Strongest arguments I have read about keeping kids home from school

[Generic Other]

For anyone trying to make the decision between physical or virtual school for themselves or their children:
Best argument for virtual school I have read, written by a dad. It's long.....but dang, it made me think a LOT. He takes every argument and recontextualizes it with appropriate analogies. The last four paragraphs are the chilling clincher. Every school district in the world is having these discussions RIGHT NOW - or they should be......

Written by a dad in Fairfax county read.

From Joe Morice, daughters in 8th & 10th grade in our Centreville Pyramid:
To our fellow FCPS families, this is it gang, 5 days until the 2 days in school vs. 100% virtual decision. Let’s talk it out, in my traditional mammoth TL/DR form.
Like all of you, I’ve seen my feed become a flood of anxiety and faux expertise. You’ll get no presumption of expertise here. This is how I am looking at and considering this issue and the positions people have taken in my feed and in the hundred or so FCPS discussion groups that have popped up. The lead comments in quotes are taken directly from my feed and those boards. Sometimes I try to rationalize them. Sometimes I’m just punching back at the void.
Full disclosure, we initially chose the 2 days option and are now having serious reservations. As I consider the positions and arguments I see in my feed, these are where my mind goes. Of note, when I started working on this piece at 12:19 PM today the COVID death tally in the United States stood at 133,420.


https://www.facebook.com/joe.morice/posts/10224591717007045

[iemitsu]

1. Wow! A very thoughtful piece.

Every parent and teacher should read this.

[unblock]

2. I usually don't click through to Facebook but this one is great

Not sure why I did but glad I read it. Great post!

[frazzled]

3. All well and good

unless your kid (or you) doesn’t have a laptop or computer, or a reliable (if any) internet connection.

And unless you and your spouse don’t have to both go to work because you are essential workers, or because you just need to get food on the table or pay the rent.

Lots of American kids are in that position.

I see both sides of this argument. It’s not enough to argue this ideologically, or from a position of relative privilege. It’s extremely complex. Nobody wants to put anyone in danger. But the reality for many Americans is that they cannot provide the resources for their children to attend school virtually, and they themselves are often unequipped to supplement their children’s’ education in the way that well-educated families might.

[Generic Other]

4. These resources could be provided

but I understand your point. They won't be. And sending kids into schools where they are unsafe has been the norm for some time now.

I am a retired educator. My colleagues who can retire are doing so in droves.

Young teachers/day care workers are being asked to assume enormous risks. Do you think the classroom size issues will/can be worked out in overcrowded districts?

Is asking poor families to simply accept risks the best answer?

Is withholding federal funds for the schools the best approach? Why not consider paying families to have someone stay home with children? Same with adults, of course.

I have no clear answers for you, but I do have a sick feeling this push to re-open is not the best approach.

[frazzled]

19. Nobody has answers

I have a granddaughter who lost the last part of kindergarten beginning in March, and who is eager to start first grade. Her parents are leery, and not sure yet. Nor am I.

I also have a spouse who is a teacher (a professor at the college level). He has been teaching his courses (half spring semester and also summer) online. At the end of spring he was worried he might have to go back into the classroom, since he’s over 65 and because his urban campus involves elevator buildings that will be hard to accommodate people safely. At that time, we pondered it, and I said, but maybe you should consider yourselves essential workers. Doctors, nurses, janitors, grocery clerks, and others are taking risks to deliver services; maybe you will have to be brave. (He recently found out he won’t. His school is allowing only 20% of courses to be taught remotely, and he has already been granted permission to do so.)

The public schools in the large city where I live (more than 85% minority in the schools) have just announced their plan this Friday, though it is subject to change by Labor Day, based on the health statistics then. Students will attend 2 days per week, half on Monday and Tuesday, half on Thursday and Friday, with no classroom to contain more than 15 students. Masks required for all. Home assignments will be given for the two non-attendance days. Wednesdays will be virtual learning for all. Parents may opt out. Juniors and seniors in high schools will be entirely virtual, since it is not possible to maintain distancing during class changes. The district has been providing 100,000 laptops and tablets to the neediest, and 100,000 high-speed internet connections to families. It sounds pretty rational to me. But I am still not sure.

Nothing is easy.

[gulliver]

5. It's Trump's/Republicans' fault that kids can't go to school without spreading covid.

It is Trump and his Republican stooge cult's fault that the kids can't go back to school. So Republicans are trying to con us with self-dealing pushiness.

They beat on the hornet's nest by not following the rules. Now they want us all to just get used to being stung all the time.

Nope, I'm not getting used to it, and I'm not forgetting it's their fault. Sorry.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. For me the most telling and important part of that piece

is where essentially not a single business person would be willing to have twelve people together in a room for 45 minutes.

[crickets]

13. 👆👆👆👆 Exactly.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Quite A Read

Guy who wrote this is really good!

[lunasun]

8. Kick

[MuseRider]

9. Thank you.

He has made it shareable on Facebook so I did just that. I have a few relatives and a now very few friends who are anti mask Trumpers who rarely speak to me anymore, nor I them, who will go crazy over this but oh well. Those that read, most of my friends will like it.

[yonder]

10. K&R. There are good arguments made here, please take a moment to read

[Iggo]

11. Good read.

[Raven]

12. Another aspect of this that haunts me:

Last Fall I fell and shattered my pelvis. I fell because my 7 year old granddaughter came to visit me, ran to me to give me a hug and knocked me off my balance. This poor child was devastated that shell had caused this injury. It took her a long time to get over it. Imagine a child who brings the virus home and someone in her family dies from it.

[crickets]

14. Yes! This is the other tragic part of the equation that sometimes gets glossed over.

How would it feel for a child to bring the virus home and infect a parent or a grandparent who then died? That is a huge, huge emotional burden that no child deserves to bear.

[Generic Other]

17. Oh man I never even thought of that aspect

You are right. That would absolutely scar me for life.

[Phoenix61]

15. Worst case scenario if you keep your kids home.

They graduate a year later. That’s it. That’s the horrible thing that will happen to them. They will walk across a stage to receive their high-school diploma 365 days later than they should have.

[smirkymonkey]

16. K&R

[malaise]

18. Looks like Texas is listening

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213772887