General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe can't force a solution to the school problem
We can't "get back to normal" until we better understand the nature of the problem. We need to discuss the problem, discuss plausible outcomes, get some data, and then design solutions that mitigate risk.
I couldn't agree more with this sentiment:
@MrTomRad
Going back to school buildings in fall is a bad idea.
Doing distance learning in fall is a bad idea.
Some combination of the two is a bad idea.
I do not have any better ideas.
I hate global pandemics.
Link to tweet
gollygee
(22,336 posts)Every choice is a bad one. I don't want to send my kids to school during a pandemic. I have seen enough of distance learning to figure out that it isn't very effective.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)Just like masks.
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)Im afraid to NOT send him back to school...distance learning was a disaster for our family and my son is a 4.0 student. We had tears and anger every day about school during the shut down...sometimes his and sometimes mine. It was such a struggle.
I am already hearing from people I know that work in the schools that there are teachers who have lots of leave time built up that theyre going to take it if they are forced into coming back to school. Hence, we will need a crap ton of substitutes to fill the gap. The only reason distance learning worked at all, even on the small scale that it did was because he kids had a relationship with their teachers having been with them from September through the beginning of March. If we have to start school in the fall with new classes and new teachers and possibly substitute teachers who havent been immersed in the curriculum, then I fear distance learning will be worse than it was this past spring. I am dreading it.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)Karen is a teacher but she has no expertise in medicine, public health or epidemiology.
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)Enough said.
Shermann
(7,428 posts)The only difference appears to be the parental involvement
gollygee
(22,336 posts)or a two-parent home where both parents have to work.
Shermann
(7,428 posts)The point is that the remote learning situation isn't inherently unworkable.
We may need to ask a bit more of parents in 2020 and 2021.
It isn't fair to ask more of health care workers and at-risk groups instead.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)And they also don't have time to homeschool.
I don't think sending kids to school is a good idea. But homeschooling isn't really a great solution either. There is no good solution.
Shermann
(7,428 posts)Was storming the beaches of Normandy a "good solution" to the Nazi problem?
Remember, the nation is on a war footing. Not everybody is going to be happy with the outcome.
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)The only difference is not parental involvement. I spent 3 months hip to hip with my high school student during the shut down. He's a 4.0 student who loves school and every day was a struggle to find meaning in what was happening and finding creative way to take the information teachers sent home via Google Classroom and teach it to ourselves. Teachers sent material out at all hours of the day and night (no exaggeration) and no actual teaching happened at all. None. Distance learning is wrought with problems and at least in our community it wasn't a positive experience on any level. I personally know teachers who have high school students who say the same thing. It was a mess and I was involved all day every day.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)approaches.
There really is no good choice, but I don't think it is wise to just give up on opening in the Fall, even if it's later. Kids lost a couple months in the Spring and at some point, it's going to hurt their future.
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)I can attest to that. I don't know if or how these learning experiences can be recovered. As you stated...there really is no good choice.