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All of this but add the parents. I taught HS for 14 years. During the flu season I called the nurse or a parent at least once a week begging for the deathly ill child to go home. Parents didn’t want to leave work, and they almost always argued. 1/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/health/coronavirus-schools-reopen.html?referringSource=articleShare
The kicker is, the majority of that career was in the shadow of a major research hospital and the majority of the students I had were children of medical professionals who knew how sick their children were. But they “had” to go to work, so they sent them to school anyway. 2/
I taught during a meningitis outbreak, the swine flu, the bird flu, multiple chicken pox and mono outbreaks, and a mild whooping cough scare, fed of course, by families who hadn’t gotten vaccinations. Teachers were left to scrub and sanitize classrooms. Many did not. 3/
My colleague’s school and classroom policies penalized students for non-attendance, and work given during sick days was often not substantial enough to do well on tests and assessments. Parents wanted their kids to do better, so they came to school sick. 4/
Extracurricular activities such as sports and theatre penalized students too, often threatening to drop them from their clubs and performances if they missed a day or two. So when I called parents directly I usually got a litany of how it was partially our fault. 5/
So while everyone is worried about space and air circulation, masks, and keeping faculty safe, let me add that policies and procedures have to allow the sick to stay home, both for parent’s companies and within our schools. Above all else, 6/
creating a culture that allows people room to get well is essential for safe education. Already people have been harmed by our current culture. Now it’s a matter of life and death. There is no shame in not feeling well, and educationally, wellness and learning go hand in hand. 7/
