Dear Governor Cuomo,

First may I establish some ethos? Here’s where I tell you who I am and what I do so that you’ll
find me credible and you’ll want to listen to what I have to say. We teach our tenth graders that
in English class through Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In his letter,
King describes that he is a preacher, as well as the son and grandson of a preacher. In that
way, his audience, the clergymen he is addressing, should have respect for what he says. And
so, here I write, as a teacher with thirteen years of experience working in the New York public
education system. I grew up in a house of educators, in which both my mother and father taught
and eventually retired at the administrative level. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have
experience in the classroom.

In my classroom my co-teacher and I discuss the need for authority. We examine social
philosophies behind the need for authority and when it makes sense to go against authority. We
read books like Ayn Rand’s Anthem in which people in society are subjugated to mere numbers.
Through Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird we evaluate Atticus’ argument to defend an African
American man in a town filled with racism. While reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, we
contemplate the need for societal rules and authority figures. In connection to all of these books
we examine social experiments such as Milgram’s Obedience Experiment and Philip Zimbardo’s
Stanford Prison Experiment. We question the kids, “Is it better to follow authority or your own
moral compass?” Through these discussions we invariably come to the conclusion that it is the
right thing to do to stand up for something you believe in, even if it goes against authority. So
here I stand before you in written form.

I can’t have these types of discussions in a Zoom conference. A good portion of the students
quite frankly don’t even show up. When they do, many of them are silent or their Chromebook
audio lags or they freeze in the middle of a thought. Groups are impossible in this new format.
Not knowing which students will show up, let alone which students actually did the work, makes
that a challenge. In the classroom I can adjust for that. In their home environment, I have no
control. I wake up each morning to numerous emails. Some are from students explaining the
mental health issues they are facing since shutting down: the anxiety, the depression, the lack
of feeling like they have any type of routine anymore. Other emails are from parents. “I don’t
know what to do,” they say. “She just won’t do the work, and quite honestly it’s just not worth the
fight.” I have counselors and administrators asking me to fill out forms and call parents and
reach out to students that I haven’t heard from. I get responses from parents and students
apologizing for the lack of work, promises that the work will get done, and there are numerous
times that I just receive silence. There are students I have not heard from since March 13th
despite my efforts to reach out. This isn’t working.

Not only am I a teacher, but I have three children of my own. When I am not wrangling my two-
year-old, I am teaching my seven-year-old and five-year-old the curriculum that is sent home.
As a teacher and a mother I am overwhelmed. I don’t teach open and closed vowels in my high
school English classes. I don’t know how to teach my son addition without carrying the one,
because apparently they don’t teach it that way anymore. I am at a loss as to how I explain to
my five-year-old that she can’t play with her friends anymore and that she won’t see them again
since she will go right to Kindergarten after a six month reprieve. I have emails and logins and
Google Classrooms and websites and passwords bleeding from my screen and all I want to do
is close it tight. This isn’t working.

Kids need teachers. They need people in a physical building who are not their parents that will
teach them what they need to know. Kids need adults, counselors, librarians, school nurses,
lunch monitors, teaching assistants - all people who will listen and care and attend to their need
for guidance and acceptance beyond their parents. Kids need other kids. A virtual world takes
this aspect away entirely. I set my kids up on the iPad for virtual play dates. My five-year-old is
never in view because she doesn’t understand that she needs to see her own face for her friend
to be able to see her. My son wants to run at recess with his buddies and get muddy and
sweaty, not look at his friend through a screen trying to build Legos. This isn’t working.

You think this is a great moment in history, a crossroads that provides an opportunity for
change. Maybe that’s true. But more virtual learning is not the answer. It is time that public
education is acknowledged as an actual profession. I am not a babysitter. On any given day at
school I am a teacher, a mother, a counselor, a mediator, a motivator, a manager. At the end of
the day I bring home nothing but benefits after I pay for childcare for my own children. I work
through lunch, I work nights, I work weekends. School ended on March 13th and I have not
stopped working because I don’t know which end is up anymore. This isn’t working. If anything
you should be realizing at this point why it is so important to open up physical schools as soon
as it is safe. I am evaluated on a system in which the classroom environment is a major
component. There is no classroom environment when you take the classroom away. In adding
virtual learning to the norm, you are subsequently removing the very essence of public
education. Kids need teachers and other kids in a classroom. They don’t need more screens
and less interaction.

I hear many people applaud your leadership through this pandemic, even teachers. However,
as King writes in his letter, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Your authority
to make change is very real, but I stand before you as a public educator respectfully disagreeing
with your use of power. If and when you form this coalition with Mr. Gates, I ask that your team
of “experts” is made up of public educators who have the most ethos in the field. You consult
scientists for science, you consult politicians for politics, please consult educators for education.
It’s the only way.

Thank you for your valued time.

Martha Sullivan"