Teachers, Please End This Hostage Situation.

As a rule, I will defend public school teachers in almost every case. As a former public school teacher myself, I too have been in the trenches, where I experienced some truly exquisite misery. If it weren’t for the fleeting moments of pure joy, or the fairly regular episodes of side-splitting hilarity, or the really good kids whose miraculous maturity allows them to bear witness to an adult’s backbreaking labor of love, no one on planet earth could be convinced to teach public school. No one. So when I say I understand how hard teachers work, I really do. And as a registered nurse who spent most of 2020 on the frontlines dealing with Covid-stricken patients, I think I understand what it means to put oneself in harm’s way. 

My reverence for teachers makes it incredibly hard to lay any strong request or criticism at their feet. But today I must: Teachers, it is incumbent on you to stand up to your unions and demand to return to school. Not because you want to (lordy I don’t blame you if you don’t), but because the kids need you, parents need you, and because, at this point, there is not even a wispy-thin loin cloth of an excuse not to.