Good news: New York City began vaccinating teachers against COVID-19 on Monday. This leaves the teachers ’union with no excuse to continue to oppose face-to-face learning: classrooms at all levels need to reopen so that our children can get the education they are entitled to, but have lost almost a year.
The head of the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, announced Sunday that its members have had priority given to vaccination, along with the elderly and traffic and public safety workers, after Governor Andrew Cuomo finally went yield the plea and extension of the eligibility of Mayor Bill de Blasio. And Blas said teachers working in classrooms get the first thoughts. (Although some of the 20,000, more than one in four who obtained medical exemptions for working remotely, have also begun enrolling).
High school and high school students have not seen the inside of a classroom since the city closed schools on Nov. 19, even though that was only part-time. Preschool and elementary school students resumed “hybrid” learning last month, while children with special needs returned to full-time classrooms. Congratulations to de Blasio for doing so much; children in need of special editing are particularly abused by remote classes.
But all children have to go back, full time. “Without face-to-face instruction, schools run the risk of children falling behind academically and aggravating educational inequalities,” a report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine warned last year. Nathaniel Beers, co-author of the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, explained that all children suffer from remote learning, even adolescents: “Adolescence is a period of time in life in which you have to explore your own sense of self and develop your identity, ”he said. “It’s hard to do if you’re always at home with your parents.”
These experts stressed that children had a low risk of catching or transmitting the coronavirus, but at UFT they don’t care about science or students. He threatened first a lawsuit and then a strike, only to return to work when the mayor offered new concessions, including a guarantee of non-dismissal. And it has continually pushed to close schools and prevent any further reopening, with more radical factions calling for all schools to be closed until the entire city is basically virus-free.
Still, as Blasio pointed out last week, “the safest place to be in New York City is, of course, our public schools.” As the city’s positivity rate rises to 9%, schools are well below 1%.
With teachers at the forefront of vaccines, there is no reason why they can’t go back to work instead of teaching distance learning, as some of them have done, vacation places and even the back seat. of a car. New York children have lost nearly a year of education; they have been learning in the classroom for a long time.