Higher pay and better job satisfaction teaching pandemic pods?

This article from the Wall Street Journal was brief, but fascinating - https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/teachers-find-higher-pay-and-growing-options-in-covid-pods-11601204400.

I hadn't considered that some pandemic pods might become permanent, as an incredibly personal way of teaching, cheaper than private schools, for those families who can afford it.

Some highlights from the article - "Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, says while learning pods highlight the need for more small-group teaching in schools, she believes they’re a “pandemic Band-Aid” instead of a long-term, viable career option."

That feels like a very short-sighted view. If teachers find they are enjoying this, what's to inspire them to go back to the classroom? Better if she had said something along the lines of "COVID has made significant changes to our educational structure. We are interested to see what changes are most positive and how we can make those accessible to all students."

Because when you have teachers celebrating that they're finally teaching the way they've always dreamed of, when they're celebrating the lack of administrative red tape and getting a chance to delve deeply into history, geography, and earth sciences with eight year olds, I'm not so certain these changes will be temporary, nor that concerns about equity will be enough to pull them back into the classroom. I feel rather that these parents pr and children privileged enough to be in these pods might just decide to go for another year or two, and do it again for their younger children...

Submitted September 30, 2020 at 08:26AM by littlebugs https://ift.tt/30lhtJr