Essential workers have saved our butts this last year.
This group of amazing people is made up of your usual suspects: nurses, doctors, healthcare workers, law enforcement, and the like. However, the COVID-19 climate has added a few essential workers to our list. Delivery people, public transportation employees, and teachers are now frequently considered frontline workers.
As a teacher myself, I feel the essential part of my job more than ever before
Nearly a year ago, teachers had the rug ripped out from under them, along with the rest of the world. A group that takes great pride in being amazing and competent at their job, suddenly had to relearn how to teach children in a completely new and different way.
We cried.
We rallied.
We learned a ton.
While I don’t know a single teacher who would prefer to teach online rather than have kids’ butts in seats, we’ve gotten pretty darn good at this remote teaching business.
I’m proud of us
And now, as we are slowly but surely bringing students back into schools, we are full of anticipation to finally have them off the screens and in our classrooms.
We’re excited.
We’re overwhelmed.
And we’re scared.
Scared because most of us are still not eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Yesterday I saw an email pop up at work and was excited to read, “Vaccination Opportunity for District Staff” as the title.
I’d been waiting for this notice
After all, I sit on the brink of being put back into the classroom for a seven-hour day with a roomful of students breathing the same stagnant air in a building where the HVAC system breaks on average twice a week.
I read on to get the specifics. Where do I sign up? When do I go? Until I discover that the fine print states: “For any teacher age 65 years and older.”
Well, that rules me out. Me and pretty much every staff member in my school.
Who does this even apply to? How many teachers and school employees are over the age of 65?
So here I sit. Baffled.
We call teachers essential, and we thank them for their hard work and dedication. Here is an opportunity for the country, the government, and the CDC to put their money where their mouth is and prove it.
Prove that teachers are valued
Prove that children are the future, and that the people who teach them are vital to our society.
But instead, getting vaccinated won’t be a reality for many teachers for months to come, forcing teachers to choose between returning to work, under conditions that leave themselves or the people they love at risk, or taking unpaid leave.
And in my biased but honest opinion, it’s quite a shame.
