From a New York Times article about life in college, “‘An Emotional Hellscape’: Frayed Nerves for the Teachers of Unmasked Students”:
Irwin Bernstein, an 88-year-old psychology professor, said the University of Georgia had lured him out of retirement this fall. But when he posted a “No mask, No class” sign in his classroom, his department head told him to take it down “since I was in violation of the governor’s order.”Imagine having that moment be your last as a teacher.
At his next class, a student resisted wearing a mask, saying it was uncomfortable, he recalled. He announced that he was retiring — again — and walked out of class.
The kind of selfishness that student showed is what we see around us in downstate Illinois every day, from all sorts of people. It’s what’s prompted a local bookstore owner to close and move his bookstore back to Chicago — he’s tired of arguing with people who refuse to wear masks in his store, even after he tells them that his children are too young to be vaccinated.
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September 11: An article from The Red & Black (University of Georgia) has much more on Irwin Bernstein’s encounter with an unmasked student in his class. An excerpt:
The 88-year-old psychology professor explained to the student that he could die from COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and age-related problems, Bernstein said in an email to The Red & Black.[Yes, there’s a mask mandate in Illinois. But the local response is to ignore it. I’ve rewritten a sentence to make clear that the selfishness here comes from all quarters.]
Only about 15 minutes into the Tuesday lecture, which consisted of Bernstein taking the student attendance, he asked the student to pull her mask up again, but this time, the student did not respond.
Bernstein, who was already informed that two of his absent students tested positive for COVID-19, then announced his resignation on the spot and left the class immediately.
“At that point I said that whereas I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force, I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student during this Pandemic,” Bernstein said in an email to The Red & Black. “I then resigned my retiree-rehire position.”