Gosh it’s brutal to be a teacher facing a return to work tomorrow and have this stuff in the press: “public sympathy for [teachers] will wane if there is resistance to the wide resumption of schooling, even as infection rates continue to drop]” Thread... https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-schools-debate-is-a-bonfire-of-pre-existing-passions-children-are-poorly-served-by-it-20200424-p54n16.html

Schooling isn’t ‘resuming’. It never stopped. Teachers have performed miracles to make sure the learning continues in the middle of a global pandemic....

It is a basic human right to insist on a safe workplace. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of schools as WORKPLACES (for teachers, support staff, maintenance workers... so many people).

It’s wonderful news that children are less affected by this awful virus than others. But not always. And not everyone in our schools is a ‘child’- like the young women I teach some of whom are already adults.

We are also only learning new things about this virus. Like how it impacts on seemingly healthy people by bringing on strokes. Horrifying.
There is so much we don’t know and are still learning.

When the whole community is being told “stay safe, stay home” it feels so counterintuitive that I will get in my car and go to my workplace tomorrow. We will do the best we can to clean, to socially distance- but I can’t be “precious” or I will be “lazy” if i express concern.

Can we begin from a premise that teachers are doing the best they can. They are working harder than ever. And there is nothing they want more than to be back doing their job in the classroom, but like anyone- like you- they just want to be safe.