Massachusetts school teachers were irritated over the summer when their school districts informed them that, although students would stay home and all instruction would occur remotely, the teachers were expected to come to school.

Some, of course, claimed that being in the classroom alone exposed them to the coronavirus. (The virus, in certain teachers’ minds, is all-powerful.) Others, especially those with young children at home, objected to the pointlessness and the hassle of teaching in an empty classroom every day.