Dear Parents,
Please don’t send your children to school sick.
We know that you don’t want them to miss any school. We know it’s hard to find child care for sick children.
And that’s why we want you to keep them home. Please.
If they have a fever that you’re hiding with Tylenol “just so they can make it through the day,” then they need to stay home. If they come to school and ask to see the nurse before 8 am, they should have stayed home.
If you send your sick kid to school, 23 other students in his class are now going to catch his cold. And so will I.
So for the next 3 weeks, I’ll be dealing with my own cold (don’t get me started on how hard it is to make meaningful sub plans) and dealing with 23 students who should be staying home but aren’t, all in various stages of a cold. All with a cold of my own.
In some circles, saying this is forbidden. Somehow, teachers aren’t supposed to think about their own health and welfare, just the educational needs of their students and the day care needs of their students’ parents.
But hear this. Teacher welfare IS important to your children’s educational needs. If I’m out sick for 2 days, that’s a lot of busy work your child is doing instead of actually learning something. That’s 2 days less of extra help learning to read or do long division or balance chemical equations.
I’d love to know your thoughts.