September, and have a well-thought-out “plan B” for distance learning, if classroom instruction isn’t possible.
Teachers - when should schools reopen?
- Thread starter Adamek
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phil19034
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Honestly… I don’t think they are going back. 
Just look at what’s going on with the colleges… Some are starting their Fall Semester a month early because they fear a 2nd wave in Nov/Dec.
And all are pretty much planning to do everything online if student’s can’t return.
Also, you still have many areas still in “code red.” Schools are not supposed to be opened until the area is considered “code green.”
So it’s quite possible that homeschooling will continue in Sept if virus numbers are not drastically dropped over the summer.
Just look at what’s going on with the colleges… Some are starting their Fall Semester a month early because they fear a 2nd wave in Nov/Dec.
And all are pretty much planning to do everything online if student’s can’t return.
Also, you still have many areas still in “code red.” Schools are not supposed to be opened until the area is considered “code green.”
So it’s quite possible that homeschooling will continue in Sept if virus numbers are not drastically dropped over the summer.
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phil19034
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Unfortunately, I don’t think the public schools will have a plan B for distance learning. I think the vast majority of public schools have been a major fail for distance learning so far.
If this continues, I think parents are going to have to consider homeschooling packages or online schools, because the public schools will not be ready with a better distance learning program in the fall.
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phil19034
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Well, what works in the colleges’ favor is that most online classes (tuition wise) around the country are the same prices as regular tuition.
But what’s going to hurt many colleges is the inability to charge room & board if they have to go all online. Many colleges today actually make money off of room and board. It’s no longer offered at cost.
But I will tell you this… If my kids were going to be a Freshman or Sophomore this fall, I would be pushing them towards community college for the Fall Semester - to save money, esp if this goes online again.
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Two things about this. First, the public health officials don’t seem to have a clear idea of what it means to be safe. Short of applying universal immunization, and this won’t be a reality for a long time, if ever, there really is no such thing as safe.
Secondly, the virus seems to be dangerous to people who are in a certain age bracket and are already suffering from life-threatening illnesses. This, for the most part, doesn’t include children or college students.
So the big question now is why should the kids be kept away from school?
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ATraveller
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I’ve been watching Australia for a while now from a far. If there’s a problem, Australia should see the beginning of a spike about now. So far there hasn’t been any indication there is one and let’s hope and pray it stays that way.
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Denmark and Germany have been phasing in schooling. No spikes so far either.
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COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark - Wikipedia
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COVID-19 pandemic in Germany - Wikipedia
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JulianN
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They are pretty clear about the six-foot distancing with masks. That’s not typically workable in the average classroom.
Children do get COVID-19 however, and are increasingly being diagnosed with a dangerous multi-system inflammatory disease as a result. And while they may normally have mild symptoms, they are still contagious—bringing it home to spread around.
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RolandThompsonGunner
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Children and college students may not get severe symptoms as often, but they can still carry the virus and pass it on to others.
The business of masks is just as murky as everything else surrounding the mysterious virus.
It is my understanding that only surgical quality masks make any difference when it comes to transmitting this virus or protecting from it. Since most of us don’t have these, the cute little masks we all wear when we go shopping are for fashion and virtue signalling.
All the masks come from China (I just got mine today) and according to multiple reports, the masks sent by China to many European countries were defective, ie worthless.
So we can continue to wear masks, and maybe have them embroydered. But, they are of little or no use.
It is my understanding that only surgical quality masks make any difference when it comes to transmitting this virus or protecting from it. Since most of us don’t have these, the cute little masks we all wear when we go shopping are for fashion and virtue signalling.
All the masks come from China (I just got mine today) and according to multiple reports, the masks sent by China to many European countries were defective, ie worthless.
So we can continue to wear masks, and maybe have them embroydered. But, they are of little or no use.
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LisaB
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Ain’t this the truth. In addition, when masks are mandatory, people wear them just for show. They don’t cover their nose with them, don’t wear them snugly around the face, adjust their mask constantly thus touching their face even more than before (which is frankly more dangerous than no mask at all), reuse the same mask over and over, etc. I don’t get the mask craze. It’s just there to meet the letter of the law and for the most part useless.
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Allegra
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Our district has been working on Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D since March.
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Allegra
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What do you suggest that those plans would be? A place in nearly any childcare program generally requires a down payment. Are you advocating for people to apply for multiple spots in different programs, just in case? Have a nanny on retainer? People who provide childcare don’t just wait around for people to call them as their Plan B. They find new families that need care immediately or they fill those spots with kids who need care immediately. Or are you assuming that everyone knows some nice relative or friend who have no problem providing fulltime childcare if you just think to ask them? In this crisis, a huge number of childcare options have suddenly become unavailable at once. It’s not unlikely that all of a families backup plans suddenly disappeared at once and it seriously isn’t doable.
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Peeps
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I disagree that our taxes should subsidize families with a stay-at-home parent, but I think you have touched upon a very real issue with “forced home-schooling” (due to the pandemic shut down)–many parents are simply not cut out to teach their children at home, even if a skilled and dedicated teacher is sending all kinds of great lessons online.
I work with parents who are literally at the end of their ropes, and have actually burst into tears at work when they start talking about the frustrations of working on schoolwork with their own children. It’s hurting their family. I realize that those of you who love homeschooling may not understand this, but you’re not them.
I say, send the kids back to school on schedule this fall as long as the coronavirus appears under control.
Obviously from the posts above, our children have been going to school for decades and getting exposed to everything from head lice to influenzae to stomach flu to you name it. It’s icky, but it’s real life, and kids generally recover just fine from these ailments and grow up just fine and graduate and lead productive lives.
I think it would make sense for families to make some decisions together about living healthier lives to “boost” their immunity. E.g., every family member pledges on a Bible to wash their hands often, especially after using the restroom and before eating anything.
Also, perhaps families can re-consider their “packed” schedules, and cut out a few extra-curriculars–at some point, all of us have to make tough decisions about which of our activities we truly love and don’t want to ever give up, and which activities we’re doing because we have a friend whose doing it, or because we don’t want to disappoint the coach, or because we feel obligated to our neighbors…
A family that is always on the run is, in all likelihood, shorting themselves on sleep and increasing their stress levels. Can’t we just use this pandemic experience as an opportunity to finally let go of too many extras and settle on a few activities that add to the joy of the entire family and possibly have some value for the future (e.g. piano lessons–I have never met anyone who says, "Wow, I’m glad I quit piano lessons when I was 12!) Or sports–if a child really, truly is good at a sport and loves it, it may lead to a college scholarship or a career (one of my daughters coaches part time and adds around $8000/year to her family income, and incidentally, loves coaching and her sport).
We can’t protect our children from every illness, and if they don’t catch the viruses now, they will catch them when they grow up. Sickness will always be with us.
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babochka
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I’ve got an incoming Freshman and I am so tempted toward this. Unfortunately, he has been accepted to a very competitive college with excellent financial aid. He could defer a year and that is definitely on the table, but community college would not work for him because it would threatened his acceptance. Basically, he would have to apply again as a transfer student. Local community colleges have already determined that they will be online only for the next semester. The college that he plans to go to has not made an announcement yet. It would save him money in the short-term, but in the long-term would probably cost more. This would be an issue for many students going to private schools who have been awarded scholarships, as the scholarships are always better for Freshmen than they are for transfer students.
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Gertabelle
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Y’all seem to be forgetting that children in schools have adults teaching them.
I teach in a Pre-K thru 8 grade school. We have a number of teachers over 60. Our librarian has type 1 diabetes. I have asthma. Three of the teachers in my school are currently pregnant. Our principal – who is only in her mid 30s – will have ongoing cancer treatments through October.
Look, the kids may not get sick, but the adults in the building are in danger of getting sick, and bringing that illness back to their own families. Some of our teachers care for elderly parents, and a couple have elderly relatives in their homes.
This is so much bigger than “children don’t get sick with Covid 19 so open the schools.”
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JulianN
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They’re actually to protect others —it’s the equivalent of always having a handkerchief over your face to catch respiration before it’s in the air. It only works if everyone wears one.
Also, I think we need to worry more about the vice-signaling we’ve been seeing lately than any virtue signaling.
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LisaB
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Nice to meet you.
I quit at about that age after playing for a couple years, and should have quit sooner. Not a good activity for a totally tune deaf child.
I have a truly bone-headed question that just came to me last night. It is not the first truly bone-headed question I’ve ever had in my life, and it won’t be the last. Here goes:
Imagine an idealized situation where everyone “socially distances”, wears their mask at all times when venturing anywhere that other people are going to be, keeps such forays to an absolute bare minimum, and otherwise either stays home or goes out into the open air where there are no other people.
It takes about two weeks for the CV virus to incubate and manifest itself (I’m making this assumption, not sure it’s necessarily true). So let’s say that everyone in this idealized situation does what I’ve described above, for good measure, let’s make it a month (four weeks).
In that time, isn’t everybody who has the virus going to go ahead, get sick from it, get better, and — there is no pleasant way to say this — those who have the virus and are of a high-risk group get even sicker, and either convalesce, or (this is the unpleasant part) die of it?
And once this has all run its course, shouldn’t the pandemic — at least within this idealized, hermetic “bubble” environment — burn itself up and nobody else within the “bubble” gets sick from there on out?
Extend this “bubble” to the size of the world itself. Shouldn’t the pandemic run its course and then “fizzle out”? Or is there an alternative scenario of the virus “eating up the whole world” — think Pac-Man eating dots — and basically infecting everyone? And if so, how?
Actually, that’s not just one question, it’s several. Virology is far from my field of expertise.
Any thoughts? (I’m probably overlooking something really basic here. Apologies in advance.)
Imagine an idealized situation where everyone “socially distances”, wears their mask at all times when venturing anywhere that other people are going to be, keeps such forays to an absolute bare minimum, and otherwise either stays home or goes out into the open air where there are no other people.
It takes about two weeks for the CV virus to incubate and manifest itself (I’m making this assumption, not sure it’s necessarily true). So let’s say that everyone in this idealized situation does what I’ve described above, for good measure, let’s make it a month (four weeks).
In that time, isn’t everybody who has the virus going to go ahead, get sick from it, get better, and — there is no pleasant way to say this — those who have the virus and are of a high-risk group get even sicker, and either convalesce, or (this is the unpleasant part) die of it?
And once this has all run its course, shouldn’t the pandemic — at least within this idealized, hermetic “bubble” environment — burn itself up and nobody else within the “bubble” gets sick from there on out?
Extend this “bubble” to the size of the world itself. Shouldn’t the pandemic run its course and then “fizzle out”? Or is there an alternative scenario of the virus “eating up the whole world” — think Pac-Man eating dots — and basically infecting everyone? And if so, how?
Actually, that’s not just one question, it’s several. Virology is far from my field of expertise.
Any thoughts? (I’m probably overlooking something really basic here. Apologies in advance.)
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AngelusDomini
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I teach 11-16 year olds. Even before this pandemic I wiped down desks, door handles, and chairs in my room. I was one of two members from my department who didn’t have to take time off to self-isolate. Students should not be going back until September. Believe me, we can make students catch up. For younger children I think it’s harmful if they go back too soon and under restrictions - they can’t play or create as they used to and they can’t understand why not. To parents out there I’m going to say, don’t worry and use the online resources; if you don’t have access to the internet, just read, read, read. It’s the best education your child can have. You, parents, are the first teachers. Leave it to us to bring your children up to speed when it’s safe to do so.
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Peaceable
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One difference between Australia and the US is the availability of contact tracing—actively conducted in Australia early on, whereas we still don’t have this up and running adequately in the US.
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