I would like to ask you to take yourself back in time to August of 2019... Close your eyes and go back there, to the pre-covid days at the start of a new school year.
Now look at this picture below - If I had asked you back then "What do you Notice? What do you Wonder?" .... What would you have said?
I am guessing you may have wondered "why are there a few students wearing a face mask?"
Let's forward to now - August 2020 with the same question of what you notice, wonder. I am guessing for a lot of us, unfortunately not enough of us, would be something like this: "why are there ONLY a few students wearing masks????" For teachers - we are definitely asking this question, and the picture is frightening.
What a difference a year makes, and not in a good way. I long for life before COVID19 like anyone else, but I realize that is gone forever and act accordingly. I am infuriated with the ignorance we now see in the face of a global pandemic that we still don't know enough about to be making the decisions some people are making. I grow tired and weary of those in our population who choose only to pay attention to the science that serves our instant gratification and ignore the science that challenges us and makes us uncomfortable. I am angry as hell at the decision many of us have made to just turn the other cheek and walk away from the patience that mother nature asks of us until she and modern science come to an agreement.
This is a picture of a high school in the suburbs of Atlanta this past Monday on their 1st day of school. It is not the only high school that went back full face to face, and pictures of this and many others are planted all over the news here and nationally. As seen here, there is no social distancing and very few students wearing masks even though they are "strongly encouraged" to be doing so. The hallways are FULL, which means the classrooms are FULL; very few students wearing masks. Masks are not mandated in Georgia, so there you have it.
This school and many others are serving as a laboratory experiment for what happens when we reach only to our comfort levels, do not let science run the course of discovery/invention and prevention, and open up schools during a global pandemic. A global pandemic where thousands of people are dying everyday and those who survive are facing long-term, possibly permanent physical effects of this disease.
What a disgusting thing to do to children, teachers, administration, and other vital staff in the building. Here's the kicker - what a disgusting thing to do to our population - students go home to loved ones every day. We fail our whole society on this one. We fail teachers when we are this careless - they have been made to be expendable teaching in buildings where students are not required to wear masks, and they are not supplied enough protective gear. We have failed our children by putting them in a situation where they can get sick or die, watch their peers and/or teachers get sick or die, or bring it home to family that could get sick or die.
And guess what - we have also failed students because we have taught them to be selfish and careless - both socially and with respect to science. In the words of my biological scientist best friend, mother nature will bite you, science has the propensity to help us with that if we give it the time to do so, but we have to have patience and change our behavior.
We have a real chance with this generation to teach them to be citizens of the world, and as a teacher of this generation, I can honestly say this generation is eager and curious to learn about this world and how to be responsible and caring in it. Our chance is now, and we cannot just talk at them - we must lead by example. So many of us are, but conversely and most dangerous is that many of us are not.
To those of us that do act for the good of all, our hands become tied when we have leaders at the local, state, and national level that do not make responsible decisions for the good of all and in caution of a disease that is constantly changing and adapting new patterns. Our hands are tied when we have leaders that act only on "preliminary information" to the charge of children do not get sick as much or that they do not spread disease.
How do we even know that? They went out of school at the beginning of this, and they have not been back in school until now. Around the world the countries who truly flattened the curve and take monetary care to properly protect everyone have been successful reopening schools. Those that went too early have had disease spread and closed again. Are we so arrogant that we think we will be different?
It appears we are from this picture, from the school leaders that support the measures for opening the school in this picture and so many others to the government leaders that have not mandated wearing masks. Also included are the citizens of our country who believe their rights exceed all other facets of everyone's lives. School leaders and businesses are being asked to make the decisions that government leaders should have.
How did we get there? The answer to that has so many stripes - too many to talk about here.
So -
To the parents that stand out with signs and protested for our school leaders to let their students go back to school because they "will be so far behind" or "need it for their emotional health":
Will you be proud you held that sign if your child end up on a ventilator in a hospital and you cannot be there with them. Or if you have to look over your child's casket in worse case scenario?
Will you be proud you held that sign if you have to bury a loved one that gets seriously ill from COVID19 or dies?
Will you be proud that you held that sign if your child's emotional health suffers from the loss of a friend(s) and/or their teacher(s)?
Will you be proud that you held that you held that sign if spread of the virus includes new mutations that render a new vaccine useless and prolongs this pandemic?
Will you care how far behind your child is in school when they are seriously ill or are no longer alive?
If you can still say "yes" to all of the above questions, then that is your platform, and we can agree to disagree, but at least you hold consistent. If you say "no" to even one of these questions, YOU are the problem; and there are too many of YOU.
It's not too late to change our path - the question is will we before it's too late. Do not forget that the right that we ALL do in fact have is to vote in November. I pray we change course before then.
To all my teacher friends heading back into schools in direct risk - my heart absolutely goes out to you. I know you will wrap your heart around those kids and teach them because it is what we do. Stay as safe as you possibly can and know that even those of us who do not have to go back yet have your back and are thinking of you daily.
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