COVID-19 Has Further Proved Schools Are No Longer About Education

A Mexican teacher perspective

I’m a high-school teacher at a Mexican border town. I work in what we call a “double-shift” school.

These are schools in which half of the students attend from 7 am to around 2 pm and, the other half, from 2 to 9 pm. I’m a teacher in the second shift.

You would think that splitting the student population in half would mean that we have very few students per classroom. There are usually 45 to 50 students in each class. Heck, I have even been blessed with 60 students in my roll call from time to time.

Then, what’s the point of double-shift schools?

The point, my dear, is to fix the Mexican education system PR issues — enter COVID-19.

Equality

It is not a secret that Mexican society faces a huge inequality issue. It is estimated that about 43.6% of the population (53.4 million) live in poverty. And there are fears that the whole COVID-19 situation will make those numbers soar.

Education has always been considered a factor that could help a person climb up the poverty ladder. We hear it everywhere: go to school, study hard, get a good job and, voilá, you are out of the hole.

Therefore, going to school is considered a sacred right. The Mexican government has gone to great lengths to prove that they care about making sure each child receives an education.

So, when the time comes for a new school year to begin, authorities push schools to receive as many students as possible. Thirty-five students in a classroom? Not a problem. Heck, let’s make it 45 or 50!

No child must be left behind!

Yeah, it would be better to build more schools and hire more teachers, but let’s not go crazy here.

There are strategies to handle overcrowded classes, of course, but they are meant to be an exception, not a rule.

Crowded Classrooms

You might be wondering, “why is this such a big deal? The point is to have each student receive an opportunity, isn’t it?”

You see, in my experience, those students are not getting a real chance. Instead, they are being thrown into a crappy situation, with overworked teachers and a school administration that doesn’t know what to do with them.

When I add all of my classes, it turns out there are about 450 students under my responsibility. And I’m supposed to provide adequate feedback and support to every one of them.

That’s what they need. That’s what they deserve.

All teachers do what they can, but too many students fall through the cracks.

I could go on as to why having 50 students in a classroom seriously impedes learning, but there’s a more important reason right now for not having that many people in a room.

This situation is highly unsanitary.

Earthquake

So, what happens when you have 50 students in a classroom? For starters, you can barely move.

Sometimes, the space between the students’ chairs is so tight that it is impossible to walk amongst them without causing severe disruption. When I need to get to one of them, everybody has to move around, and I have to contort my body in yoga-like poses to reach my destination.

Does this worry the education overlords? Nah…

Allow me to provide an example of just how much they don’t give a rat’s ass.

I live in a seismic area. Each year, we have our good share of earthquakes, but, frankly, most of the time, we barely feel them. We have gotten a few big ones, and things get a bit messy. Still, we have been extraordinarily lucky since there haven’t been many casualties.

About ten years ago, there was a 7.2 earthquake in my city. It happened on the last Sunday of spring break, so almost no one was at work, and schools were empty. “Only” four people died.

However, as the TV and the newspapers brought images of the damages, I shuddered. Many schools were in ruins. Walls had collapsed over the blessedly empty chairs. It was impossible not to wonder, “what if I had been there with my 50 students?”

We conduct drills but…it’s hard to tell what would happen in the middle of an actual earthquake.

You would think that this incident made authorities reconsider. “Hey, maybe it isn’t safe to have so many people in a single room. Especially since some of them are in two-stories buildings.”

Nope. Not at all. They did plaster the walls to make them look nice, though.

I have to give it to them: they are consistent in their disregard for students’ well-being.

Contact

And now we are in the middle of a pandemic. Not only that, but we are dealing with a virus that just loves it when we are in enclosed spaces with a bunch of people.

I have read some of the suggestions as to how to make it possible for students to go back to school while keeping them safe. My reaction?

LOL

Seriously, it has to be a joke. Oh, you are going to enforce handwashing? In the Mexican public school I work at, and many others I have visited, there’s rarely any soap in the students’ bathroom. Typically, they just rinse their hands a little bit and then wipe their hands on their clothes.

We do have soap in the teachers’ bathroom, but that’s because we buy it. It has been a long time since the school administration provided it for us.

And don’t even get me started on the school cafeteria. It’s nothing but an old classroom from which they removed the seats and then set up some stands to sell food to the students. There’s a constant exchange of money all day long.

Oh, you are going to make facemasks mandatory? Okay. Cool!

I just have a few questions: there are over 3000 students at my school. How are we going to make sure students keep their mask on the entire time? How will we know they are using a clean, fresh one?

The Teachers’ Fault…Again

Yes, the overlords have grand plans as to how to get everybody back to school. However, they are not going to be there to make sure everything goes according to plan.

Guess who is going to be in charge of enforcing all of this shit?

That’s right: your friendly neighborhood teacher…

Yeah, why not?

I mean, after all, we are already responsible for many other things besides, you know, teaching. We have to reinforce students’ self-esteem. We must provide a certain degree of emotional support.

We must also spend our own money on buying basic school supplies, since the school won’t provide them and many parents can’t afford them.

In the USA, teachers are also expected to place their bodies between a student and a gun. Heck, some of them are taking courses to learn how to handle a gun properly.

Would it really be that surprising that, once students start catching COVID-19, the brunt of the guilt will fall onto the teacher that didn’t prevent it?

Dead Kids

Teachers do all of the above things, not just because we have to, but because we can’t help ourselves. It is impossible to see our kids struggle and do nothing about it.

We will do what we have to do as long as it is to benefit our students.

That’s why this whole “let’s open schools up” is so infuriating.

Yes, students need to learn. And nothing compares to being with a teacher in a classroom. We can provide the context, the feedback, and the support students so desperately need. There’s just one problem with this whole strategy.

It is impossible to teach anything to a dead kid.

Why?

So, why do we need so desperately for schools to be back in business? Because it’s a crucial step in the whole new normal thingy. If kids are at home, then grown-ups can’t leave the house.

Some people are throwing the old, “but how will the kids learn?”

Please…

If this were an actual concern, then the education system would be the best-funded operation in every country, and teachers would receive the training and the salary they need.

Instead, we are left with a lot of performative PR moves.

I can almost see the first day back to school: the governor shows up at one school, has his picture taken in front of a ton of sanitizer bottles, and then leaves…we wouldn’t see him again until he needs another photo op.

I know teaching online is not the best solution for most people. It’s uncomfortable for the parents, for the kids and, heck yes, for the teachers. Trust me; I wish I didn’t have to do this. I feel like my personal life is gone! Teaching online is way harder than being in the classroom. I would give anything not to have to do it…well, almost anything.

I don’t want my students to give their lives. And I certainly don’t want to give mine.

I have no interest in being a hero.

Options?

I have a 12-year old kid. His teacher has been sending homework. Lots of it. Too much.

I fucking hate it.

But then I picture my son out there with nothing to protect from this virus but a piece of fabric and a dose of alcohol on his hands…and I shiver.

I would prefer to keep him home. And I would prefer to stay here too. However, what if the authorities say fuck it and force us to come back ASAP?

I cannot afford to lose my job. Most teachers can’t.

If they make me choose between teaching on-site vs. quitting, I’ll have no alternative but to go back. And I know many parents cannot go to work while their kids are at home.

It’s a horrible situation in which everybody loses something.

To make things worse, I notice how politicians fill their mouths with words such as education, learning, no kid left behind!

They have no idea what the fuck they are talking about.

The least they could do is drop the charade and admit the truth: to them, schools have long stopped being about learning. Instead, they are now large daycare centers, and they need them to get back to business now.

What to do?

First of all, I would prefer not to go back for the rest of the year. I rather drown in Google classroom notifications.

Second, when we come back, the government is going to have to spend a bunch of money. We’ll need to equip schools with the basic sanitary conditions to reduce the spread of the virus. It might be necessary to rent some facilities for a few months and distribute students in smaller classes; this way, we wouldn’t have 50 students together in a single room. Oh, and if we could keep having small classes post-pandemic, that would be great! You know, so that we could devote more time to each student. Also, fucking soap in the bathrooms would be a nice detail.

This is an unusual situation, and authorities have been scrambling to come up with plans to face it. I understand that. However, once we consider what’s a stake here, it becomes clear we need to take our time to make the right choices and prepare schools to safely welcome students back.

Our children are worth it.