School Closures Have Pitted Parents Against Teachers. What About People Who Are Both?

Julie: It’s hard to say, in terms of my job and childcare. My husband is out of work. He’s in hospitality, so it’s like, who knows when he’ll work again? Could the city offer people like him, who work in hospitality, something to help get through this time? Absolutely.

Jeffrey: I just wish the city had had a plan implemented, so we wouldn’t have this whole “going back to school, going back home, back and forth” situation. I feel like if parents knew they would be remote all year, it might have been easier to plan and navigate this year.

What kind of emotional toll has this year taken on you?

Julie: The first round of closures was next-level traumatic, because our school community was really affected, and there were a lot of deaths. This time around, we’re prepared for it; we knew it was coming, and we’re dealing with it, but it doesn’t make it any easier. You just get so tired. You caught me on a very emotional day, when my students actually witnessed me and my husband having a marital spat! The baby was crying, and my husband was like, “You woke him up, you were being too loud.” But I was teaching! I just never thought I’d have a class of students witnessing those parts of my marriage live on Zoom.

Matt: Well, somethng just happened, actually, where my son—who’s a smart, bright kid, but likes to do the minimum—I was able to get into Google Classroom and look at one of his assignments, and I had to have a long conversation with him about, “You’ve got to do more than the bare minimum here.” This is my seventeenth year teaching, so I’m well aware of what expectations for a middle-school kid are, but that’s something that parents who are not teachers might not be able to do.

Jeffrey: Mentally, this has been really tough. I was on a call with my kindergarten class’s families the other day, and I was getting so stressed out, because I have my daughter’s work, and I have to teach, and I have my own personal graduate school work to do, and it feels like everything’s just collapsing.

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