Kristen McConnell, a nurse with an opinion, got 5 minutes of fame last week, and I take exception to nearly all of it… starting with her using the fact that she’s a nurse in the midst of a pandemic to lend authority to getting out of her lane to preach to teachers about what they should do in the midst of a pandemic.
She can save that virtue signal. Nurse McConnell trained to be a nurse. Her job is, and always was, to go in and care for the sick. The risk of getting sick herself didn’t just become her job. It was her job last year and every year before that.
Well before the pandemic, she agreed to the risk of blood borne pathogens and infectious disease. There’s a reason why there are gloves and masks and biohazard containers all over her workplace. If she didn’t want to do that work she could change careers or chump out (She’s right. It’s the wrong word.) But, it was always the work.
Further, I take exception to being told to do work that is not mine to do. Nurse McConnell’s career choice is not a lever upon mine. Her duty is not our duty, and there is no equating them. It is not my duty to provide food for people. It is not my duty to provide free day care or mental health services or socialization. I was hired and trained to teach English… to help children see and grow their potential as readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers. (And now and then.. to help them to know the right word from the wrong one.) Those are the true confines of my work, and like many other workers in the pandemic, I can work from home.
It’s convenient for society to layer these other duties onto teachers as if they are ours, but they aren’t really. When I finish teaching English, I don’t provide day care, therapy and friendship circles until parents come home. I’m not hired for any of that, and I’m not trained for it, either. I don’t have responsibility for the economy, and I take exception to being told to do my work in an unnecessarily risky way for the sake of the economy. Nor, do I consider it my responsibility to shoulder the burden that belongs on government to provide for the public good during an ongoing world wide health crisis. I have a duty and responsibility to educate kids; It’s a big responsibility all by itself; it’s none of the rest of that.
So, it is a little disturbing to hear McConnell’s husband’s musing about having nothing to show for himself. He may be layered into the article for the extra ethos (I may not be a teacher, but my husband is.), but did he really do nothing this spring? I worked hard to teach those kids. In my own case, my clothes didn’t get washed, my meals didn’t get made, my husband didn’t get my time, my dog didn’t get my attention while I did what it took to get up to speed and educate. If Mr. McConnell’s got nothing to show for that time, or if he devalues that work, shame on him.
Second, what’s with comparing our work to the bravery of being a cashier? Working in a 40,000 sq ft supermarket watching adults move quickly through the space well distanced from you while wearing masks, using hand sanitizer when they enter and leave, sometimes standing in designated distances on line just to be allowed into the store and often going through self checkout is not incredibly brave. It’s definitely not as risky as spending all day in 400 sq foot classrooms full of kids who can’t leave, who touch everything, who won’t keep their masks on or stay in their seats or remember to not act like kids.
But the worst of his opinions is his opinion of a strike as “bowing out” and a bad example to children. What an unenlightened thing to say. Strikes are why doors aren’t locked in factories, why children don’t have to work at the age of 10, why toxic chemicals are ventilated, why safety and health regulations are in place, why workers aren’t regularly dying on the job. What is a better example for kids? If it’s too soon to come back, what should we do? Be willing to be used in any way, at any time, without complaint? Teach kids that their lot in life is to never to stand up to exploitation or lack of concern for their inherent, natural right to exist? Call them soldiers so that they can bravely go once more unto the breach, dear friends? I don’t think so. I would be proud to have a child know that I stand up for safe working conditions and that I don’t expect to go, nor to see them sent in their turn, into unsafe environments.
And so, I also take exception to Nurse McConnell’s characterization of teacher objections as nervousness or fear. It’s gaslighting, and her tone is patronizing… (it will be tough, teachers…but it will be okay…. you’ll bond and you’ve find out that underneath everything… you were really just afraid of failure… but no worries… teachers, you’ve got this.) Wrong.
Reasonable objections to unsafe conditions are not about being nervous. It’s about advocacy. I was not hired to go into an unsafe environment and risk my health, the health of my loved ones, or (let’s face that elephant in the room) the health of the community so that people can pretend that we can quickly go back to normal before there is a normal to go back to. I can’t yet sit socially distant in my doctor’s large L shaped waiting room. I’m not even allowed into the building to be with with my dog and his vet, but I can sit in a small, poorly ventilated classroom full of 11 year olds all day? I don’t think so.
It’s true that life brings circumstances you can’t control. And sometimes you have to be brave. I would take a bullet for a kid if I had to. I’m brave enough to protect an innocent life, but providing day care is a different category. There are things to die for and things not to die for. One is heroic; the other is just being expendable.
McConnell’s oped was manipulative – first she admitted her own terror and explains how she overcame it, writing an all too-perfect script to “inspire” teachers who are scared. More accurately she is shaming them, like the various right wing opeds which only make teachers circle the wagons.
It’s as if the Atlantic’s far-right, pro-Iraq war editor in chief wrote the headline “we need to reopen schools, teachers do your job” and then found a nurse-blogger to write an article to march.
McConnell had written articles on other topics before, but was actually critical of the NYC DOE’s virus response in March when she tweeted a picture of the baby wipes her husband was given to sanitize his classroom. Oddly, her twitter account has nothing between now and 2018 other than the one March tweet – was it inactive or was it scrubbed?
In any case, the oped failed to address some key problems – hospitals and ICUs have really good ventilation and temperature controls, as well as top of the line PPE. I remember when nurses didn’t have enough PPE, they were protesting in the street themselves and it was headline news on every channel.
There are also huge differences of scale, not just in the number of schools versus hospitals, but nurses serve one patient at a time, leaving them totally unattended as they go on to the next one. Teachers will be juggling at least ten students at a time.
Perhaps this will not be an issue in toney suburbs where kids generally follow instructions, but plenty of city teachers had to work hard to manage kids even before the pandemic. Add to that months of new trauma and the constant dynamic of fear and anxiety.
McConnell faults the AFT for supporting safety strikes, but the NNU said a few weeks ago that schools should not open where the spread only makes it harder on nurses and first responders. The NYSNA is going even father, calling for remote learning to start the school year. So this is one nurse (and her teacher husband) going against the grain, but I’d recommend teachers instead watch THIS nurse who assesses the data and policies and plays out what school will actually be like in her district:
Bravo! Thank you for so eloquently giving voice to our thoughts!!
Thank you! Well done!
I didn’t read Nurse M’s original message, but can guess it. Half the time I speak to medical workers there is a bitterness that others should have to suffer like they did. Those that think this way don’t stop to think that they will soon be suffering more again, as we get a second wave that much exponentially larger because fools decided to open schools up to in person teaching. Bravo, Ms. Hill, for stating your case so clearly!
Thank you for writing this so eloquently! You are spot on with your analysis and arguments, as always!
Just shows you being educated doesn’t make you immune from stupidity or raised in a moral values
Brilliantly stated!!
Bravo!! A million thanks to you!!😍😍😍
Good for you!!