Consider This from NPR - Teachers Are Stressed, Burnt Out — Yet Hopeful As School Begins

Episode Date: August 20, 2021

Across the country, it looks like this time, last year. Schools — some days or weeks into the start of the new year — are forced to close temporarily over COVID outbreaks. In many cases, the closures are necessary because too many teachers and staff members are sick or quarantined. Audie Cornish talks to three teachers about their fear, exhaustion, and hope at the start of a new school year. For more coverage from NPR as kids head back to school around the country, follow NPR Ed's Back to School liveblog.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

All over the country. Hopes for a school year back to normal are fading away. Just like last year. COVID cases continue to rise. COVID cases are forcing schools. Shut down for three days for deep cleaning. Into temporary shutdowns. They'll close schools Thursday until after Labor Day.

250 active COVID-19 cases among students. 76 students have tested positive. 40 new COVID cases in students. Thousands of students across the state are in quarantine right now. 1,700 students in quarantine at the end of the school day Monday. Possible exposure. Not requiring masks. Masks were optional there. And it was really easy for us to find those examples from the past couple of weeks. California, Colorado, Kentucky, Georgia, there's more, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Notably, many schools in those places weren't

necessarily closing over health concerns alone. School is canceled mostly because of staffing shortages with people getting sick. People getting sick, as in teachers. We just came back, some of the staff came back last week, and one of my co-workers is in the hospital right now. Consider this. With fights over mask mandates for kids and vaccine rules for staff, schools are ground zero for the culture war over the pandemic. We'll hear from three teachers about how they feel returning to the classroom. Just like what's happening with our frontline workers, they're getting burned out. It's the same thing with educators. That's coming up.

From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Friday, August 20th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. NPR's Planet Money Summer School is in session. This season is all about investing. Like,

is it better to buy a lot of one stock or a little bit of a lot of stocks? What are bonds? Is it ever too late to start investing? New classes every Wednesday to Labor Day in the Planet Money podcast feed. It's Consider This from NPR. In Mississippi, the pandemic has never been worse. And it's continuing to worsen. We're seeing higher and higher numbers, not only of cases, but also hospitalizations. The state's public health director, Thomas Dobbs, said this week that by multiple metrics, Mississippi is eclipsing its winter peak. Just 36 percent of people are fully vaccinated there, one of the lowest rates in the country. You know, for the past month, essentially, we have seen that 98 percent of our new cases are going to be unvaccinated. This past weekend, a 13-year-old Mississippi girl whose district resumed classes on August 6th died of COVID-19.

And across the state, 20,000 students were in quarantine after the first week of school. A lot of this is reflective of the high levels of community transmission that we're seeing. That's Paul Byers, epidemiologist with the state health department. And when we look at our data, the kids in the younger age groups are actually one of our fastest growing populations of where we're seeing cases now. While Mississippi is in worse shape than most, children nationwide are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at rates we have not seen since January. In recent days, there have been new reports of student deaths

in Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas. We should say that in young children, public health experts think the risk of death from COVID is about as serious as the risk of death from the flu. And for many parents, managing that risk is a small price to pay to have their kids back in school in person. We are excited. My children especially are excited to get back with friends on a consistent basis. And we just kind of recognize like things will be kind of always in flux. Dominique Spencer runs a child care center in Washington, D.C., and she has a son in the third grade and a daughter in high school.

She told NPR for her young son especially, being back in school is a big improvement on last year. He felt like school had fallen apart, like fallen away from him. And so that was hard because, you know, one of the things I want most for my children is to enjoy learning. You know, it is a challenging back to school year, but my kids are so excited to be back. Rebecca Garcia in Las Vegas has three kids back in school in fifth, seventh and ninth grade. It is the first couple of weeks of school and we've already had a school closed and moved to virtual learning due to COVID outbreak. So it is still a challenging time to wade through for sure. As hard as the decision is for parents to send kids off to school, once they make that call,

it's teachers and staff who take on the risk and responsibility of being in crowded rooms for hours at a time with kids who are potentially unvaccinated and not wearing masks. To hear just how hard that can be, and why some teachers are still hopeful, all the same, we reconnected with three of them, teachers NPR has spoken to at other points in the pandemic. Susan Polk-Hofsus is in Mildredge, Maine. I'm a pre-K teacher at Millwich Elementary School. David Finkel in DeLand, Florida. I teach ninth grade English and one class of creative writing.

And Maxie Hollingsworth from Houston, Texas. I am now actually a teacher specialist, so I'll be supporting teachers improving their practice throughout the school year. So that's from pre-K through fifth grade. When we spoke earlier this week, David Finkel had already begun his school year in person. And his class size wasn't small, 30 to 35 kids. And that's a big change from last year. My impression is that a lot of parents found out that online is not all it's cracked up to be. A lot of people tout it as the wave of the future.

And I think a lot of parents were not fond of it. And I'm seeing Susan shake like not in agreement, like a lot of parents did not like it. Yes, Susan, you want to jump in? How is the start of your year this year different from how the spring ended the school year? My school year will start September 1st. A year ago, when I spoke to you guys, I was in terror, fear for my life because there was no vaccine. Right now, I feel fine. I feel confident. The fear, the terror that I have are for my young four-year-olds that are not vaccinated because

of their ages. I think maybe my fear is now turning into anger of why aren't we getting vaccinated? What is the deal? Why can't we wear masks? Max, you're in Texas. Obviously, the governor there has had a lot of thoughts? Max, you're in Texas. Obviously, the governor there has had a lot of thoughts about how the school year should go. So how are things different for you heading into the fall? The governor of the state has banned mask mandates. Luckily, though, several of the largest school districts around the state have decided to defy that order. So there's a lot of legal battles going on right now. All of our students are returning. There is no virtual option.

So I am very proud and appreciative of our new superintendent who said, we're going to have a mask mandate. I think parents feel relieved about that. As long as I can comfortably say, you know what, if you're not wearing a mask, you're going to have to go home for the day. I feel a lot better about that. David, can I come back to you as well? Again, Florida, another state where the governor has been aggressive about what he thinks should happen or

should not happen when it comes to social distancing measures. How are people, how are staff and parents taking that where you are? Masks are a big controversy in our district. There's disagreements even on our school board. Who's fighting the mask, kids or parents? I think kids reflect their parents' views generally. I know that there's a lot of very vociferous anti-mask parents in our district, and I also know that there's a lot of very strong pro-mask parents. So I think it just depends. I'm very conflicted because I think they're an added measure of safety, but I'm also very tired of wearing a mask in front of my class. I use my face a lot. And so it's hard to not be conflicted about it. I mean, I'd probably be

wearing it anyway, and I may keep wearing it depending on what our numbers are doing. I mean, it's the second day and I think we're already getting numbers on who's in quarantine. I'm not sure how to feel this year. I'm just so tired, but I'm just so happy to be in front of a class teaching the way I usually do. And we were coming home today, even with my numbers of kids in class, I said to my wife, we teach at the same school. I like teaching. And so I'm very conflicted. I'm wondering if either you, Maxie Hollingsworth, or you, Susan Polk-Hofst, if you have this also kind of combination of emotion right now. This is Susan. I do have emotions. I worry about the young children in our schools who might feel that peer pressure because they might be the only

one wearing a mask in their classroom. I worry about the pressure of their peers. Why do you wear a mask? What does that mean? Don't you feel safe about us? This is Maxie. Fortunately, I'm in a school where culturally the communities that we serve are comfortable wearing masks. So I'm less concerned about pushback from parents and kids. My primary concern is people sort of being lax about mask wearing. We just came back, some of the staff came back last week, and one of my co-workers is in the hospital right now. One thing that each of you said when we spoke at various points last year is you talked about being exhausted. David, I know you talked about this. The remote learning was just tough

in a lot of ways that were even unexpected. I don't know who wants to jump in on this first, but what did you take away from last year, that experience that you're bringing into the fall? This is Maxie. I'd like to address that because if you'd asked me in January if I would come back to education period, I would have given a resounding no. It was a resounding no. Right. Originally you were a math teacher, right? Yes. And now I heard you use a different title. I'm in such a different headspace now. I think teaching summer school was good for me. It was all face-to-face. It was the toughest kids in terms of getting them where they need to be. But it was almost like the universe said, we're going to keep you here and you need to be here because I was actively looking for jobs outside of education.

But I am actually quite thrilled about the school year. And I'm excited about what I know that we can accomplish. You know, we can only go up. Susan, if I understand this, you're in Maine. Did you ever reconsider your line of work? Absolutely not. We heard Maxie talk about having those doubts. The pandemic terrified me in the respect that young people aren't going to be educators. We have wonderful people. Look at Maxie just shared. My gosh, she has a PhD. And she was really actively thinking of leaving the teaching profession.

We have to inspire young people. We have to let them know that being an educator is the greatest thing in the world. And if we could survive this pandemic this past year, you know, then we can do anything. I hear the urgency in your voice because I also think it sounds like a tough sell. Yes, you're right. This is a hard sell, but we're talking about educating our future. And you know, it's unfortunate. It comes down to, are we going to wear a mask or are we not going to wear a mask? I'm wearing a mask because I want my children in my classroom to be alive. Just like what's

happening with our frontline workers. People aren't going into the medical field because they're getting burned out. It's the same thing with educators. Maxie, can you jump in here? You have some thoughts. It's funny where Susan is because I was actively trying to tell people, don't go into education. It's going to kill you. That's where I was. But Susan's enthusiasm and excitement, they get me excited. We do have a real issue right now. I don't know a school in our district that doesn't have multiple vacancies. Education is a tough sell. Before COVID, it was a tough sell. It's really,

really difficult now. I mean, every day is going to be give a teacher a hug day for the next 40 years. Thank you. I never had this before. I had a beginning of the year gift today from a student. I got a cookie and a Target gift card. This is what I'm saying. This was awesome. That was David Finkel, Susan Polk-Hofsus, and Maxi Hollingsworth, teachers from Florida, Maine, and Texas. Now, NPR actually has a new way for you to follow school and education news as students across the country return to classrooms. It's our back-to-school live blog from the NPR Ed team. And that's where you can find stories about kids, vaccines,

or changes happening at schools because of COVID-19. Find a link in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish.