Thank you for the discounted pizza and nice words, but teachers are still not appreciated.

Since the quarantine started, my wife and I have a weekly Zoom cocktail hour with my best friend and his wife. They live in Brooklyn and about an hour into our talks, they’ll head to their window and start clapping for the first responders, hospital workers, and essential workers to thank them for everything they’re doing to keep people healthy, safe, and sane at the risk of their own lives. You’ve probably seen the saccharine videos of people clapping and nurses, doctors, EMTs, and the rest crying out of appreciation.

You’ve probably also seen photos like this one from last week.

Christopher Street Pier, Gretchen Robinette, Gothamist, 5/4/2020

It makes you wonder how many of these sunbathers went home and clapped for the workers later that evening. I’m guessing if you asked the essential workers of New York if they had to choose between receiving daily cheers from a grateful society or people actually following social distancing guidelines and not packing the parks because they felt cooped up and bored, they would overwhelmingly choose people following the rules. I bet when they see pictures like these, they’re calculating how many of those people are going to cause more of their fellow New Yorkers to die in the weeks and months to come out of their own short-term self interests.

Not to say that being a teacher is exactly like being a nurse or a doctor during a pandemic. But whenever I see these online thank yous and teacher deals this week, I feel a frustration because these gestures seem so surface level.

Don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate the discounts, the memes, and the heartfelt messages from students and parents. What makes me roll my eyes about are the empty platitudes from people who spend the other 51 weeks of the year ignoring, discounting, and flat-out undermining educators’ opinions and feelings about the state of our system.

• I’m in a district that encourages our students and families to send teachers “Virtual Hugs”, “Virtual Flowers” and “Virtual High Fives” this week — and a week after doubling health insurance premiums and offering only a 1% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) instead of the 1.8% that the state set. COLA not only hits our salaried staff, but also our hourly staff (which is interesting since our school security, food service, and maintenance/custodial workers are considered “essential” workers right now). So even our most essential colleagues won’t get the extra 0.8% adjustment.
• I’m in a district where the teachers were initially expected to teach from home, but secure childcare outside of the home when it was physically impossible. This ridiculous requirement was only reversed when MMSD got enough bad PR and acquiesced.
• I’m in a district where teachers are only allowed to join their School Based Leadership Team if their opinions and philosophies align with the principal’s and the district’s in lockstep, and face explicit and implicit retaliation from their higher ups if they dare to disagree with someone’s brilliant vision.
• I’m in a district where curriculum and professional development is routinely designed by everyone EXCEPT by the practitioners who actually have the daily interactions with our scholars.
• I’m in a profession where education conferences consist of organizers, speakers, and facilitators that haven’t stepped inside a classroom or K-12 building in years. They are the ones who are going to “disrupt” the inequities in our system. They’re the ones who tell local educational leaders that the problem never lies in the system, but the workers implementing the system. And if we just read their book, or pay them to speak at our PD session, or bully our colleagues into their way of thinking, then we can be “disruptors” too. And I’m in a district where my leaders believe these “influencers” and “disruptors” without question. And if questions do arise? Well, according to these leaders, maybe I shouldn’t be in this profession.

I get it. It’s tacky to complain about 0.8% and perceived disrespect when millions of Americans are unemployed with no semblance of a recovery plan anytime soon.

But none of these issues I highlighted stem from the COVID-19 pandemic. Not even the financial ones. The district initially lowballed teachers in 2018 when they offered 0.5% COLA versus the 2.44% we were due. They did the same thing in 2017 (0.5% vs. 1.81%). Intentionally underpaying staff has been a consistent strategy from the MMSD Budget Office in the past. It is today. And it will be their strategy for the foreseeable future.

District leadership is predicting that one of these days, the workers will just tire and give up on demanding the COLA. It takes a lot of organizational energy to rally members and the public around this topic. And this year is probably going to be the year that we cannot muster the energy to do so because everyone’s energies are dedicated to just surviving this pandemic. But even if we do bring up this issue to the public, we’ll likely be characterized as craven leeches on the public body during a financial hardship.

Because if I’m critical about these platitudes of coupons and empty words, then I’m ungrateful.

If I push back on the strategic framework or demand more resources from my leaders, then I’m not a team player.

And of course if I complain about our treatment by our leaders and community, then I’ll be branded as someone who doesn’t care about the children.

The last one always comes up when an educator agitates for more money, resources, or support. Vocal about the extra hours of unpaid work you have to complete in the evenings and weekends? You must not care about the kids. Disagree with the ineffective PD sessions or modules you have to complete? You must not care about the kids. Have a different curriculum idea than the one prescribed for you? You must not care about the kids. Concerned about the size of your class section or the disproportionate number of English Language Learners or Students with Disabilities without additional adult support? You must not care about the kids. It’s a lovely catch-all for any educator who dares to disagree. Especially now while so many are not as privileged as we are to work remotely.

So in order to care about the children, we must be 100% satisfied with the salaries we earn. With the healthcare and amenities packages we earn. With the physical condition of our spaces. With the materials and supports we are given. Request better conditions and then we’re ungrateful for what we’ve got or we aren’t willing to sacrifice for the success of our children.

And then we wonder why teachers are leaving this profession in record numbers.

So if you really want to appreciate educators (especially now that many people are at home trying to teach or facilitate learning), maybe cool it on sharing the signs and videos about how teachers should get a billion dollars. Instead, after we give them virtual hugs and discounted pizza, we should actually appreciate our educators by:

• demanding that the school district’s budget guarantees the full COLA for all employees now and in the future.
• bringing dissenting teacher voices to the decision-making tables instead of ignoring them or actively silencing them. Even if they disagree with the team’s final decision, at least they were given a voice.
• encouraging teachers to analyze and adapt district curricula to their students’ needs instead of blindly enforcing the canned one they are given. And protect those who do so from retaliation by their district supervisors and administrators.
• bringing in classroom staff to speak and present at the leadership institutes and other district-wide PD opportunities instead of the national or community speakers who are not directly connected to Madison classrooms. Instead of relying on the educational narratives of people who are not in our buildings and classrooms, let’s actually give voice to those who are. And I’m including students, EAs, SSAs, and other marginalized groups in the same category as classroom teachers.

Because “Virtual Hugs” won’t reduce class sizes. “Virtual Flowers” won’t increase salaries and hourly pay to adjust to the cost of living in Wisconsin. And a “Virtual High Five” will not improve the working conditions of our workers — and thus, the learning conditions for our students.

Until we really appreciate teachers, we’ll still see them break down (physically and emotionally) and leave this honorable profession…no matter how many kind notes and discounts we’re given.