It Is Not Noble...

...to go to work or school sick. I don't mean with the sniffles, I mean those of you who come with the flu, strep, mono or any of a number of other diseases that offer not only immediate infection but also wonderful side effects. Our state mandates that students must be in class 90% of the class days. That's all well and good, but these same students that will wander off on the first sunny day in April, will come to class sick as dogs. And they spread their germs. I am home today dealing with my third go around with strep this year. I have gotten in eight times in the past three years, resulting in increased susceptability and a heart murmur. For awhile last year, I had no sense of smell due to the lingering side effects. I have done all that my doctor and I can reasonably do to avoid infection. I wash my hands frequently. I use and make available hand sanitizer to my classes, I take vitamins, I avoid crowds, I eat in my room rather than the cafeteria. But all these steps do NO GOOD if kids come to school sick.

This is a phenomenon I have noticed for awhile. Many times there are two factors at work. With younger kids, it's the need for parents to have daycare no matter what. Although we have school nurses, they aren't equipped in terms of staff or facilities to quarantine your sick kid from the rest of the students while you go to work. Part of a parent's responsibility is to take care of their children and make appropriate arrangements when they are sick. I would like to add that some employers encourage this type of irresponsible behavior by their intransigent attitudes towards working parents and especially toward single parents. Nevertheless, sick children should be at home. My own kids ended up with chicken pox when a child returned after ONE DAY'S ABSENCE with the virus. The only reason they found out was he wanted to show me his "chicken pops". In my high school classes, there are kids who will goof off and miss school for stupid reasons and then find themselves in the position of having to be in school. Even if I send an obviously ill student to the nurse, they are just as likely to remain in class as to go home. The domino effect occurs as more students contract flu or strep or whatever bug is going around and they either stay and infect others or miss days due to one student's lack of due diligence.

The same situation plays at work. Employees show up sick and some employers encourage this irresponsible attitude by complaining about loss of efficiency. How efficient is it for one employee to infect ten others and for each of those people to miss work days? Schools force the issue as well with misguided awards for perfect attendance. Some districts make a big deal out of kids who haven't missed in their whole school career. The law of averages is that those kids were sick but in attendance at some time in their 13 years in school. I don't consider that worthy of an award. I consider that self-serving and egocentric. The time has come for people to get over the weird notion that sacrificing oneself by showing up sick for work, or school or events is a virtue. In this day and age with viruses mutating and antibiotics increasingly becoming obsolete, it's foolish to maintain this kind of macho hubris.