Worst. Job. Ever.

Sometimes, it pays to compare.

When I would hit what I thought was rock bottom over teaching during the pandemic, I would stop and think about the people who had it worse. Even within my own profession, I pitied most the young teachers who were teaching young children, who also had young children at home. Make them a single parent, and they win Queen for the Day, Pandemic Version.

I, on the other hand, am dealing near-adults and adults, and so my trials are mostly manageable (she said, naively, as she enters her fifth week of the semester, when there’s loads of times for things to go south).

We have a new winner, though, in the sweepstakes. With Gov. Ned Lamont’s announcement this week that the state would ease mask mandates for schools and child care centers, I hereby award the title of Worst Job Ever to local Board of Education members (trumpets, please), who haven’t had it easy up to now, and will most likely have it worse in the coming weeks.

We’ve already seen idiocy in Glastonbury (over a school mascot), and in Haddam-Killingworth (masks, naturally), among other places. We’ve seen the stupid everywhere, really, so much so that some boards have sought to cut off a vital part of those meetings, public comment, simply because some people make it so that the rest of us can’t have nice things.

Connecticut has roughly 1,400 people serving on school boards, which for years were mostly quiet affairs unless someone wants to argue about a dirty book or evolution. As we dive deeper into February, let us remind ourselves that these are volunteers, they’re doing this for free, and if you feel the need to yell and punch, join a gym or buy a bag. School board members are not your enemy. They may be every bit as frustrated as you are over mandates/leadership/science. Treat them with care.