Teacher orientation in the US in 2019 included the new requirement that classroom doors must remain closed at all times to protect children from an active shooter. 

In 2020, teacher orientation includes the newer requirement that classroom doors must remain open at all times to protect children from the coronavirus. 

I realise that there are some who might shake their head at the surreal poignancy of teachers being told, in two adjacent years, to keep their students alive in school by doing exactly the opposite thing with the exact same door.

I also recognise that there are some who might roll their eyes at the ability of a door, surely purchased decades ago on a public school budget, to take a bullet or flatten the curve.

And I know there are some who might furrow their brow over a society asking a simple classroom door to keep children safe from something that our national leaders are incapable of protecting them from.

But to these head-shakers, eye-rollers, and brow-furrowers, I implore you to suspend your cynicism.

A door through time

I ask you instead to open your hearts to a bountiful appreciation of the pure selflessness and chivalrous heroism of my classroom’s wooden door, proudly standing guard at the entrance to room 209 for over a century - whether instructed to stand open or remain closed.

For, you see, in 1918, the door stayed closed for a record 167 days straight and not a single child in class contracted the Spanish Flu. In fact, the door even cooked paella to keep the class nourished and warm.

Then, when Little Timmy Strickland brought bootleg absinthe with him to class in the spring of 1927 in spite of prohibition, it was the door that taught Timmy about the sins of alcohol.

During the harsh winter of 1936, Mabel Bellamy lost a mitten on the playground, so the door gave her one of its own. (Previously that decade, Mabel also needed a wheelchair because of polio, but, as her family lost everything in the Depression, the door purchased one for her.)

The door also parachuted into Normandy in 1944 and helped to liberate Europe by 1945. Before leaving Europe, it had a brief dalliance with a Parisian porte in the far reaches of the 16th arrondissement, but the chemistry didn’t last. 

The cold door

The door was never scared during the Red Scare. However, it was instrumental in bringing down a Soviet spy ring led by Viktor Ostrofsky, age 6 or 7, in what the CIA referred to as Operation Glue Stick. Specific details are, as yet, unsealed.

In December 1957, the door taught Susan Paulson the true meaning of Christmas after an unfortunate encounter between her favourite pencil and Valerie Frick’s left nostril.

When children in other classrooms cowered under their desks during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the door to room 209 closed, turned to the class, and said, “I got this one. Radiation and searing heat don’t bother me.” 

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the door always opened for black children and always shut for racists.

Trust in the door

In 1985, the door opened for Queen at Live Aid and then in 1994, the door helped monitor free and fair elections in a township outside of Cape Town.

On 9/11, the door dried the children’s tears and helped them process loss with great sensitivity. During the Great Recession, it ran a food bank and helped fight off home repossessions using hastily self-taught law skills.

And now in 2020, it stands ready again to play its part in keeping children safe, whether closed to stop an active shooter or open to ward off a pandemic - maybe both at the same time.

No, don’t shake your head, don’t roll your eyes, don’t furrow your brow - trust in The Door.

Josh Benjamin teaches first grade (Year 2) in Boston, Massachusetts