Thread by @nicole_kuiper

After the government’s announcement I lie here sleepless, simultaneously moving between anger and tears. I feel devastated and powerless and can do nothing to quiet these big emotions except put my thoughts into writing, with no particular audience in mind

“How could the fail us so badly?”

First, I will tell you why I am angry. I woke up prior to yesterday’s announcement with just a sliver of optimism. Throughout the last two years, I have not been a fan of this government’s education policies.

Well, if I’m being honest, not many of their policies, education or otherwise. The last 2 years have seemed like the way a 16 year old would govern. Come up with an idea, rush to implement it, watching it fail miserably and scrap it because it didn’t work.

Ummm...licence plates anyone???
Even major policy decisions seemed insignificant but what else could I expect from the “buck-a-beer” premier? The optimism sprung from the idea that throughout this pandemic the government seemed to do a good job.

Things seemed to be done fairly cautiously and even though the economy re-opened faster than I would have done it, it seemed okay and we didn’t see major spikes in cases. The Premier also continually said that he would not put children at risk.

I believe the words he used in April were along the lines of not packing kids into overcrowded classrooms and that he would spare no expense to keep our kids safe.

I expected a cautious return to school so we could see the impact this would have before re-opening completely. Optimism screws me every time. I set myself up to be disappointed.

The government’s own “expert” (I put experts in quotations because I have a whole lot to say about the SickKids report but shall stay on topic)report suggests that kids 10 and over transmit Covid-19 as efficiently as adults but we’re treating Grade 4-8 exactly like 3-9 year olds.

There will be limited ability to physically distance in junior and intermediate rooms because these classes don’t have caps. 25 would be a small class in these years and I can assure you classrooms are not that big.

Even one metre of distancing is going to be hard, nevermind trying to keep kids apart during unstructured time. And masking them does not help fill me with confidence that my classroom won’t become the source of an outbreak should someone get infected.

The things we know about Covid-19 are that poor ventilation, crowded spaces and prolonged exposure are the perfect conditions for transmission. My classroom, check, check and check. The research that we have on masking is controversial at best. I’ll leave it at that.

What kills me is the hypocrisy. For the last 5 months, and even the day before the announcement, the government message has been consistent, “2 metres apart”, “no large gatherings”, “masks”. To accomplish this massive amounts of money would have needed to be poured into schools.

So now, the message completely changes because investing in public education does not fit into the Conservative ideology of privatization and starving public education to the point of failure.

. Put another way, even a global pandemic can’t get Conservatives to invest in public education.

More hypocrisy. In the last month, this government has made a few rather significant changes in education in the name of anti-racism, de-streaming Grade 9 and ending suspensions in primary among them, yet there is so much about this “plan” that leaves vulnerable populations out.

My social media is already full of parents who know that this plan is doomed to fail and refuse to let their kids be part of the experiment. They have the resources to move to private school, set up pandemic pods with neighbours, or to sacrifice an income to school online.

This isn’t a choice that many marginalized people in this province have. Toronto released data showing that racialized people made up 83% of covid cases despite representing only 52% of the population. They also lived in disproportionately poorer neighbourhoods.

They won’t have these same alternatives to in-person school and will continue to be infected.
But hey, good thing these kids get de-streamed Grade 9 math.

And now the tears..I love teaching so much yet here we are. Today I feel like I have to choose between my life and my passion, between my ability to provide for my child or my choice to not orphan her. Maybe I am being dramatic. My mind takes me to the worst case scenario.

Maybe I only get sick and have lasting damage to my body. Is that better than not dying? Do I now have to isolate myself from my extended family who are older, vulnerable and have underlying health conditions because I could be an asymptomatic carrier?

No one should ever have to feel this way. This is why I cry. I see my role in the classroom as an important one. Every year, I feel like I get a little more attached to the kidlets in my class.

I remember when I taught Grade 5 telling my class that I felt like their “school mom” and now I can’t protect them either. We are all part of the government’s experiment.

I hope that whoever reads this does not accept the either or dichotomy that we’ve been presented with. This does not have to be a choice between participating in the experiment or not.

It does not have to be a choice between paying for what the government won’t personally by lost incomes to facilitate online school or fund another option or sending your kids into what is at best “a risky idea” and may well be the start of the second wave.

Please raise some hell. Talk to trustees, to MPPs, media and MPs. Anyone who will listen.
@ETFOeducators #UnsafeSeptember #fireLecce @parentaction4ed @OECTAProv

@maritstiles