What Everyone Misses in the School/Covid Debate

All the keep school open folk seem to forget this one part

As the debate rages on about whether to keep kids in physical school while Omicron rages, or go remote until it passes or at least subsides from the current highs, a small, but important factor keeps getting missed by those who are adamant that schools must remain open regardless of what the virus is doing:

Teachers aren’t just teachers. They are parents, spouses and caregivers.

I’m gonna write that again because I’m guessing some of you hard-heads who are reading this article need time for it to sink in:

Teachers aren’t just teachers. They are parents, spouses and caregivers.

These parents, spouses and caregivers, who also happen to be teachers, didn’t sign up to catch the plague, take it home and potentially transmit it to their loved ones just so you can have a babysitter for your kids.

And I say babysitter because in schools that are open, but the bulk of the staff is out sick, that’s all that’s happening — babysitting. They aren’t learning anything as they sit in permanent study hall or classes are joined because the teacher’s out.

They are watching movies, doing busy work, reading silently or playing on their…