The 1 Thing Teachers Can Do to Protect Students
It’s time to go back to school, and to offer students the safest possible return.
The American public-education system exists at the intersection of and “in loco parentis,” and is built on the understanding that an educated populace is integral to a functioning democracy. As teachers, we sacrifice bits of our freedom in service of this cause because we care, rhetorically and literally, for our students. We were fingerprinted and subjected to background checks and a tuberculosis test to get hired. We regularly give personal time to plan lessons, grade assignments, and meet with students and families; we come in early and stay late to support students with extra needs or packed schedules. We have counseled many students through fights with parents, breakups with
