I'm not germ phobic as a rule, but every once and a while being a teacher makes me wince at the sound of a cough, shudder at a sneeze, attack surfaces with Clorox wipes at the first sign of a runny nose.
Mostly, I view the cold and flu season with a fair amount of bemused tolerance. People get sick, maybe I get sick. It's annoying but it only lasts a couple of days and then it's business as usual. In the mean time I'm treated to the almost daily lessons on proper mouth covering form, kids displaying symptoms with the skill of the an amateur dramatics society member, and the constant stench of hand sanitizer. Usually its a bunch of over reacting and I try desperately not to get caught rolling my eyes.
Every once and a while though, we have a really bad year. About a quarter of the student body was out sick today. Everyone is sniffling. We have kids who've spent time in the hospital and I've got one who's flu has turned to pneumonia. The school has had 5 confirmed cases of flu and most of them are kids I teach. I on the other hand feel almost suspiciously hale and hearty. I swear I can almost see a fog of germs coming to get me like some sort of sci-fi plague.
The irritating thing about it is that if I'm going to get sick, I've probably already got whatever it is in my system. So, it's all just a waiting game anyway. Gotta say though....I might just lose it if just one more kid sneezes on me.
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