In four more weeks I will be in a building
That will not be disinfected with regularity
Not because of staff
But funding

My colleagues, families, and students will be in our building
No masks required
The collection of droplets in the air may be lethal for us
Especially when you consider how people have been living

But there is no consideration
We are teachers
We serve the children
We will just have to fill in the gaps, as usual

Buy thermometers to take temperatures
Take temperatures
Buy gloves 
Disinfect classrooms
Buy cleaning products to disinfect classrooms

Wash hands frequently
Hmm...where?
Only one staff bathroom
Kids bathrooms run out of soap
And paper towels

Social distance
Be a team player
But don't make colleagues social distance
Or students

​Be a team player
Teach extra kids when colleagues are absent
Because there will be no subs
And my increased risk is not a concern

But we must have school!
Because babysitters are a must
Not because education is a must
No school is bad

I say: Why can't we do all virtual school?
​They say: What about the businesses?
To which I respond:

 Who will be left to patronize them?

I refuse to believe that being concerned for my own safety is selfish. It is not. Being made to feel this way is nothing more than gaslighting. Since when is the overarching concern for human life unnecessary? Why does it have to be balanced? 

I am a proud educator of children. I have found success in doing this in person, and recently, and to a lesser extent, through virtual means. Being an educator is part of my identity. It is my passion.  However, I do not think my need to educate should supersede children's need to survive. I think that is selfish.

The way we have always done it - capitalism and a "booming economy" - this will have to be rethought. We simply can not have schooling used as babysitting while parents work to fuel the economy. That model will not work in a pandemic. Perhaps this, too, is part of what we always knew, but is glaringly obvious now. 

We must begin to care for each other. We really never have on a large scale. 

You came into my space with no mask
Knowing you could infect me
Knowing that if I get sick I would die faster
Than you
Knowing that so many of us have lost loved ones
Because someone decided
That wearing a mask was
​
Too 
                              Much
                                                        Trouble

How nice it must be
To treat people as replaceable
You have no idea
What humans know
How humans behave

​What a difference a day makes.