Wish I wasn't a teacher because of Covid

[NebularNerd]

In my family/friends circle, I am the only one who will be face to face with 150+ people per day with no PPE, no social distancing, nothing.

I have one relative who is not expecting to return to the office this year.
Another who now only works in the office two days per week, in a building where numbers are severely restricted, one way systems, spaced out desks etc.
Another friend who is also able to wfh for the foreseeable future.

I can't help but think that had I made a different career choice I would not now be faced with contracting a potentially life threatening virus and passing it on to my clinically extremely vulnerable husband or elderly parents.

I will go to work and try to ignore what's going on in the world and do my best. But I wish I could be made to feel safer - screens, masks, fewer pupils, something.

I hope I'm worrying for nothing, but it is getting difficult to sleep at night.

I think teachers need to stop moaning if they want to stop @teacher bashing”. The risks are very small.

Bingo again.

would I do believe you said you were leaving this thread at about page 3. You seem to have come back to have another go.

@stairway

Well anyway it doesn’t matter what anyone on Mumsnet think, schools are going back full time thank god, otherwise the next generation will really suffer. Any teacher genuinely at greater risk needs to get a risk assessment done like any other employee. No one vulnerable should be working outside the home.

Yes they are @stairway, but the current model model is unsustainable. I will be standing within a metre of 90 different students every week (with an additional 200 in my classroom across the same period). I picked glandular fever up from work a little while ago; I fully expect to be ill by half term. That's when you'll find it's back to blended learning whether that's what you want or not.

And you appear to admit you are indeed teacher bashing.

@Piggywaspushed it keeps popping up and annoying me. I should leave it as there’s no point trying to reason with this stuff.

@WouldBeGood

I think teachers need to stop moaning if they want to stop *@teacher* bashing”. The risks are very small.

No. I will not silently assent to this risk. If the public can't be arsed to support us they're going to have to listen to us stand up for ourselves.

I’m not teacher bashing. I’m sick of teachers bashing kids and parents and inflating the risks.

[quote WouldBeGood]@Piggywaspushed it keeps popping up and annoying me. I should leave it as there’s no point trying to reason with this stuff.[/quote]
You don't have the capacity to reason with 'this stuff'; that much is clear.

I suggest hiding it. It's not the only thing that keeps popping up and being annoying.

I'm not sure that spouting trite cliches can really be sold as "trying to reason."

🙄

Evidence - on this thread- of pupil bashing would be good (irony intended).

The OP is anxious. You are not helping.

Hi everyone!

I, like many of you, this teachers are work-shy whiners, and am compiling handy come-backs for if they ever dare to complain.

This thread has some stonkers: good work.

I mean, I'm only caught up to Thursday, and there are some real bobby-dazzlers.

Here are my highlights so far:

The amount of hand wringing on here from teachers gives us all a bad name’, ‘perhaps you should consider being signed off work if you cannot rationalise the risks involved’, ‘What about the supermarket workers who have been in close contact/no PPE throughout the pandemic. The hospital workers who have been exposed? Bus drivers.’, ‘This virus needs to be lived with.’, ‘you either suck it up or don't go in’, ‘I'm not sure what else you want to happen’, ‘This is so out of proportion it's unreal’, ‘Are you scared of flu?’, ‘they don't put people on ventilators as much’, ‘Sick of this shit’, ‘This fear only seems to have gripped Mumsnet’, ‘This is not the bubonic plague’, ‘children have suffered the most throughout all this and if you (teachers) can't see that then maybe you should take up a different career’, ‘these teacher on here are wetting the bed every night about a tiny risk.’, ‘mental health in children has always been there’, ‘what other job would you feel safer in?’, ‘they just don't have the option to sit home on full pay,’, ‘It could be worse, we could be in Beirut or Colombia’,

Excellent work.

You know what, seeing shit replies like some of these, make me so thankful that I'm not a teacher.

To all of you with a negative opinion of teachers, does it stem from your childhood? Perhaps you feel like you had a really evil teacher & are now taking advantage of this situation to 'get your own back'?

@Piggywaspushed

I suggest hiding it. It's not the only thing that keeps popping up and being annoying.

I just snorted and woke up the cat. Love it.

I really do sympathise with the safety concerns that many teachers that post here are expressing. I do have some suggestions if any scared school staff care to hear them:

Wear as much PPE as you want - a mask/visor, gloves and keep your own personal hand sanitizer. I understand that eventually full PPE became available to frontline NHS Staff dealing with CV19 patients, and some teachers require that too in order to feel 'safe.

If a teacher wishes to have full PPE before they feel safe enough to return to work then they shoud have it. And wear it.

I've got some other suggestions but the Above should be enough for now.

@NebularNerd

I'm secondary. I keep seeing studies that say over 11s pass transmit the virus same as adults. Been a teacher for 13 years & I have two young children and a big mortgage. Even so, thinking of leaving but still can't go until Christmas. I can't actually believe this is happening. The government have had MONTHS to put SOME/ANY safety measures in place for teachers, but nothing. And then you've got articles arguing against masks in schools.... And teacher bashing from every angle...

I know that transmission is relatively low, but it feels like going to work will be like a game of Russian roulette.

Seriously get a grip. You've said yourself that risk of transmission is low, what makes teachers so different to nurses, supermarket staff, delivery drivers etc?

So someone says they are anxious and struggling to sleep and you call them pathetic.

Is it just a teacher you would say that to?

Are you trying to fill up the Bingo card.
How unpleasant.

@pollylocketpickedapocket

How dramatic. People, myself included, have worked tirelessly through this pandemic without complaint. I find your attitude pathetic, you should be embarrassed. Why can't you provide your own ppe as I have? Absolutely ridiculous.

Are you aware that many teachers have also been at work through lockdown? Do you honestly think me wearing a mask is going to particularly help in a room where the windows open an inch? Like - really? I think you know very well that’s not going to do much. We should ALL have adequate protection. Hopefully it’ll all be ok, especially for those of us in areas with low rates. I’m not worried for myself, but about passing it on. It’s just weird to call people pathetic for wanting to have something more than “wash your hands” to protect them. Surely you don’t want people to be at more of a risk than they need to be. Calm down.

We can't have PPE in the classroom (which is where it's needed).

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch, a new low was achieved this morning with someone claiming that teachers were behaving as if they were being sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz.

Anyone who tells someone who is anxious and frightened that they are embarrassing and need to get a grip is going to be reported. Over and over again.

It's bullying.

Honestly, this thread is gold.

I'll be back tomorrow to add to my list.

Just make sure none of those work-shy teachers feel valued 💪