Teachers Are Essential Workers
By Shea Jacobs
Teachers make the future happen. I met with a teacher who agreed to share his thoughts about the dignity of workers in general and the dignity of teachers in particular. He said he thinks other teachers, parents and students respect teachers, but society does not. He feels that many people don’t believe that teaching is an essential job. If society respected teachers, teachers would receive better support and salaries. In his work environment, he feels that his supervisor respects him, but he sometimes sees that not all colleagues are respected equally. He thinks that people think that teaching is easy because they have never done it themselves. Teaching is difficult. Not all teachers have sufficient training to control the class so the students can learn. He believes that students need to be respectful to teachers and that this should be non-negotiable. This teacher feels that the dignity of workers is that everyone who works for a living should be respected in whatever job they engage in and that if schools were more open to teaching about every culture and ethnicity, educators would be more respected. Regardless of someone’s position in an organization, everyone should feel respected in their role because everyone contributes to the organization. The dignity of all workers is part of our Catholic social teachings. This is true in schools as well as businesses.
All Workers Are Heroes
By Olivia Beshara
First responders get their names because they are always the first on the scene when an emergency or a disaster occurs. When people think of first responders, firefighters automatically come to mind. This reporter had the privilege of interviewing a firefighter who is her hero, her dad. All first responders risk their lives so we can stay safe. September 11, 2001, is a day that we will never forget. The first responders on the scene that day had no idea what their fate would be or what tragic events were about to occur when they ran up the stairs at the Twin Towers. The FDNY lost 343 members that day; an additional 182 firefighters have since died from 9/11-related illnesses. Sadly, that number keeps rising.
When asked, “Why did you become a firefighter?” the firefighter interviewed for this article responded, “I wanted to be a firefighter when I was 26 years old after 9/11. He also responded that he feels he is treated fairly and respectfully by fellow firefighters and citizens. He added that he wouldn’t change anything about his job because he thinks, “I have a great job!”
An essential worker is someone who provides a service to society. First responders are imperative workers but the pandemic has reminded us that so are many others. People often do not give other virtual workers like store clerks, waitresses, cooks and factory workers the same respect. Some workers in these jobs are not paid a fair wage because their jobs are not valued by society. All work has dignity, and all jobs have value because all workers are essential and contribute to the common good of humanity.