Teachers are up against it

Union wise especially, teachers and those in the health care were always kindred spirits. Joined to together in providing critical service to the public, have strong union presence and generally a respected part of Alberta. Now, it is more of a case of misery loves company.

In normal year, there is a sometime split on the positivity in getting back to class and school to resume. Chances are this year, there is more of a feeling of concern, apprehension and perhaps outright avoidance of the topic of going back to school as COVID-19’s affects continue to dominate the globe.

Both have seen front line positions in health and education eliminated. The government seems to be making arbitrary decisions without a lot of meaningful, if not just plain disregarded, dialogue for both.

While the health community has to deal with the pandemic, teachers have a dilemma. Besides the less than enthusiastic reaction to the eight new advisors for revamping the K-12 curriculum, the tenuous plans to get students back in the classrooms in Alberta has been Their focus is on students and their relationship there.

An Aug. 13 infographic from CBC which showed Alberta’s active case rate (per 100K population) for COVID-19 as leading the country, surpassing even Quebec.

But, in the name of bringing economics to the forefront, the show must go on. So with the cross your fingers and hope nothing massively bad happens, schools are opening.

To be fair, the pandemic numbers have been good for a while but when restrictions were loosened, those numbers went up. However, the ultimate rating system: mortality rates …and remember we are talking about people who love spreadsheets and relative numbers… it is not a lot compared to what has been happening in the United States. In Alberta as of Aug. 12, there are 11,969 cases in total with 1,036 of them being currently active. 220 people have died. In Canada during that same time there has been 120,920 cases with 9,009 currently active. In the United States as of Aug. 12, there have been 5.26 million cases with 167,000 deaths. In New York alone there has been 428,000 cases and 33,000 deaths and in California 603,000 cases and 11,000 death.

Nonetheless it is due to the initial stringent adherence to rules which have kept the virus in check. However, the relaxation of the provincial guidelines and now a confusing back to classroom plan has more (loop) holes than a 1-kg box of Fruit Loops.

Any parent will tell you that when September comes, so comes all the sicknesses and are brought home. You know fully well that someone that either works or goes to a school will have COVID-19 virus. Even though there will be rules in place, everyone will be so happy to see each other. Pandemic fatigue has fully settled in as we are all yearning for pre-COVID-19 status quo and social distancing rules will be net and eventually ignored. So when that one teacher of student gets the virus, does that mean the whole classroom is sent home for 10-14 days? The school? How does that one class’s students get their homework done? How do they know what homework to do? Are they set up on the virtual classrooms still? Because that classroom was in an enclosed building with other students from other classes, are they sent home too? Is the whole school going to be tested?

And you know one of the students’ parents is not happy about sending their child to school and undoubtedly will be the school’s/Alberta Education/ provincial government/everybody else in the province for making them send their child to school… does Alberta have enough litigation lawyers to get through this? All of this from one class.

And yes, the government has set aside and budgeted for two masks for each student. That ought be enough for the whole year riiiiight parents? Anyone with a child from K-6 …no… K-12 knows a students propensity to lose things. Then what, does the student not wear one?

Not potential for disaster there at all? Who can’t see these scenarios coming?

A simple formula again comes to the forefront: make a policy decision based on ideology i.e. eventually economics; let those on the front lines, not management, figure it out for themselves and those share a social media post which has cabinet minister amongst the common folk to demonstrate they understand the common people and their decision is in the best interest of them.

In this case, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange was shown shopping for school supplies with her grandchildren. See? She’s one of us? Any decisions made by the government must be in the best interest of the parents and students because she knows how hard it is to pick up the right kind of pencil and eraser.

Doctors are probably sitting back watching all of this, not from a professional standpoint knowing they may feb getting busy with hospital visits and inquiries, because they know, they have seen this lack of attention to detail… not just the spreadsheet and budget detail… before.

Ryan Dahlman is the managing editor of Prairie Post East and Prairie Post West.

Email him at rdahlman@prairiepost.com