Throughout my teaching career, I was disappointed that educators did not have greater leadership capacity. Typically when decisions were made for us, those decisions were never as good as decisions made with us. The pandemic has shined an ugly light on professional disregard since in many situations educators have been left out of the discussion and plans for the school year during a pandemic. Many conversations have not only disregarded educators' voices, but the discussions have left out educators' safety too. No matter what kind of commitment you made to schools, students, and systems, what appears to matter most to many decision makers is that you are a body in a room to provide childcare during the pandemic. It is very sad to see the profession face this crisis--the poor leadership of the past has become the destructive leadership of the present. This is a sad reality for educators, students, schools, and communities across the country.
