In the currently viral world of murderous diseases, schools have seemingly opened back up again, filling up small rooms with scads of filthy kids and their mucus-filled sneezes. If I was a teacher—and I almost was, but that’s a story for another time—I would have long quit and, really, I guess I wouldn’t be alone.
According to a recent report from KTUL, many Oklahoma teachers are not returning to their job because of Covid, with many districts having to make do with emergency educators, mostly known for their constant use of the blocky television and VHS player that sits in the back of the classroom. Staticky video of The Mouse and the Motorcycle, here we come!
"People are not beating down the door to do this job," said Shawna Mott-Wright with the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association.
She spends her days advocating for the ones willing to educate Oklahoma's future, but she says Oklahoma's low pay and the pandemic high risk have her phone ringing.
"'I can't do that. My child has this' or 'I take care of my elderly mother,'" said Mott-Wright. "'I can't do it. I am afraid.'"
When your classroom is already stressful—mostly due to a student named Louis that is heartily rude, usually interrupting and hilarious to maybe five people—it definitely becomes unbearable when you add a life-threatening ailment and its political tangents to the mix. I can see why many teachers are leaving their posts in record time.
Regardless, I thought of a few (somewhat illegal) perks that might keep teachers at their desks far longer during these trying times, small things that might keep their classroom free from disease, dyspepsia, and dysphoria…at least from their side, really the only one that matters.