Why Don't They Want To Go Back?

Disclaimer: Some teachers are desperate to get back to school and some are very concerned about Covid's effects on their students...

but can we be honest? 𝑀𝒪𝒮𝒯 𝒯𝐸𝒜𝒞𝐻𝐸𝑅𝒮 𝒟𝒪 𝒩𝒪𝒯 𝒲𝒜𝒩𝒯 𝒯𝒪 𝒢𝒪 𝐵𝒜𝒞𝒦 𝒯𝐻𝐼𝒮 𝒴𝐸𝒜𝑅 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒞𝑜𝓋𝒾𝒹. Remember, stop asking what's wrong and ask what happened? What happened that makes you not want to go back?

School Leadership should be asking this question, but what the heck? I'll tell you what I think.

Point #1: Most teachers have enjoyed being at home for this year. For the first time in all of our lives, they've had the chance to be at home with their families and develop relationships with those they live with every day, not just the students they teach. They've enjoyed being able to multi-task life and most have gotten into a good routine. Teachers are nurturers by heart and there is nothing like being able to do that for your own family without the stress of your career. The reality is that you can have it ALL, just not at the same time! Letting go will be extremely difficult.

Point #2: Most teachers know that they'll be asked to perform miracles every day, keeping kids socially-distanced. They also know that inevitably they will have to respond to those "2 parents" who will blame them personally if their kid develops Covid. The teacher will be on the receiving end of personal attacks and a firing threat because of something they truly had no control over. Kids are going to be close; they just are.

Point #3: Most teachers know that when they return after a year of new "awakenings" about the world in which they live, NOTHING has really changed inside the school system. There has been no radical change of thought about how we teach and how children learn. No radical re-imagined solutions to change what hasn't worked for most of their kids. They know it will be two planned weeks of social-emotional learning and then a test for every child and then business as normal and in a hurry. Teaching will be twice as complicated as before by bureaucracy, if not worse. There will be checks and balances everywhere that mean very little to what they already know about each child's needed pathway to success.

So again, the question is not, What's wrong with those teachers? The question is, What happened to make them not want to go back? Parents, you have to POWER to demand real changes. Teachers do too. What if we spent the next 3 months figuring out that and start fresh in the Fall of 2021?

P.S. Senior graduation and proms and play dates can still move forward without being in school.

#AbolitionistTeaching #ItsThisSimple #PrincipledLeadershipMatters