DETROIT — Caitlin Reynolds, a single mother, was happy that her son, L.J., was finally settled into fourth grade after a rocky experience last year with remote learning.
Then, on Wednesday, Nov. 17, an announcement: Detroit public schools would close its classrooms every Friday in December. There would be virtual school only.
On Friday, a follow-up announcement: School was also canceled starting that Monday, for the entire week of Thanksgiving. This time, there would be no online option.
"You need to take the kids back out again?" Ms. Reynolds said. "How is that not going to be harmful to these students?"
School districts cited various reasons for the temporary closings, from a rise in Covid-19 cases to a need to thoroughly sanitize classrooms. But for many schools, the remote learning days — an option that did not exist before the pandemic — are a last-ditch effort to keep teachers from resigning. They are burned out, educators said, after a year of trying to help students through learning loss, and working overtime to make up for labor shortages.
Battles in the classroom — from mask mandates to debates over critical race theory — have also taken a toll, said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country's second-biggest teachers' union.
"What you hear from teachers is that it's been too much," she said. "And they're trying the best that they can."
These temporary closures, though, may only hamper relationships with parents at a moment when tensions in many districts are already high.
Because of school cancellations last academic year, Ms. Reynolds, who works at a University of Michigan research lab, had already run out of paid time off. Her mother was able to watch her fourth-grade son last Friday. But now she is scrambling to make sure someone else can be home with him every Friday this month — or lose hundreds of dollars from her paycheck.
Key points:
- 2 years into the pandemic teachers are burned out
- Some districts are going remote only Fridays to help with this along with cleaning protocols for COVID
- The GOP sparked anti-CRT debates have also taken their toll.
- The virtual teaching infrastructure developed at the height of the pandemic has helped make this move possible.
However, American education is a mess. Teachers are underpaid, overworked, blamed for everything. The pandemic really revealed that our society doesn't care for teachers, nurses, doctors, and so on.
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
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