I don’t know. Am I allowed to make some social commentary here? Of course I can, this is mine.
What I mean is, I struggle with doing so long form a lot, because there’s so much out there already, I don’t think I should add to the pile of steaming dog shit we’re all wading through, you know? But here I am. I suppose what pushes me over the edge of “Don’t bother, it’s all being said,” is that god forbid anyone ever look back on all of this. They’ll know what I stood for and that I said something. It’s not all here. I combat people who are being vehemently bigoted online in local forums in my city and state. It’s pretty bad up here in New Hampshire.
I digress. The new topic this month is schools. Schools in certain areas are ramping up for either regular starts in late August, or earlier in August to attempt to “get ahead” of the virus and just let out earlier in November instead of December. Because the virus knows months and will certainly take a month off.
The recent news is that orange man and many like-minded individuals are crying out that we need to get kids back to schools. But it’s such a hypocrisy I can’t stop shaking my head. We don’t pay teachers enough, period. Dealing with children in this country is often a nightmare. School district rules and standardized state-mandated testing cripples them so much it’s difficult to keep an entire class in line and focused. The no child left behind act has made teaching exponentially difficult, and growing class numbers each year make any one-on-one time impossible.
What’s worse, is that teachers need to purchase their own materials for anything class related now. paper, markers, crayons, pencils, pens, project materials, you name it. Anything but the dumb textbook no one is reading anyway. So on top of not being properly paid, they have to dig into their own pockets just to teach. It’s often that school districts won’t pay for even basic technology they’re expecting teachers to use. Computers for grading and communicating with parents and faculty, tablets, phones etc. How insane.
My point I’m circling is that we often label our teachers as “heroes”. That’s the term that gets thrown around. I’m sure some enjoy the title. But there’s a lot that’s wrong with it. If they’re heroes, why don’t we pay them as such? Police and Fire get lauded as heroes, and now, we’re expecting teachers to put their lives in danger by simply being a teacher and practicing to make that literal sacrifice when they participate in school shooter drills, yet we pay them the bare bones salary to survive.
Let me say that again. Our kids and teachers, participate in school shooter drills, where teachers are trained to protect the children, and die for them first, and we pay them minimum wage. They’re often working incredibly long hours as well. Teaching is not a 9-5. It’s not even an 8-4. It’s often 7 am to 7 or 8 pm with few breaks in between. Grading and communicating with parents and students and faculty and meetings etc all dictate the grueling day. We prey on teachers like pilots. We take advantage of their passion to do what they love for work and often pay them trash.
And now, it’s 2020. We’re asking our teachers to draft their wills and once again give their lives, like “heroes.” In addition to putting themselves in harm’s way, between flying bullets and children, we’re asking them to be prison guards, for lack of a better term. To put their lives at risk because parents desperately want to rid themselves of the nuescance that is their children. They’ve been putting up with them for 6 months and they’re fed up. ‘Feed them to the dogs’ they’re saying.
No, they’re not saying that, but in so many words, they are.