What Grade Would You Give Americans in Handling the COVID-19 Crisis?

The schools wouldn't be able to close fast enough. Parents would either a) not send their kids if the case was discovered on a weekend or after school or b) flood the parking lots to pull kids if the case as discovered during school.

 

As I said several weeks ago, on the survey we received from our district, we opted to send our kids to full in-person school. My wife works full-time, and although I work from home, I'm in no way equipped to keep our soon to be first-grader on track. I don't have the first clue about how to teach her what she needs to know, which is why we hired our negative-test neighbor as a tutor and are looking at getting another one for the days the neighbor can't come over. Our sixth-grader is a self-starter, so she'd have no problem with remote learning; the little one, not so much.

We hope schools can open safely for all involved — teachers, kids, everybody — but my wife and I have also been discussing what we'll do if school can't open safely. We've started thinking about putting the little one back where she was in preschool, one run by the Seventh-Day Adventist in town. It was really good for her social development, her best friends are there and the class sizes are small. We're not Seventh Dayers, but they did a great job and really cared for our kid. It's about $800 a month, which we can afford, and it might be our best option for first grade, returning if it's safe to go back to public school for second grade.

I mean, it's all so uncertain, so it's hard to know what's the best course. Our town and county haven't been overrun with Covid, but does that change when all the college students return to our Big State University? For sure town numbers will spike with 20,000 or 25,000 or more returning to town because college kids are stupid and think they're invincible.

I sympathize with the quandary this puts our school teachers in. How do you balance your dedication to students — and that's what most of them feel, dedication — with fear for your safety? What's the calculus on that? I can't and won't criticize any teacher who opts out.

Stay safe, everybody, and do what's best for you and your family.

 

I was talking to a teacher last week. Elementary schools were planning for a hybrid with classes cut in half - early birds and late birds or splitting up the week - with distanced learning making up the rest. With middle and high schools, perhaps distance learning primarily with "office hours/small group instruction" in person a couple of times a week. But with indoor gatherings now limited to 10 I'm not sure that will happen.

 

Older Children Spread the Coronavirus Just as Much as Adults, Large Study Finds

People really need to stop with this idea that reopening schools won't spread the virus. Now there is a study that children ages 10 to 19 can contract and spread the virus every bit as easily as adults. I thought the age cutoff might be a little higher, but otherwise this is what I've been afraid of all along. It's not a sure thing, but neither is the idea that children under 10 won't spread it. We still haven't seen what will happen with them with schools open because testing in this country was a disgrace when most schools closed in mid-March.

So if this data finally gets people's attention, you will see calls for elementary schools to open fully while middle and high school go with hybrids or entirely online. You will especially hear it from President Trump and his crew because elementary school children can't stay home alone. High school students can, as can some in middle school. That will allow more adults to return to the workplace, which was really President Trump and his crew care about. At that point, they will drop the facade of caring about student learning outcomes if they can at least get most of the economic boost they wanted.

 

Your kids should be back in school full time. And a lot of people know that.

But you’re going to see this drag out in a lot of places. It’s unfortunate and dysfunctional.

 

"A lot of people know that"

Axios-Ipsos poll: Americans fear return to school

 

Yeah, mostly people who don't have kids and don't care about teachers and have the luxury of viewing this as some abstract economic question.

People who actually have skin in the game know better.

 

Oh, fear is high. No doubt. Yep.

 

Nobody knows that. It is an opinion, something believed, not known. Now we are seeing data that shows children ages 10 to 19 are every bit as vulnerable to contracting and spreading the virus as adults. In case you didn't notice, swingline's oldest fits in that window.

 

What do they know?

Abstract economic question. Yeah, that’s what elementary school education is.

Once Trump loses - and he needs to lose - maybe Biden can ask nicely.

 

They know that opening the schools right now would be a disaster. They know that intentionally infecting thousands and thousands of kids and their teachers and their families isn't worth appeasing the smug folks without kids who will insist the parents and teachers just don't understand the importance of education.

Georgia Tech has an interactive map to help you understand the risks involved in group events. Right now in my county if you are in a group of 10 people there's a 55% chance you're being exposed to the virus. Crank that up to 25 people -- which is a very small class size -- and the exposure is 86%.

My son's first day of class is in two weeks. It's going to be online for the foreseeable future because anything else would be borderline criminal.

 

30 years ago if I wanted to warm up my car in the cold I had to put on a coat and shoes and physically walk out to the damn thing, unlock it and start it. Now, I can start my car with an app on my phone.

Kids don't NEED to be in school anymore than I NEED to be in my office to be my job. But America loves clinging to old ideals. It's a drug stronger than heroin, especially for geezers. "This has to happen because this is the way it's always been done."

Bull to the shit. Evolve for crissakes.