“No doubt about it. 

Closing school buildings is exactly what I wanted for schools, students, teachers, and communities. After years of being in the classroom, I finally have achieved the very goal I have had since I came into the profession: getting to teach students while not having to actually be with them.

I never looked so forward to a summer as I did last summer when my usual “three” month break for “vacation” turned into weeks of self guided professional development learning online platforms that colleges usually take months to implement with in person instruction. 

Teachers like me deviously proffered a narrative that forced people to think of the “community” in “community spread” as the same “community” that supports the very schools whose buildings are closed.

I even have successfully fooled people who screamed that we should close school buildings last March with barely a dozen deaths recorded statewide into thinking we should keep them closed for the numbers we have now.

I have so wanted to squeeze more out of a twenty-four period to teach both remotely and with cohorts and still be measured by standardized test scores.

This “plan” I have to make society believe that schools are just as important for mental, emotional, and social growth for students as is their intellectual growth? I thought that this would be the best way to fulfill it.

I truly wanted teachers to be considered heroes when this pandemic started so that we could be vilified months later as the pandemic got much worse.

I wanted my daughter who graduated last year to have that “unnormal” experience as a high school senior. It was deliberately done to build her character. And my special-needs son whose IEP specifically states goals for socialization and being around others so they can model behavior? I wanted him to understand that this is a prolonged lesson in independence.

Yes. This has been one big plan to make my job harder so that many in the public could think that teachers are copping out.”

Said no teacher ever.