After a taxing semester, many teachers spend the holidays in quarantine
As December rolled around this year, teachers across the country waited in eager anticipation of the winter break. While exhaustion by the end of the semester is typical in education, teachers and students this year are reporting unprecedented stress and burnout: nationwide, 40% of teachers have said the pandemic has led them to considering switching jobs; as many as half of teachers in Alabama are considering quitting in the next five years; and in Colorado, two-thirds are considering quitting.
VCoscaron, via Shutterstock
But in the week leading up to winter break, the Omicron variant swept through schools across the country. While testing data from schools might be unclear, public health data paint a dire picture: following the latest outbreak, fueled in part by in-person learning at the peak of the surge, pediatric covid hospitalizations in New York City quadrupled, and the American Academy of Pediatrics reported a 50% increase in weekly child covid cases compared to the beginning of December.
Via Unsplash
As cases surged and schools remained open, Covid protocols collapsed and teachers caught the virus. There is no doubt that in-person school is better than remote learning for students, but while parents may worry about keeping schools open, doing so at all costs may push teachers over the edge. At a time when they are most in need of a break, teachers newly infected the last week of class now have to spend the holidays in quarantine, alone.
Natalie (last names have been excluded to protect teachers’ privacy), a middle school social studies teacher in Minnesota, detailed how the last few weeks of the semester capped off an already stressful year. “To say the last 4 months of my teaching career have been the hardest is an understatement,” she says. “I have students who have greater needs than ever before. Students that have been gone for extended periods of time, who have dealt with so much over the past 19 months….Teachers and educators are at their breaking point. Educators who thought they had followed their calling are looking for the exit door, other jobs, or even quitting without a plan.”
Trisha, a 19-year veteran teacher, described a similarly stressful situation in her classroom in Batavia, New York: “I am teaching groups of 6 in what was meant to be a storage room (12ft by 6ft). Students are supposed to wear masks because we obviously aren’t 3 feet apart but rarely wear them correctly….Every teacher in the building is stressed to the limits and most are on the verge of tears weekly if not daily!”
It’s not just the teachers whose holidays were disrupted—their families, too, also bear the impact. While schools were kept open to help parents continue to go to their jobs, the families of teachers also caught Covid. Teachers’ families had to cancel gatherings, and other family members had to help take care of their loved ones who came down with Covid.
In Wisconsin, an instructional specialist named Mary lamented her whole family getting Covid after she caught it at school. “I tested positive December 13th which we knew would wipe out Christmas plans for the family. My husband tested positive on the 15th, and our 3 year old held out til the 20th. We canceled all plans with family, my brother canceled his trip home from California, and my sister canceled her trip home from Minnesota. This left my parents without any of their kids home for Christmas because of my school-based exposure.”
“As soon as I found out I was positive I isolated myself in the basement, leaving my husband and 7 year old upstairs,” Natalie says. “My husband had to work, and since I was isolating and he had no symptoms, he went to work….We masked as things were delivered to the door. I had air purifiers all over the house. However, my husband tested positive on Wednesday. So he also is in quarantine right now. Our son spent Christmas with my in-laws until his quarantine was done.”
Trisha’s husband, who is a heavy-machine operator working night shifts, has had to sleep on the couch to avoid getting sick, and Trisha’s family has had to help her take care of pre-Christmas chores:
“My daughter wrapped all of my husband’s gifts for me so I wouldn’t contaminate them and spread the virus to him. My husband had to do all the Santa wrapping alone along with making the dinner we were supposed to be eating at his parents’ house with me assisting via FaceTime. My husband has been sleeping on the couch since I had my first symptom which is extra painful for everyone because he’s on midnights and sleeping during the day so the kids can’t be in that room until he gets up around 2pm. The kids have also been responsible for bringing me meals while he is sleeping.”
The human cost is not abstract; it means one less dinner with your parents or grandparents, or for Katie, a seventh-year teacher in Illinois, missing her daughter’s first Christmas: “My husband and 9 month old didn’t get it so I’ve spent the last 6 days in my room with meals dropped off outside my door. It’s been horrible…My husband’s family drove in from out of state to help him. I’ve only been able to FaceTime with my daughter. I missed my baby’s first Christmas. Working to get past it, but I’m still so mad!”
For Trisha, the quarantine meant missing the small joys of the holidays, like family meals:” My family was unable to see our extended family in person for Christmas because I am in isolation until midnight Monday. We celebrated Christmas morning with my kids and husband 10 feet away from me & me staying masked the entire time. We ate meals with them in the dining room and me on FaceTime in my bedroom. We traded gifts at the door & then had a zoom call with my in-laws and postponed celebrating with my family.”
Franklin, a 26-year old autism specialist in Minnesota , lamented canceled holiday traditions. After catching Covid at school the last week before Christmas, he had to cancel an annual holiday trip to the American Swedish Institute and a gig playing trumpet for a church’s Christmas festivities.
Other teachers, however, have seen their exposure and mild case as a bit of a break: “I was disappointed to cancel Christmas but at the same time relieved because I could slow down since I didn't have to entertain,” says Bridget, a 30-year veteran teacher in Milwaukee. “Being quarantined forces me to sleep more rather than being at gym at 5am. And if forces me to run outside in the fresh air despite covid. So even if I didn’t plan this, I am getting things done that I needed to do and living at a slower pace than I normally would.”
The nature of the teaching profession is caring; teachers care about their students and coworkers, and we have been trained for so long to power through illness. Have a cold? Take some Dayquil and show up to work the next day. And so being forced to miss work do to Covid protocols has left teachers wracked with guilt. Natalie, who missed work in November after having symptoms (but testing negative), says: “I had symptoms and couldn’t go into school, so my amazing team took time out of their prep and helped set up plans and communicate with those covering my classroom. The guilt is so real on so many levels, when my focus should have been on my family and health.”
A Mississippi teacher on Twitter said:
It is unclear why it was so necessary to keep schools open the extra week before break when cases were surging. Any teacher could have told policymakers that, even in a normal year, teaching (and learning) the week before winter break is difficult. The typical pre-holiday slog was compounded by numerous absences caused by…teachers catching Covid, creating potentially unsafe situations in schools with diminished staff presence. A Brooklyn, NY teacher described the situation the last week of school:
Other New York City teachers wrote:
With so many staff out—and the normal pre-holiday malaise—it’s hard to believe that schools being open an extra four days served much purpose other than to supercharge the spread of the Omicron variant.
Keeping schools open for in-person learning has real costs on everyone in the school community. While we should try to keep schools open, the benefits of in-person learning for an extra week must be weighed with the real human cost for teachers who, seeking a reprieve, got a quarantine instead this winter.
