Teachers responded to a calling; let’s treat them with respect

Given that I’m an opinion writer who often shares his perspective on highly sensitive topics such as race, COVID and policing, it’s not surprising that I receive no shortage of angry emails.

The one time that type of reaction caught me off guard though, came last April when I wrote about teachers who were volunteering their time to help some migrant girls. In response to that piece I saw far and away the greatest amount of hostile feedback I’ve ever received, with most of it being people criticizing teachers as “selfish” and “lazy.”

I’ve thought about those emails frequently during the past year and again this week, when U-T reporter Kristen Taketa shed light on some challenges facing a San Diego charter school.

Taketa reported on how COVID exacerbated some longexisting problems at High Tech High, such as chronic understaffing, lack of institutional support and teacher burnout, ultimately leaving teachers and students in a tenuous position.

While that story focused specifically on a single charter school, it also reflected some challenges facing all sorts of schools and teachers throughout the county and country — new obstacles and old problems that have nipped at American teachers for decades.

At the start of the pandemic it was easy to find stories highlighting how teachers were stepping up, adapting to remote learning and going above and beyond to support students as COVID ripped through our communities. I lost count of the number of times I saw coverage of teachers gathering supplies and delivering food to students or even driving by homes to check in on their well being.

Gradually though, some in our community started to view teachers — teacher unions especially — as villains and as inconvenient obstacles to getting students back in classrooms. People angrily confronted teachers and school boards about mask and vaccine policies, and polls quantified a