Alright, buckle up buttercups, I got some rip roarin ones today.
- Teachers owe parents nothing. I’m serious, guys, they don’t owe society their lives to do the job in person during a pandemic. They are 100% justified in not wanting to teach until they are vaccinated, and those of us that aren’t teachers need to STFU unless we’re willing to do it. Oh wait, you don’t want to hop into a small area with no airflow with 30 germ vectors for shit pay cause you might get sick? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Also, education is education.. and that’s a teacher’s job. Not childcare… that’s a parental job. One does not equate to the other, even if your kid’s teachers are nice enough to make sure they don’t maim themselves or others while on school property. As far as I’m concerned, deciding to become a teacher is just this side of holy calling, and adding any extra weight for those saints to carry is a douche move.
- All that said- I honestly believe that it’s time to change our educational approach. My work life is entirely virtual, and while there are many ways in which I’ve spent most of my adult (baHA) life preparing for this type of role, it still takes a certain mindset to be effective. We need to revamp the educational system so it prepares kids for how to be successful no matter what the venue may be. All the complaints I hear about ‘it’s hard to keep the kids on track’.. you realize right now kids are building the skills and work ethics that are going to stick with them for a lifetime. When I think about what a waste of time my school life was (due to kids being bullying little monsters back in my day, classes that went at the wrong pace, an overemphasis on sports, etc) and I think of how the whole system could be carefully structured to let kids learn at their own pace and pursue the topics that move them… there’s a world of information out there, and a lot of passionate, dedicated teachers to help kids explore them. In my most cynical of hearts, I believe the reason kids are ‘safer’ with schools open has more to do with keeping an eye on abusive households and making sure they are being fed than educating them. If you empower and reward kids for going after education rather than chasing and threatening them with it, you might be surprised at how eager they really are.
- To the Catholic school mom all up in arms about her kids getting expelled after her OnlyFans account was found- cry me a river, lady. I read your story from a few different sources, and I am utterly unimpressed. They say it takes a village… and you were so unimpressed by the public school community that you chose to pay for an extremely restrictive Catholic education (seriously, I went and read the guidelines). That’s supporting a restrictive community AND agreeing to live within a certain set of boundaries. That’s your choice, you do you, my chica. Where you lost me was in deciding to live by a different set of boundaries and then be all butthurt when that life brings consequences. I mean, seriously, your restrictive woman hating community expelled you with vigor when you chose to appreciate and explore your sexuality in a way they didn’t like. I think you’d find that the public school community would have been far more accepting, and all that energy you spent supporting the incredibly restrictive environment (seriously, over 30 hours of volunteer time a year on top of 15k tuition? Get outta here with that noise!) could have gone to making your public school a better place.
- #letusplay in New Mexico (student athletes are protesting not being permitted to play sports). On the topic of get outta here with that noise- it’s called a pandemic. Meaning we don’t need to be going out and spreading the damn virus… meaning we only go out for things that are necessary. Athletics don’t qualify. Yes, I played softball, volleyball, and basketball when I was in school, and I can confidently say they did not add value to my life. They cost me grades, sleep, and energy I should have been putting into the work instead of worrying about practices, uniforms, and what position I was playing. The worst displays of poor sportsmanship I have ever seen were on those fields, including a parent choking out a coach, and a coach who decided it was the best thing for my personal development to tell me I was a wimp. And what happens when there are games? Why the parents, friends, and family congregate- and spread the damn virus. It’s almost like there’s logic to NOT HAVING THEM.
Now look, yall, I understand that socialization is a thing, I do. I also think that as much as we don’t want to think so, there’s a before and after covid happening here. The sooner we accept that and find new ways to work within the structures that keep us all healthier in general, the better off we’re going to be. We’re usually a fairly intelligent species, we can adapt if we’re willing to try.
Meanwhile, could yall turn down the pissing and moaning? You are harshing my chill with your entitled nonsense.
Curiouser and Curiouser 