for nutrition, meals, and with my wife's school, laundry. For her school it was a mistake to close on Friday's last spring, but her school had to follow the practices of the rest of the school district, which ranges between very low income levels to modest middle income, generally diverse populations for all schools in our district, but hers is mostly non-white, high percentage of english language learners, the most at risk population for outcome declines related to COVID.
In our district Friday's were cleaning days as well, but now 20 months into the pandemic, I think it's worth questioning the deep cleaning mentality. In ~20+ months, as best as we know, there's been near enough to zero covid transmission from surfaces, so called "fomite" transmission, perhaps a few confirmed cases through a surface, compared to ~50m known cases through typical transmission in the air. A lot of the deep cleaning mentality is either based on faulty assumptions from the beginning of the pandemic, the same thing that caused people to leave mail or groceries outside for X days which was utter hogwash and corrected by the science pretty quickly, but the habit started and it's difficult to disrupt. Like the restaurant that'll pack in hundreds of people, and then make a big show about using bleach on every surface. Or the hotels that have special tags on every door that "this room was deep cleaned," and yet the hotel bar has people shoulder to shoulder from 4PM to 8PM every night. For private businesses, I get that a lot of the theatre is marketing. For public policy in government-run institutions like schools, I think there needs to be better justification.
My husband is a high school history teacher, and feeling this too. His district refuses to hire another history teacher so he (and a few of his fellow teachers in his department) are teaching 6 classes (instead of 5). Each class is filled up to maximum capacity (average of 30+). He is teaching 190+ students total. Not to mention that he works in a school with one of the largest refugee/immigrant populations - he has several students who are English Learners that he tries hard to create individual lessons for so they can participate and learn.
He is paid comparitively well here in WA state, but the burn out is so real. Glad to be back in the classroom though. Virtual learning almost broke him - very minimal participation, like talking into the void day after day, with admin constantly asking "but what more can you do to help your students?" And the answer is nothing. Emails, phone calls, all met with radio silence.
It's a lot. It always has been, even before the pandemic. But this is too much - teachers cannot be expected to carry it all. Not only are they teaching the next generation, as others have mentioned, they are expected to address huge systemic issues that are impacting students but they have no control over - like childhood hunger, children experiencing homelessness, experiencing physical or sexual abuse, mental health, the list goes on. And they get no support, but all the blame.
He is paid comparitively well here in WA state, but the burn out is so real. Glad to be back in the classroom though. Virtual learning almost broke him - very minimal participation, like talking into the void day after day, with admin constantly asking "but what more can you do to help your students?" And the answer is nothing. Emails, phone calls, all met with radio silence.
It's a lot. It always has been, even before the pandemic. But this is too much - teachers cannot be expected to carry it all. Not only are they teaching the next generation, as others have mentioned, they are expected to address huge systemic issues that are impacting students but they have no control over - like childhood hunger, children experiencing homelessness, experiencing physical or sexual abuse, mental health, the list goes on. And they get no support, but all the blame.
The school system in America right now is mostly about deciding who we want to put the most stress on. It's awful. My wife is finally going to quit teaching. The administration has just been piling on more and more work for teachers since they returned to in-school learning in September. Tons of teachers are out every single day due to stress and sickness, and there aren't enough Substitutes, so they are shifting around teachers to make up for it. It's only getting worse.
I was talking to my wife about the recent school shooting and she brought up a situation they're in.
She has a young boy that does NOT need to be in the school system. She wants him to get help, and they are trying to work towards getting him out and into where he needs to be (which is a mental health care facility for kids).
She describes him as a sociopath. The problem is, they have to have recorded so many "incidents" in a certain time period. They want him gone NOW for help, but they legally can't do jack. They have to report and photograph incidences. He has to hit a threshold, and that can take months. He has told kids he'll kill them. He has told the teachers he wants to rip their eyes out and eat them. He goes from being calm to throwing his breakfast across the room and flipping chairs. He's EIGHT.
Teachers are so tied up by the "processes" they legally have to follow in everything from masks, to healthcare, to safety, to suspensions, and handling of students...they just don't want to do it anymore. My wife is an administrator, and she's doing her best, but she literally can't do what is right or what needs to be done due to the processes put in place in system that needs an ENTIRE overhaul. No one above her will step into these situations. Their response is "follow protocol".
She knows that if people could watch video of him, something may happen, but she can't legally video tape him. In her 12 years as a teacher/administrator, she's never had a child like this.
Take situations like that, and throw CoVID and everything else on top of it, and it's just an absolute train wreck.
I absolutely 1000% understand the people that have no way to take care of their kids if they have to work though. That is an absolute reality for millions of people.
She has a young boy that does NOT need to be in the school system. She wants him to get help, and they are trying to work towards getting him out and into where he needs to be (which is a mental health care facility for kids).
She describes him as a sociopath. The problem is, they have to have recorded so many "incidents" in a certain time period. They want him gone NOW for help, but they legally can't do jack. They have to report and photograph incidences. He has to hit a threshold, and that can take months. He has told kids he'll kill them. He has told the teachers he wants to rip their eyes out and eat them. He goes from being calm to throwing his breakfast across the room and flipping chairs. He's EIGHT.
Teachers are so tied up by the "processes" they legally have to follow in everything from masks, to healthcare, to safety, to suspensions, and handling of students...they just don't want to do it anymore. My wife is an administrator, and she's doing her best, but she literally can't do what is right or what needs to be done due to the processes put in place in system that needs an ENTIRE overhaul. No one above her will step into these situations. Their response is "follow protocol".
She knows that if people could watch video of him, something may happen, but she can't legally video tape him. In her 12 years as a teacher/administrator, she's never had a child like this.
Take situations like that, and throw CoVID and everything else on top of it, and it's just an absolute train wreck.
I absolutely 1000% understand the people that have no way to take care of their kids if they have to work though. That is an absolute reality for millions of people.
Husband just left his teaching job due to health reasons affected by the pandemic. Teachers have had enough against them as it is but now we expect them to be full time parents and counselors for pandemic-affected children too, without any extra pay or resources.
- Some districts are going remote only Fridays to help with this along with cleaning protocols for COVID
Schools Are Closing Classrooms on Fridays. Parents Are Furious. (Published 2021)
Desperate to keep teachers, some districts have turned to remote teaching for one day a week — and sometimes more. Families have been left to find child care.www.nytimes.com
Do "cleaning protocols" still make sense? Haven't we learned that Covid transmissions are mostly airborne and the virus can't survive long on surfaces? Is it even remotely possible for someone to get sick on Monday because they didn't sanitize desks on Friday?
Teacher in NY here. I'm burnt out.
Our principal had a meeting with each grade to gauge our "mental health," seeing if there's anything she can do to lighten the load. She did one thing and proceeded to pile three more things on top of the load.
I'm six years in and just got tenure so I'm not going anywhere. I count the days until I can retire in 2040.
Our principal had a meeting with each grade to gauge our "mental health," seeing if there's anything she can do to lighten the load. She did one thing and proceeded to pile three more things on top of the load.
I'm six years in and just got tenure so I'm not going anywhere. I count the days until I can retire in 2040.
All facets of the American system have been slowly eroding for decades now and the pandemic has really put the foot on the gas for practically everything.
So the school week is shortened to 4 days in the classroom instead of 5, leading to less pressure on teachers and students.
Which SHOULD stretch to hey, if the kids are out of school, parents need to take care of them. Off on fridays too, 4 day work week.
A man can dream.
Which SHOULD stretch to hey, if the kids are out of school, parents need to take care of them. Off on fridays too, 4 day work week.
A man can dream.
Yup. Teachers are burned the fuck out. All The BS they have to put up with, the lack of substitute teachers, the loss of planning times to deal with crazy parents. Public education is a calling for my wife, she could easily make double in the private sector, but she cares about education and she's ready to tap the fuck out.
Year 7 in my current position, I did a few years of long-term subbing and student-teaching and interning beforehand. After 5+ years you're supposed to start hitting your stride and have the basics down and start doing some more interesting and innovative stuff. I don't feel like I'm hitting my stride at all. My high schoolers are behaving like middle schoolers, the quality of the work has gone down, the amount of things I have to deal with has gone up. It's hard to explain everything about this and why we're all feeling like this... but it's just felt like a gut punch these last few years.
Omicron is lingering and I know that even if the amount of cases get worse... they're never letting schools shut down like they did at the beginning of the pandemic ever again. For any reason. I'm sure of it.
The pay isn't great for a job that requires a master's degree. I make under 60k right now at 7 years of experience. I'll make about 90k (hopefully 6 figures after cost of living increases) once I reach the top of the pay scale, but that's a decade away. I'll be 43.
On top of that, I have to worry about being too 'political' with what I'm teaching. I teach classes about American literature. We talk about race, we talk about gender, we talk about class. The kids have a sense of the fact that there is inequality in our society and they want to talk about it, want to learn about it, and I have to skate around the issue and tone down how I approach it. I have to rely on giving them the right things (even the books I put on my shelf for students to pick from is being questioned) and hope they are the ones who come to the right conclusions and ask the right questions.
I'm just really tired. Give me Fridays off.
Omicron is lingering and I know that even if the amount of cases get worse... they're never letting schools shut down like they did at the beginning of the pandemic ever again. For any reason. I'm sure of it.
The pay isn't great for a job that requires a master's degree. I make under 60k right now at 7 years of experience. I'll make about 90k (hopefully 6 figures after cost of living increases) once I reach the top of the pay scale, but that's a decade away. I'll be 43.
On top of that, I have to worry about being too 'political' with what I'm teaching. I teach classes about American literature. We talk about race, we talk about gender, we talk about class. The kids have a sense of the fact that there is inequality in our society and they want to talk about it, want to learn about it, and I have to skate around the issue and tone down how I approach it. I have to rely on giving them the right things (even the books I put on my shelf for students to pick from is being questioned) and hope they are the ones who come to the right conclusions and ask the right questions.
I'm just really tired. Give me Fridays off.
Unless you add more hours the other days, you've reduced education by 20%
I can sympthatize with the parents here. Yes parents shouldn't view schooling as day care, but lets be honest for a lot of people that's exactly part of what it is. And the shitty financial situation a lot of people in this country are in absolutely necessitates that.
At the same time, I absolutely see the teachers' perspective on this with how awful the last year and a half has been for everyone. Its a thankless job. Ultimately its one of those problems where two groups of people are being pitted against each other while the people with the actual power and pull to fix things do nothing and escape any real criticism or consequence.
At the same time, I absolutely see the teachers' perspective on this with how awful the last year and a half has been for everyone. Its a thankless job. Ultimately its one of those problems where two groups of people are being pitted against each other while the people with the actual power and pull to fix things do nothing and escape any real criticism or consequence.
School districts around here were doing meal pickups during the early days of Covid. They should do that again.
The local food bank also delivers food to schools that parents can pick up. Sadly, it's not every school but it should be.
As a burned out teacher who's going to leave the profession if I don't transfer, 100% this. The people who are in positions to do something about this: raising pay, helping parents with wage increases and expansion of daycare, creating equitable learning environments... they just don't care. Even most dems just think the solution is hiring more teachers. Guess what? Only 15 people graduated from our local university with an education degree this December while dozens are leaving every month.
I don't know, I might have been in favor of a 4 day school pre pandemic but after seeing how remote learning disadvantages, in a major way, students at the bottom economically I think I'd oppose this.
Many students at my kids' school only eat when they're at school so reducing their meals by 20% is unsettling.
Many students at my kids' school only eat when they're at school so reducing their meals by 20% is unsettling.
A 4 day work week with kids going to school Monday through Thursday 8:30 to 5:30 should be the standard; with longer breaks during the day for kids and teachers.
I suspect there more going on here than trying to give teachers a break. My wife is a teacher and we had similar last minute decisions made in November. The official statement said something similar but the reality was that it wasn't about giving a teachers a break at all. It was the fact that they flat out couldn't staff essential funcitons those days. NOBODY wants to sub any more. So if a teacher does have to take a day off then a lot of time it's a hodgepodge of trying to cover classes without a dedicated substitute. On top of that you have major bus shortages, cafeteria workers shortages,etc.
So they try to say "oh, we're giving the teachers a break" but the reality is that this is happening because they are so short staffed on those specific days that the schoool literally can't function so they have no choice but to close or go virtual.
And it pisses me off that they couch their inability to properly manager resources as giving a break to the teachers because 1) most of the time the teachers didn't ask for this and 2) it just generates more animosity toward the profession. Lots of "oh, it's not enough they get summers off but now they get mental health days? Must be nice. Wish I got that at my job."
You must be in a really high COL area. My wife make mid to upper 60s after teaching for over twenty years. Ain't no teacher in her system sniffing anywhere near six figures.
I don't think a lot of people realize just how quickly the amount of people entering education is in decline. I knew things were bad, but didn't realize the field was this bad until recently.
The number of Americans training to become teachers has dropped by a third since 2010, and it's creating a critical educator shortage that will affect every state
The drop in teacher training enrollment suggests that issues plaguing the profession have discouraged potential educators in the last decade.
www.businessinsider.com
I don't think a lot of people realize just how quickly the amount of people entering education is in decline. I knew things were bad, but not this bad.
The number of Americans training to become teachers has dropped by a third since 2010, and it's creating a critical educator shortage that will affect every state
The drop in teacher training enrollment suggests that issues plaguing the profession have discouraged potential educators in the last decade.
Of my 2 friends who are teachers, 1 is on the verge of quitting. Kids and parents are on their worst behavior this year
I know a lot of districts, especially in rural areas, are starting to look abroad because they can't fill positions at all. Hell, I'm in a suburb of Houston and it took my principal 3 months to find a math teacher this summer.
America had better start treating teachers better and paying them more REALLY soon, otherwise this is just scratching the surface of what the consequences will be.
At my wife's school they had a French teacher quit several weeks ago. They've had two spanish teachers tag-teaming trying to keep the class going with no permanent fix in sight.
I could see an argument for a four day school day if we started having kids go to school through the summer ( there's still a summer break but it's shorter). From my understanding summer is also very detrimental to kids who are the bottom economically and so I've found arguments to eliminate it convincing. Perhaps summer classes could be more focused on creativity and activity along with reinforcing the fundamentals or something.
But I might be biased since as a kid with parents who worked full time, I had to go to a summer program and most of my friends weren't there so I would have rather been in school.
Parents can be furious all they want, but here's the thing:
Parents are a huge part of the cause of this.
One word why this will never happen:
Sports.
Parents are a huge part of the cause of this.
One word why this will never happen:
Sports.
Growing up, my cousins were on some weird schedule at a district in Iowa that was 8 or 9 weeks on, 2 or 3 weeks off, year around (with major holidays off too, of course). It worked out that they had the same amount of time off as a normal school schedule, it was just spread out throughout the year. I would love that schedule, not only as a former student, but a current teacher.
I think the big issue here--and it applies outside of school as well--is the sheer enormity of non-commital waffling regarding all things COVID.
This wouldn't be a controversy if school systems said that all Fridays would be mental health days before the school year started. Parents, employers, and everyone else could plan accordingly.
I'm not just putting this on schools either. It seems like every sector of society is making incredibly short-sighted adjustments out of some vain hope that the situation might normalize tomorrow, by some miracle.
That and many low income parents can't afford to not work and stay home with their young children. Thank god our kids are old enough to be independent and can stay at home by themselves for long periods of time. My wife's work moved to full time WFH during the pandemic but if that didn't happen and we had young kids we would have been in trouble
I had no idea they were outsourcing teachers but it makes a lot of sense. Even as a kid it was pretty obvious to me that teaching was an underpaid, overworked job. I always hated when students made teachers' lives more miserable, and I'm sure it's even worse now with parents. Unfortunately like many things in this country, nobody with any kind of power is interested in making it better so it's just going to get worse and worse and everyone else will suffer for it.
People fight for shorter work days and you want to increase a child's day to 9 hours? I don't think engagement studies would support that.
Kids can play sports on Friday while school is out. And during the week kids can leave early and do make up work as needed. What would prevent that?
That's what longer breaks for lunch and recess are for.
So then parents have to transport to and from for all extracurricular activites on Fridays? At least right now it's just picking up.
No, parents are mad because these decisions are made last minute and it casues havoc in changing their work schedule and could lead to a loss of job if their workplace cannot accomodate.
Yeah, that or having a bus that runs just to pick up kids with a sporting event to attend.
My girlfriend is a teacher in a Houston area school. They had something like 9 vacancies when school started, with a couple more teachers (and a Vice Principal) leaving partway through this semester.
So an hourly schedule that reflects the reality of the majority of the working population while simultaneously reducing working hours shouldn't even be considered?
We need to move to a 4 day work week, schools pushing this is a good thing.
First, there are multiple nights a week with games.
Second, kids have practice every night there are no games. In small districts like the one I work in, gym space is limited, so the teams rotate times, and one team practices til 9. That would be 11:30 PM under your proposal.
Also, on game day, there are often freshman teams that play before JV and Varsity, starting at 4:00. Impossible to fit those games in. Varsity would get done at like midnight.
Oh, and good luck convincing today's parents to EVER consider reducing sports time. It's impossible. I've been at schools that tried it. Complete disaster. Whole towns get up in arms because in rural districts, the team is a source of pride.
Plus it's not just conventional sports (for anyone that wants to roll their eyes at kids getting less football time or whatever). It's all extracurricular activies including drama, debate, forensics, clubs, etc.