Letters to the Editor: Schools are closed because of a raging pandemic, not lazy teachers

To the editor: One letter writer suggests that schools remain closed in California simply because the California Teachers Assn. wants to "keep many of its members home at full pay." The implication, of course, is that we teachers are sitting around doing nothing in particular.

I would suggest the writer talk to some teachers and ask them how easy it is to teach online. I have yet to find a teacher that hasn't spent the last year working harder than they ever have. We have done nothing short of reinventing education to meet the circumstances forced upon us.

Perhaps the writer's animosity would be better focused on those who can't be bothered to follow simple rules like wearing a mask or avoiding crowds. Our schools remain closed because we failed to meet the challenge of the pandemic. That's the simple truth.

Carlos Anwandter, Gardena

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To the editor: People who bash teachers for not hopping back into the classroom without adequate safeguards should state their occupation and perhaps their age. This would be useful.

People easily and safely able to work from home, for example, without risking their health and that of their families, simply have less credibility when they castigate others.

Teachers — and I'm a retired one, age 70 — must be protected, or schools will close as fast as they are reopened.

Philip Brimble, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.