What Does He Know - Really

 I am a teacher. I am a bad guy.

Not to the parents and kids with whom I work, mind you. I have received nothing but love from them over the past eleven months. I am the guy who has been making it possible for them to see their classmates, friends and yes - their teachers. When I show up on someone's Zoom meeting to check in on a tech issue, I am greeted by a chorus of welcome, never mind the mute convention. When parents come to me with their compromised Chromebooks or hotspots, they tell me how much they want their kids to be back in "real school," and their kids agree. They miss the way things used to be. But they also are acutely aware of how things are. Those stickers reminding us all to stay six feet apart, and the masks that obscure the smiles are there to keep us all in line. 

We are in the midst of a global pandemic.

I cannot believe that I am still typing those words. 

It is not safe out there. Which doesn't keep me from wishing there was a way to bring kids back to the empty hallways and vacant playground. And it doesn't keep the occasional parent or caregiver from cursing the snail's pace at which things are progressing.

Or idiots like Don Jr. from spouting off about how teachers “prevented schools from opening." He shares so much with his father, but he is still allowed on social media. Which is where he made his rant about how “(t)he teachers unions are out of control & are destroying our kid’s futures!” Apparently his beef was all about how educators are not "following the science" of COVID-19. “Teachers unions and those representing them have definitely failed our children in terms of education and everything else.. Certainly failed the science they are supposed to be teaching us. It is all political.”

This is quite rich coming from a guy who got himself a case of coronavirus by flaunting the conventions of social distancing and wearing a mask. Just like dear old dad. In terms of politics, it makes sense that if he were going to gnaw on a bone he would choose teachers and their unions, since they have ever been big fans of the family. That one particular family, anyway. But the argument that schools have opened with "only a a handful of cases" to report is what we are supposed to take to heart as "science." Exactly how much is a "handful?" What is the acceptable number of students, family members, and staff that can contract this deadly disease before it becomes unacceptable? How many have to die?

Which is the question that hangs in the air as you watch Don Jr. foam at the mouth. In front of a display of custom handguns that would make Dirty Harry blush. Is this a threat, or just a precursor to the pivot he's about to make about handing out pistols to public school kids to protect them from mass shootings? Or the germs around them? 

I have been there, all this time, on the front lines. I wasn't battling nuts and their custom made firearms, but keeping the connection to our community open. Yes, I understand that our test scores might improve if we were able to see our kids in the flesh. It would be a whole lot less creepy in this mostly empty building, but it wouldn't be safe. But since all of this is coming from a man who never attended public school and has spent the past five years or more railing against them, it's just habit now. Much like the varied and many spittle-laced ravings for which he is known. 

Not because he is an infectious disease specialist. Or the parent of a public school student. And for the record, I never left. I've been here. I don't need to go back to school. And my fellow teachers have been working to reinvent their jobs to adapt to these extreme conditions. We are here. Teaching kids. It's what we do. 

Without the guns.