Jessica Kanne is a teacher here in Columbia, and she spoke with the Missouri On Mic team at the Daniel Boone Regional Library in February. She spoke about the strain the pandemic has had on teachers, as well as the joys that come from teaching young kids.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state in its 200th year.
Jessica Kanne: My favorite part is – I just think there's a lot to learn from kids, even at 2, 3, 4 years old.
My least favorite part is probably being a teacher in the pandemic, just because it's pretty hard to like, teach kids when, you know, germs are extra spreading. And I think there's just like a lot of times where teachers are taken for granted – especially right now.
Um, I mean, I think sometimes they can probably feel our stress. You know, kids are such sponges for everything that's going on around them. And even if they don't, like, necessarily say it point blank, I'm sure they can feel the stress. But I think kids are so resilient, that they'll, they'll come through.
And I think like this generation of kids that's going through the pandemic is probably going to be stronger than, like, anything we've ever seen.
"I know people are really pressed to have their kids in the classroom and not wearing masks and all of this stuff, but like, we're forgetting about the teachers and about their like, health and safety, too."Jessica Kanne
My internet is broken. So I am going to use their internet to do some homework, and I'm actually going to pick up some books for my kids.
Their favorite is the Llama Llama books, which are kind of fun because they just rhyme, but they also have good messages.
But I also, um, we have a book called Our Class is a Family that I really like to read because it presents the idea, like, you spend so much time at school so why not call your class a family? And it kind of challenges the like, traditional ideas of what family could be.
I talk about my class a lot. But we're currently doing a collaborative, like art project on this giant canvas where we're learning about all these different colors. And every time we finish learning about a color they add to the canvas. They're two and three years old, and they're creating this really beautiful work of art.
Personally, I hope to, like, keep working with kids. And just like helping them know, their worth, and preparing them for the world.
I think just – it's okay to just like, be a kid as, as basic as that sounds. Like it's okay to, you know, wear clothes that don't match and have random dance parties and just like sit down and color or sit down and scream if that's what you need to do. And it's okay to do all that.
And that stuff doesn't have to be restricted to just kids. Anybody can, you know, wear what they want, do what they want, feel their emotions when they want.
And I would say, like, globally, I think, you know, like, two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw this huge coming together of people and so much like, unconditional kindness, and I say, like, if I had to pick one hope for the world it would be to get back to this place where we're just being kind and coming together as a community.
I think this is my bias as a teacher, but something like I noticed in the teaching community that I don't see talked about beyond is like how understaffed teaching is right now, especially, I have a lot of friends who teach at the public school. And I know, like, they're super, super understaffed and pulled really tight. And I feel like that's kind of either not being talked about or being, like, ignored.
Because I know like, people are really pressed to have their kids in the classroom and not wearing masks and all of this stuff, but like, we're forgetting about the teachers and about their like, health and safety, too.
