Teachers’ long workdays

Regarding “Teachers in S.F. to earn full pay on fewer hours” (Bay Area, April 17): I read about teachers being paid to work four hours during the crisis, and I don’t know many teachers who work within the contract hours in a normal educational setting, much less now. Most of us work far beyond expectations, especially during the current situation. We are spending hours on webinars, stumbling through learning new tools and completely revising our curriculum to meet new modes of instruction.

We provide four hours of combined instruction and activities for the students, but most of us are spending many additional hours planning and attending multiple meetings a day with colleagues and corresponding with parents to make sure that those lessons are meeting the needs of our students.

Diane Rosen, San Francisco

Plantbased options

Regarding “In need of comfort food” (Letters, April 18): Like the letter writer, I’m not a fan of meatless meat and I love comfort food.

The good news is that a lot of the plantbased options are delicious and comforting, including versions of macaroni and cheese and pizzas, and there are always those delicious vegetables and fruit dishes that don’t pretend to be anything else. Part of the comfort in eating is knowing that what we’re eating hasn’t come from “discomfiting” things we’re doing to animals — including humans — and the environment.

We now know that moving toward a plantbased diet is the kindest thing we as individuals can do for the environment — a thought to act upon as we celebrated Earth Day during the shelterinplace mandate. Now we have more time to Google “vegan comfort food recipes,” make them, and savor them.