With No End in Sight to the Coronavirus, Some Teachers Are Retiring Rather Than Go Back to School
Teachers say they're concerned about staying safe in their classrooms, as President Trump demands that schools reopen
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Trump is absolutely desperate for normalcy. That's the only reason he's on about the school stuff. Kids not being able to go to school isn't "normal." Parents having to stay home with kids because they can't go to school isn't "normal" and it slows economic recovery.
Safety isn't remotely a factor.
Safety isn't remotely a factor.
I totally understand, especially those that might be of a certain age, or don't have the best health.
Everyone just wants this to go away and at some point everyone is going to have to wake up and accept that this is the new normal we're here we have to deal with this as a society. Stuffing your head in the sand and waiting for this to blow over isn't going to work. Its bizarre seeing so many grown fucking adults unable to cope with reality.
After four years, big blocks of rambling text with that orange monkey's gross face at the top just read to me like blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah at this point. Like my mind is now incapable of trying to pick through the shit, and it won't even matter in a few more months anyways. Tweet away, ya fat bitch.
All of those countries also have been better at handling the virus than the U.S. ever will.
I know several teachers personally who have retired "early" this year. They were retirement age but planned on working a few more years, say to 60 or so, but they really struggled with Google Classroom, remote teaching, reaching out to students, e-learning, and everything that goes with it and decided to hang it up.
I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily. At my wife's school she's very good with Google Classroom and remote teaching because she's a digital native, but the people in their 50s and 60s are really struggling with the change, either unable or unwilling to learn or adapt their lesson plans to the new abnormal. It's difficult and if you've been doing something one way for 30 years and then suddenly one monday everything changes, it's hard to adapt, and there are some just unwilling to adapt. My wife struggles with one teacher in her dept who just... is refuses to try to learn the digital teaching tools. She's in her mid-50s and isn't fully vested for pension yet, and y'know learning new shit can be hard, but she's also very very very stubborn about it and doesn't want to learn something new. And then there's the health aspect to if your school system does go back, do you want to risk it?
The good thing with my wife's school system is that they're going to have open positions to hire more teachers this fall or next spring.
I'm still close with a bunch of faculty from my academia days and I've heard nightmare stories about how stubborn some of them are, unsurprisingly. I think there's kind of an irony that these university professors are so obstinate against teaching in any way that's different from how they've taught for the last 30 years.
Lone exception being Sweden, kind of, which American conservatives are like "LET'S TAKEN THE SWEDEN MODEL!" but they're entirely unwilling to implement any of the other public health measures that sweden already has. Sweden has a death rate about 40% higher than the US, and like 10x higher than some neighboring countries of their's and their economy was hit much harder than their peers in Europe. But unlike the US, Sweden has universal care, a realistic out-of-work program, and social safety nets if you get sick. Conservatives are like "LET'S EMULATE SWEDEN! ....... except for any of the stuff that makes Swedish society and economy work for people."
I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily. At my wife's school she's very good with Google Classroom and remote teaching because she's a digital native, but the people in their 50s and 60s are really struggling with the change, either unable or unwilling to learn or adapt their lesson plans to the new abnormal. It's difficult and if you've been doing something one way for 30 years and then suddenly one monday everything changes, it's hard to adapt, and there are some just unwilling to adapt. My wife struggles with one teacher in her dept who just... is refuses to try to learn the digital teaching tools. She's in her mid-50s and isn't fully vested for pension yet, and y'know learning new shit can be hard, but she's also very very very stubborn about it and doesn't want to learn something new. And then there's the health aspect to if your school system does go back, do you want to risk it?
The good thing with my wife's school system is that they're going to have open positions to hire more teachers this fall or next spring.
I'm still close with a bunch of faculty from my academia days and I've heard nightmare stories about how stubborn some of them are, unsurprisingly. I think there's kind of an irony that these university professors are so obstinate against teaching in any way that's different from how they've taught for the last 30 years.
Lone exception being Sweden, kind of, which American conservatives are like "LET'S TAKEN THE SWEDEN MODEL!" but they're entirely unwilling to implement any of the other public health measures that sweden already has. Sweden has a death rate about 40% higher than the US, and like 10x higher than some neighboring countries of their's and their economy was hit much harder than their peers in Europe. But unlike the US, Sweden has universal care, a realistic out-of-work program, and social safety nets if you get sick. Conservatives are like "LET'S EMULATE SWEDEN! ....... except for any of the stuff that makes Swedish society and economy work for people."
Can't fault teachers for this.
Safely reopening schools in the fall (by eradicating the coronavirus beforehand) should have been the #1 priority when we as a nation had the opportunity to take action back in February/March. Instead we had ramshackle governmental [lack of] policies and spiteful individualists around the country that failed to make the necessary short-term sacrifices for the greater long-term good.
Safely reopening schools in the fall (by eradicating the coronavirus beforehand) should have been the #1 priority when we as a nation had the opportunity to take action back in February/March. Instead we had ramshackle governmental [lack of] policies and spiteful individualists around the country that failed to make the necessary short-term sacrifices for the greater long-term good.
Teachers should be paid a fuck ton of money. Attract the best, recruit the best. These people are shaping our kids and therefore the future. Money should be POURED into schools in any and all countries.
Just another long line in the crumbling of American schools. I actually almost went into teaching, and have done a lot of ESL teaching overseas, but so glad I never went into teaching in America. What a shithole for the profession.
So very GOP to hate socialism until it suits their agenda
So instead of assisting and help schools meet guidelines to safety open he's going to remove those guidelines and tell schools to open anyways. Brilliant fucking plan
My mom told me about this a while ago. She was a teacher also but retired 5 years ago. Basically, teachers are retiring and thinking about being rehired after all this is past.
With No End in Sight to the Coronavirus, Some Teachers Are Retiring Rather Than Go Back to School
Teachers say they're concerned about staying safe in their classrooms, as President Trump demands that schools reopentime.com
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I mean look at Germany's coronavirus response too and their numbers. It shames what happened in the USA. If the USA can get numbers down to where Germany is, then I'd happily talk about school openings. But we ain't there.
This was my mom - a year away from retirement and she cut her losses, and retired a few weeks ago.
No doubt about it, she would die if she went back into the classroom.
No doubt about it, she would die if she went back into the classroom.
So what's the gamble here? You can't normalize or make people forget death. The hope is that the kids resiliency stays up and they don't bring it home?
I guess the thinking is leaving kids home = a hard to ignore sign that we are still living in a pandemic?
I guess the thinking is leaving kids home = a hard to ignore sign that we are still living in a pandemic?
And so the brain drain of our institutions continues.
Well, we're only allowed to compare those when trying to say your healthcare systems won't work in America.
Yeah, and in Germany we have summer vacation for schools, so how we will open schools is not yet defined...
There is a lot of push back from teachers because there is not enough of guidelines and support on statesside...
Makes sense.
No one seems to take seriously the risk that this could last for more than a year.
Everyone is still out here saying "when the vaccine comes out this fall/winter/spring" like that's a given.
No one seems to take seriously the risk that this could last for more than a year.
Everyone is still out here saying "when the vaccine comes out this fall/winter/spring" like that's a given.
I recently graduated and got my teaching credential in music education. That shit ain't coming back for awhile. I'm switching careers. When will we have kids maskless and blowing through horns again?
I think I agree with you? Lol. Some people say Sweden is a mess, maybe it is. I took the subway today because I needed something from the office. I didn't wear a mask, don't even own one, and the central station was more or less as packed as if Corona wasn't real. I didn't see any other people in masks either but I couldn't say for sure. It's dumb, I agree, but the Swedish freedom is nice, not gonna lie. I know a handful of people who've been sick but even they don't seem to care much. Not even taboo to mention it.
I don't think the US could handle our weird attitude and solution, no. We can't either perhaps, the number of deaths is high even though I don't know anyone even remotely affected through deaths in the family or anything.
Not sure where I'm going with this really. I guess it's a little "fuck you, got mine" attitude because I vastly prefer my freedom even though people are dying all over, and I would think a lot of Swedes feel that way.
Yup, my wife is the sole administrator at a small private school that teaches kids who never quite fit into public school (kids who've been bullied, have adhd, kids with quirks, etc.), and three of their six teaches have decided to retire this summer. They're all over 60 years old, and the only reason they were still teaching was because they loved working with the kids. But the risk is just too great for them at their age to return in the fall.
My dad has been teaching in the same university for almost 50 years, and he is finally thinking about retirement because of this. Fucking hates doing online classes.
Yeah, my mom is a schoolteacher (Pre-K currently, buy 1st through 4th grade in the past) and she's considering retiring a couple years early because she has the misfortune of living in Florida. It's fucked up.
Wow. That's a lot.
Now teachers are going to seriously understaffed. It's already a tough job at the best of times. Underpaid, underappreciated, often disrespected by students. Add virus concerns and all the changes that brings and now it's an extremely difficult job.
I know of lots of district administrators that are taking off for consultant type positions so they have no direct contact with schools in general and won't be held responsible for the inevitable shit show by the parents when it all blows up in the fall.
This is a nightmare.
This is a nightmare.
We're doing the same thing in the UK.
OMG, LOOK AT EUROPE, THEY'VE OPENED UP MORE THAN US, NO REASON WE CAN'T DO THE SAME.
I mean... there is, our infection rates are 10x higher.
Glad my red.state mom retired a few years ago. I really feel for that 50-60 range that can't retire but are prime candidates for a bad covid run. I wonder how many teachers at my kids elementary have retired.
its gonna be dangerous in the fall with flu and corona virus being spread. kids are walking disease factories so older or immuno compromised teachers are in very real danger if they go back to classes. not like kids aren't in danger either. they may not get hit as hard but we haven't seen what happens when a huge number of them start getting sick with the virus. there are gonna be a ton of kids suffering from the effects of the virus or possibly dying in pretty big numbers and i don't think we are prepared for that. i sure as hell don't want my niece or nephew to go back to school right now.
Same, whenever I see a Trump tweet my eyes just completely glaze over. I honestly cannot read them at this point.
Heard on CNN that the federal government doesn't give a lot of money to schools. . . so it was apparently another empty drumpf threat. There's no funding to cut.
sweden kept their schools open throughout this entire thing
and data shows that teachers didn't contract the virus at higher rates than other professions
because kids barely spread the virus
and their development is seriously hurt by lack of proper classroom education
and data shows that teachers didn't contract the virus at higher rates than other professions
because kids barely spread the virus
and their development is seriously hurt by lack of proper classroom education
Almost all funding is local property taxes. Poor neighborhoods = poor schools and vice versa.
Doesn't take into account asymptomatic spread to families, etc. Also, great, they got sick just like everyone else? What's the point here? They wouldn't get sick if schools were closed, thus lowering the level of spread of the virus.sweden kept their schools open throughout this entire thing
and data shows that teachers didn't contract the virus at higher rates than other professions
because kids barely spread the virus
and their development is seriously hurt by lack of proper classroom education