From WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life.
I'm Chana Joffe.
Walt sitting in for Ira Glass.
So a couple weeks ago, I was calling principals and teachers to find out what it was like to be in schools.
I called Principal Brian Cox in Wyoming.
Did he have a minute to talk?
Um, I can.
Yeah.
I've got to be out on bus duty in like, 15 minutes.
Principal Cox normally does not do bus duty.
He also does not normally teach French class because he's a principal and he doesn't know French.
He did both the week we spoke because 20% of his staff were absent.
Omicron.
You know, I told somebody today when we walked in, we had three paraprofessionals down in very key special education classrooms.
And I told them, our goal today is to be a hockey goalie and just keep it out of the net.
Two things I learned from calling around to lots of educators over the last few weeks.
School is still a mess.
That's the first thing.
And number two, the situation in schools right now can only be described using metaphor.
We're just gonna play for eight hours today and try to keep as few of them from getting by us today.