GREAT DIE-OFF: Karen, Vaccinated Former Public School Teacher and Teachers’ Union Member

Excerpt from "COVIDsteria: An Oral History of America's Great Reset" - see https://covidsteria.substack.com/p/covidsteria-table-of-contents (NOTE: This post may be too long for some email providers).

As with the media and federal employees, so-called educators bore the brunt of the Great Die-Off as few unionized public school teachers and university professors managed to survive. However, the dramatic rise of homeschooling, charter schools, and private schools that started during the COVIDsteria lockdowns has only accelerated - meaning few parents miss failing public schools.

Few parents also miss sending their children to overpriced universities. Many have discovered how trade schools provide better training options for a new economy focused more on advanced manufacturing, agriculture, and resource extraction - not the shrunken public sector, high finance, and so-called knowledge industries.    

I tracked down Karen, a surviving (unionized) public school algebra teacher, to gain her perspective on school anal swabbing mandates. I also wanted her thoughts about the initial COVIDsteria pandemic and the Great Die-Off. Given the state of her immune system and overall health, though, she never leaves her home in a Northern Virginia suburb that is now a ghost town.  

I interviewed Karen via video conferencing. However, and as with Snowflake, we were interrupted a couple of times as her wi-fi kept dropping our call...

Before we begin, I will tell you that my preferred pronouns are “she,” “her,” and "they." But I expect you to address me only as “the educator” because I was an educator! [The educator frowns.]

Ok, no problem. As a public school teacher…

[She interrupts.] Educator! I was a public school educator! [The educator coughs and frowns angrily.] As an education professional who holds graduate-level degrees in math education and diversity studies, I did not merely teach young minds full of mush. I educated, shaped, and transformed young minds until they were no longer full of any of the mush their parents might have put in them! ¹

But being a public school educator in a country that does not appreciate education and learning was always a thankless job. [The educator sighs.]

Do you know how little I earned as a public school educator for providing such a critical public service? I barely cracked the six-figure mark if you counted my fully funded pension and guaranteed pay raises that were only a few percentage points above the rate of inflation! And yet, I was expected to work my rear end off from 8 AM to 3 PM every weekday, except during public holidays or school breaks, for eight months of the year! [The educator shakes her head angrily.]

In public education, though, we always had a saying. The saying was, "What difference does it make?" We showed up to class and did what we could with the limited resources greedy taxpayers gave us, our low salaries, and our underappreciated status in a country full of racist know-nothing types. ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ [She frowns angrily.]

My apologies then… As a public school educator, how did the COVIDsteria pandemic impact you, your school, and your profession?

As if being an educator in a systemically racist, sexist, and homophobic country ruled by a racist Fascist totalitarian dictator could not get any harder… [The educator coughs harder and frowns.]

Millions of Americans were dying every month from a disease that was an airborne Ebola and a Black Death with some Spanish flu mixed in that required a great reset to contain.  

And with no treatments available until you needed a hospital ventilator, what do some of the selfish parents of my school district start demanding? They demanded that I return to the classroom to risk my life babysitting their kids so they could sit home and smoke pot! ⁷ ⁸

We educators could not believe the nerve and gall of the parents of my school district who expected me to teach their little minds full of mush during a pandemic when millions of people are dying every month! [The educator shakes her head and frowns angrily.]   

We educators were so frightened of selfish parents and pandering politicians forcing us back into the classroom that we all wrote our wills and obituaries!