week 1 reading
#TempleSocEd
The first reading, “There Are Other Options Besides Reopening Schools” written by Ashley Fetters, goes into detail about the other ways we can make schools work while in the pandemic. Obviously the best way to teach students is in person, in-class. We all know this but as of right now that is basically a pipe dream. As the article states, sending kids back to school could be problematic. Before corona virus, kids spread other illnesses in schools due to how often they touch their faces, mouths, and each other. Now with covid spreading rapidly across the country, maybe it is time to give up on the idea of trying to send students back to school like normal and come to terms with as of right now, school has to look different. Fetters mentions how other countries like Denmark have basically reinvented what schools look like in order to safely return to teaching students. Shrinking class sizes, starting to teach outside when possible, or using empty buildings could help decrease the spread of the virus. Executing these ideas though will cost extra, which is something America doesn’t want to hear. Our crisis with deciding what to do with students in a pandemic stems from how America continues to defund the education system to fund other things like the military and the police. If our schools were funded properly, we wouldn’t have to be risking the lives of teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, and families in order for kids to continue learning. If school is so important to the President that he wants them to reopen in the middle of a pandemic, endangering all Americans, schools should be important enough to receive the proper funding.
The second article, “Colleges Are Deeply Unequal Workplaces” written by Jeffery Selingo, goes further on the topic of faculty vs staff when it comes to the effect the corona virus can have on each group. While faculty members, like full-time professors, part-time adjuncts, and grad assistants can decide if they want to return to campus or teach from home, staff members like maintenance workers and housekeepers do not get that same choice. If they want to work, they must return to campus. So they now must endanger themselves to get a paycheck, working to help run schools for many students who started partying right when they stepped foot on campus. There must be a better way to treat school staff, whether it is to pay them more, offer them free or reduced price child care, or give them opportunities for other work that may not be as risky; either way colleges and universities need to figure it out asap.
