Call me indispensable

I took a sick day a few weeks ago. Why, you may ask. Was it a fever? Strep? Doctor's appointment? No. I did have a cold. I was sneezing. I worked my way methodically through a box of kleenex. My nose was drippy, my eyes were droopy, my voice was nasal and my throat was a bit raw. I may even have had a slight fever. But that's not why I took a sick day. I took the day so that I could clean my house.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Wouldn't the sane person simply say that they were staying home in order to get better, and then hunker down in bed for the day with a good book or a great movie and a gallon or seven of tea? Probably. But I'm a teacher, and teachers...at least the ones I know...don't follow the rules of the sane.

I'm sure there are many professions where it becomes easier to work sick than to stay at home for a day. Teaching is definitely one of them. Imagine if you will, planning to go away for an overnight, leaving your young child with a brand new sitter who has never met your child. Dare to think that your relatives don't live in spitting distance, so what you leave for that person is all he or she has to go by. Think of all of the things you would have to prepare, all of the things you would need to write down for the sitter including how the house works, child routines, and emergency information (just to name a few), and you will begin to understand the task of being away from teaching for only one day. It's really not much different, which is why teachers tend to come into work sick. It is also why the sick day-when-one-is-not-on-her-deathbed is a coveted thing.

And yes, you are right to say that teachers shouldn't come to school and infect the kids. It's as correct as we teachers are in saying that kids shouldn't come to school with snotty noses or hacking coughs. But they do, and so do we. I admit that we're both in the wrong. I'll try to do better, but for now, this is the reality.

I think that the outside world thinks that teachers come to work when they have a cold because they think that they're indispensable. That couldn't be further from the truth. We all know that we can be easily replaced. No, we come to work when we're sick because we're too lazy to do all the preparation necessary to stay away. In layman's terms, it's just a lot easier to go to work when we're not feeling well than to stay home.

Unless of course the stars collide, like they did that day a couple of weeks ago. I felt crummy, but not too crummy. My work at school was already prepared. I had just the right amount of school work to do at home to keep me busy while I scrubbed floors and wiped my nose. It was the equivalent of a teacher's Festivus miracle.

And yes, I know the big question. Why didn't I simply take a day to convalesce? Why did I need to obsess about making my place spic and span? Why didn't I finish that book, or catch up with back episodes of some show? That my friends, is a blog posting for another day.

In the meantime, I did my housework. And that entire night before, I prayed that I wouldn't wake up in the morning with a fever. After all, everyone needs to be fairly well to enjoy a sick day.