HOST INTRO: Teachers across the country have attracted scrutiny through the polarized views of whether students should return to in-class learning or remain virtual. Crystan Salucci spoke to one teacher who has had not only a different experience, but who has acquired viral admiration through a video one of his students uploaded of him on the social platform: TikTok.
AMBI: Nat sounds of pouring coffee into a mug. (FADE DOWN AS TRACK BEGINS)
TRACK: I’m here with Mike Barton at his home in Huntington Beach, CA as he brews himself a cup of coffee. Mike is a math and business teacher here at La Quinta High School. He has been teaching his students online from his kitchen table for the last year and a half.
ACT: MIKE BARTON: What I love about being a teacher is being around the students and actually-learning with them, and learning under a different capacity. Though I never thought I’d be a teacher, and I wasn’t “Mr. Studious” all the time, I just really-embraced as I got older appreciating learning with the students, and then also coaching and being around them.
TRACK: He says teaching from home lacks what he loves most about teaching: being in the classroom with his students.
ACT: MIKE BARTON: You can’t directly give that personal touch to the students individually. You realize that they’re not reaching out as deep as they should be because they’re in the situation that they’re in. So, I think not being able to literally and physically walk up to a student and stand next to them and help them, kind of guide them through a problem and talk to them and nurture them while they’re doing it is, I think, candidly missed.
TRACK: Despite the overwhelming backlash teachers have received over the last year, he says he hasn’t experienced any scrutiny himself but, respects the teachers and families who are avoiding in-class instruction to ensure safety.
ACT: MIKE BARTON: A lot of families are stuck in their apartments and stuff, there could be 1, 2, 3 families stuck in an apartment with grandma, and they can’t afford to get grandmother sick. So, they’re paranoid as hell, as well as being a very compliant culture when it comes to coming back school. So, you got to honor and respect the people that want to be ultra-safe for coming back to school, but I think most teachers really-want a normal classroom again. I mean, it’s a challenge to, you know, be by yourself all the time.
TRACK: He says although he received overwhelming admiration for the TikTok of him teaching from the hospital after being stung by a stingray, it is a situation he considered to be fairly-simple.
ACT: MIKE BARTON: I think in all honesty it was just an admiration, it was just a situation that happened, and it was just, to be honest with you, it was more of a hassle to get a sub than it was to do what I was doing. And I figured if I could be anywhere teaching virtually, why not just kind of be there and just to kind of give them that asynchronous time they were doing.
TRACK: As the struggle continues between virtual and in-person classes, teachers everywhere continue to adapt to these unprecedented conditions while educating their students to the best of their abilities. For Baruch College, I’m Crystan Salucci.