Stacey
Parents and teachers across the country are currently waiting in limbo to see whether their school districts will fully reopen in the fall, or whether distance learning will resume. Although many countries around the world have, in fact, opened classroom doors in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the United States is doing extremely poorly in mitigating the threat of the virus, comparatively, and many believe it’s too soon to send kids back to school.
Yet, the Trump administration keeps pushing state governors to reopen schools, despite the obvious health risks involved to students, teachers, and parents—causing many to speak out on their own behalf.
Obvious health risks aside, however, there are even bigger potential implications for reopening schools too early, which cultural and political analysis Melissa Hillman pointed out recently in a viral Twitter thread. Hillman writes that localized outbreaks will cause schools to abruptly close, and with no planning ahead for remote learning, there will be huge disruptions in education—which teachers will ultimately be blamed for. If they survive, anyway!
At any rate, we will let Hillman explain:
Here’s what will happen if they open schools:
1. Every teacher who can retire will retire at the last second making the nationwide shortage worse.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
2. There already aren’t enough teachers to teach socially distant classes, & they’re CUTTING funding everywhere, so they’ll be impossible. They’ll blame this on teachers & call it our “failure,” or blame it on unions for not letting them hire low pd untrained “emergency teachers”
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
3. The classrooms will not be sterilized between groups of students, & they will blame this on teachers. We don’t have enough time between periods to do it & many have hall duty, prep for next class. We won’t be given sterilization tools or PPE. No $$.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
4. This will all be blamed on teachers for being “bad” or “failing.” When unions strike over this impossible situation, we’ll be “union thugs” who “don’t care abt students.” All bc we don’t want to die, don’t want our students & families to suffer & die.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
5. Every teacher who can quit, will quit. Trust me, teachers are already looking for an exit. The shortage will get worse. You think you can’t fine STEM teachers *now*? Hahaha. Just you wait.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
6. At nearly every site that opens, someone will get seriously ill. That person is most likely to be a teacher with 100+ contacts a day. “Contacts” means # of students taught a day. The teacher goes into ICU & the school goes on quarantine.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
6A. This means an immediate 14 day lockdown for all students & school personnel. No planning for Zoom classes. No financial support for parents who can’t go into work the next day. There will be 12 hours notice.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
7. Parents will die. Students will get sick & grow up believing they were the cause of those deaths bc they brought the virus home. Teachers will die. There’ll be a massive walkout in blue states. In red states it will be confined to sites w multiple deaths. There will be plenty.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
8. We’ll end up w nationwide online classes again, again w zero planning, again it will suck, again it will fail to address inequities. All bc we had to put it together instantly again instead of PLANNING NOW.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
9. The reason they don’t want to plan now for online ed is bc they believe in-person classes will jump start the economy. But the sudden reversal back to online ed due to widespread illness & death is a certainty. They’re just hoping it happens after the election.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
10. The first school deaths will happen in early-mid September. The disease vectors of in-person classes will crash local economies as businesses in those areas are once again forced to close.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
11. And the whole thing will be blamed on teachers for not magically being able to sterilize a classroom w no equipment or time; not being able to force students to distance in halls. They will blame us for our own deaths. For the deaths of our precious students. Our families.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
12. I’m going to stop here, but ask a teacher what they think they’ll be able to do in a socially distant classroom. LOL. It will be worse than Zoom. No partner work. No group work. Solo play. No lab partners. No study partners. No eating lunch w friends. No PE. No singing.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
In one final tweet, Hillman ominously poses a question to parents who think their kids are “sad” because they can’t play with their friends. “Imagine how they’ll feel when they’re within six feet of their friends and not allowed any closer,” she adds. “Not allowed any hugs. Physically alone all day.”
You think your kid is “sad” bc they can’t play w their friends? Imagine how they’ll feel when they’re w/in six feet of their friends & not allowed any closer. Not allowed any hugs. Physically alone all day.
— Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) July 8, 2020
With any hope, voices of reason like hers will be heard by our nation’s elected officials, who may finally realize that they need to prioritize human lives over politics.
More teacher tweets:
- Teachers Get Candid About Heading Back To School During Coronavirus (15 Posts)
- People Are Tweeting Out Stories About How Bad Teachers “Radicalized” Them By Being Jerks (31 Tweets)
- Dad Tweets About How “Smart” His Home-Schooled Kids Are, Insults Teachers, Then Gets Trolled
- Literally Just 23 Funny Back-To-School Tweets And Memes From Teachers Who Are Already Stressed Out
