Kem Smith, an English teacher in the Ferguson/Florissant School District, has been busily preparing for the return of students on August 22nd.
There’s been much to do. She has been in teacher training sessions, professional development meetings, setting up her classroom and preparing the year’s curriculum for students.
“It feels different this year. Starting with not having to wear masks and not having to do hybrid classrooms. Those anxieties are gone but they’ve been replaced by other anxieties.”- Kem Smith, an English teacher in the Ferguson/Florissant School District
She knows the year will include English lessons and electives where students will read and discuss creative works of suspense, fiction, and African American literature. On top of that. she must also help seniors focus on college and career courses.
When Smith spoke with the St. Louis American in January, during the omicron variant’s surge that increased hospitalization rates in Missouri and throughout the world, the conversation centered around a survey that found that teachers were “stressed, exhausted, and overwhelmed.”
About half of those surveyed said they were considering leaving the profession altogether. Smith is back, and ready for a challenge.
In May, she completed her doctorate in higher education administration. A month later, she contracted COVID while visiting her grandson in Kansas City. Smith, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, summarized the ordeal with a dash of humor:
“It was terrible, but I didn’t die,” she said.
That upbeat attitude is also evident in her thoughts about teachers returning for the 2022-’23 school year after over two years of COVID-related uncertainty and disruption.
“It feels different this year,” Smith explained.
“Starting with not having to wear masks and not having to do hybrid classrooms. Those anxieties are gone but they’ve been replaced by other anxieties.”
Those include a teacher and substitute teacher shortage, which is not just a state-wide problem. According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 600,000 teachers left the profession between 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smith said the shortage hasn’t affected her immediate educational environment.
“Maybe we’re in a bubble, but at my school building teachers are in place and those who are not, we’ve been able to cover them [with substitutes],” Smith said.
“So, I think we’re in a unique place when you look at the nationwide struggle.”
Smith’s school may be in a positive space but the consequences of COVID has wreaked havoc throughout the region. For example, nearly 3,500 students across St. Louis cannot take the bus to school for at least two weeks because of a driver shortage.
Additionally, some parents are having difficulty enrolling their children in school because they have not been able to get routine vaccinations including measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and chicken pox vaccines.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccinations have plummeted worldwide with some 25 million children missing vaccination in 2021, 5.9 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2009.
The global problem is more pronounced in Missouri, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In an August 8, 2022, article, the newspaper presented the latest data from the 2021-22 school year which showed that 91% of kindergarteners were caught up on routine shots, which was down from 94% two years prior.
Dr. Kendra Holmes, incoming president and CEO of Affinia Healthcare, addressed the issue:
“Basically, we’ve been playing catch-up for two years now,” Holmes said.
“There are many children who have missed their checkups and their recommended vaccinations over the past two years as a result of the pandemic.”
Still, Smith maintains that things are looking hopeful as the school year begins. Part of her optimism is related to recent COVID-related recommendations from the Center of Disease Control (CDC). Earlier this month, the nation’s top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines and dropped recommendations that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person. The decisions were motivated by the recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected.
Most St. Louis City and county public schools have adopted the CDC’s recommendations with plans to offer full-time in-person learning for all students this year with health and safety mitigation efforts.
Face coverings are recommended but not mandated. COVID-19 vaccination or proof of vaccination is not a requirement for students or staff, although vaccinating children ages 5 and older is still recommended.
Most students will welcome the relaxed recommendations and updated COVID-related policies, but not all Smith added.
“The kids got tired of social distancing, but they embraced the masks,” she said.
“It became a form of anonymity for them. You saw them walking around with the hoodies and masks. There were a few who were happy when they dropped the masks requirements but there were some who felt no one’s going to look at my face, no one is going to insult me or call me ugly because all they could see is my eyes.
“It was a split with some who wanted to keep wearing masks and we were super surprised by that.”
The phrase “semi-normal state” regarding the new school year has become a somewhat standard definition. Smith, however, paused when the phrase was mentioned. She defines it differently with multiple complicated levels.
“I wouldn’t call it that because what we’re looking at is a new normal and it’s up to us to establish what that normal is.”
By “us” Smith was referring to teachers. Although “change” has been ushered in by administrators, she worries that teachers who’ve been in survival mode these past two years, aren’t necessarily a part of the decisions to make necessary change.
“There’s this drive to do school differently but then there are two problems with that,” Smith said. “Number one: we don’t necessarily have the tools to do it differently nor do we have enough people willing to move from the way things have been done.”
In the post-COVID world, Smith said change shouldn’t just come from “up above.” It must include the real-life experiences and recommendations from teachers if said change is to be effectively implemented.
Be it “semi-normal” or “new normal,” Smith remains cautiously optimistic:
“In relationship to COVID, I feel positive. Yes, there’s the monkeypox scare out there now and I’m concerned about what this ‘new normal’ will be; how we will establish it and what will it mean to be a teacher in 2022.
“But I’m ready to push pass all that and just teach again.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
