It felt like the United States as a nation turned its collective mind the past few days to fall school plans. It reminded me in a much less festive way of Christmas shopping, where it feels MUCH TOO SOON to start shopping until it abruptly feels like I’ve left it MUCH TOO LATE. One day I was thinking there was no sense in fretting about school yet, because things were still changing so quickly and who even knew what things would look like by the end of summer? Then on Friday we decided our college kids were not going back to college, and that timing felt like it made sense because bills were coming in for housing and meal plans and so forth, and it makes sense that a college needs to know ahead of time how many people are going to be living there, especially as they try to socially-distance the dorms and dining halls—but it still felt too soon to be trying to make plans for our 8th grader or our 10th graders, especially when we didn’t even know yet what our options were.
But by Saturday morning I found I had made a tentative decision without trying to. And all weekend I saw a dramatic upsurge in other parents on Facebook and Twitter and blogs working on their decisions, too, collecting information/opinions from others, posting about what their schools were doing, and talking about their particular family’s circumstances and needs and how those factors affect their decisions; and I saw teachers posting about their concerns and rising stress levels; and I saw a lot of quick takes about how the estimated death rates for children going to in-person schooling (“the estimated death rates for children,” how very casually government officials are saying those kinds of words) are numbers that ignore the estimated death rates for the teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff, administrative staff, etc.; and I started to see posts asking parents to please support teachers in case of a strike.
On Sunday I said to Paul that we still needed to discuss it together, of course, and that I didn’t know how we were going to handle the various logistics of it if the school didn’t offer remote learning (I am NOT qualified to homeschool, especially not at a high school level), but that I wanted to let him know that at this point, for our particular family’s set of circumstances, I couldn’t see sending the kids back to school. And he said yes, and let’s talk more later, but that at this point he couldn’t see doing it either.
And then this morning there was a survey from our school system, which has all summer been in touch but relatively quiet about specific plans (which seemed appropriate, since it seemed so impossible to make plans when things kept changing so quickly, and I appreciate them not yanking us around), asking how much in-school time we would like for our children, among various options including none (remote learning), part-time, and full-time; asking whether we would need cafeteria/bus services; etc. It said our answers would not be set in stone, since obviously the situation continues to change daily, but that they were trying to get an idea of what the needs of the school community were. I am not even turning my mind to the not-my-problem-to-solve issue of how they can possibly expect teachers to handle the extreme conditions of remote learning while ALSO handling the work and risk of in-person learning, especially if they are anticipating a shortage of teachers; I am just going to fill out the survey and answer the questions we were asked.
I am finding that I’m willing to read/listen to almost unlimited discussion on this topic as (FOR ONCE) I can truly see and empathize with all sides. Possibly because ALL OF THE OPTIONS ARE TERRIBLE. I feel bad for teachers, for kids, for parents, for employers, HALP.
Ditto!
Hard same. This is all so hard. There are no good options.
Same. I guess I keep hoping that by talking about it and talking about it and talking about it I will reach some kind of decision/peace about what my kids (grades 12 and 6) are going to do in the fall. This is unlikely to help me to know what to do, but I really want to hear any and all opinions, thoughts, scientific information about the issues.
The schools situation is the major reason I’m advocating for a universal basic income for at least the duration of the pandemic, so that parents can afford to stay home with their kids, because without school and childcare, there is no working outside the home (or even in the home).
We as a society need to accept that not much schooling will happen for the next year to year-and-a-half or longer.
And if we all (that are able to) would just STAY THE HECK HOME for 4 months, we could actually go back to semi-normal afterwards. I AM SO ANGRY AT THE BEACH-GOERS AND BAR-HOPPERS I CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ABOUT IT.
I feel like we could have done it in March. But we didn’t. We had the buy-in, we had the time, we would be done now. But we didn’t. I live next to Logan airport, and though flights were down, planes were still coming and going, and those planes were not empty. The beach-goers and bar hoppers are partly to blame, but there is zero leadership on this, at all. Like nothing. And we fully boondoggled the mask thing from the get-go.
I read a twitter thread last night of a forensic pathologist who just relocated to New Zealand (I am JEALOUS) and she is writing of her quarantine experience – hotel and meals paid for, walks allowed with masks, tested on day 3 and day 10 – 12, released. I know they’ve had the 3 break-outs and the early release problems but, they have learned from them, and are just doing such a good job.
We haven’t even tried. Not even a little. We can legislate women’s uteruses but only do a “we suggest, timidly, that maybe you should think about wearing a mask occasionally and won’t actually do anything if you don’t comply.” The temper tantrums in the stores are something else.
Also, I realized the other night my children are not going to school in the fall. Nope. Not going to happen. Until the school administrators and town politicians are having these discussions, in a room, in person, it will not happen. (because they’re zooming the whole thing but want teachers and students together?) Or we New Zealand the whole thing – test like nobody’s business, contact trace like it’s a race, and assist people in staying quarantined. I would send then too.
YES. Thank you! ALL OF THIS.
Sorry to be shouty and all caps, but I am so angry. SO ANGRY. And yes, lack of leadership. Elected folks acting like flipping WEEBLE WOBBLES.
I feel very shouty too. it’s awful, the whole thing, that we are in a worse position than we were in March is just….holy crap. Massachusetts is doing ok, but my little town that was at >5 cases/week just had TWENTY CASES LAST WEEK. (And it was really like 3 days, and people are still awaiting tests.) Word on the street is a bunch of high schoolers are the ones that have it. And, it’s super spready – but a bunch of high schoolers having it, while NOT in school doesn’t bode well for when they ARE in school. Also reopening things and 4th of July were dumb ideas together – we would have done better to not tell people the Friday before that more things would open the Monday after, because that led to everyone going WOOHOO, WE’RE FREE. And here we are, decidedly not free. They also closed down the testing site closest to us, which, what?
Yes, yes, yes to all of this. Our school board is meeting tonight. I cannot foresee a good outcome.
Of my 4 kids, only 2 are still at home (the oldest two are in the workforce and in the army). The youngest, an 8th grader, said several weeks ago that she’d like to homeschool this fall. The 2nd youngest, a senior said he’d prefer to attend school in person full time. I hope we can accommodate their preferences, but I’m doubtful in person school will be a safe option for our family.
Where I live the school system is planning on making a decision by August 1st, which is coming up very soon! It seems unlikely they will be able to come up with a concrete decision. I also filled out a survey a while back and was very surprised to see a question on whether or not we’d be willing to have our child go to a different school altogether in order to spread the students out. This is in fact the only option we’re NOT willing to consider.
There’s a fellow named Joe Morice who posted a great analysis on Facebook on this topic, and it seems to be going viral. Now, it is an explanation that supports his family’s decision to do remote school for their kids so it’s written from that point of view, and clearly they are in a financial situation which allows them to make that decision, but I recommend it as food for thought. I thought I’d considered everything, but he raised a couple of angles I hadn’t thought about at all, but were the sort that were kind of a *forehead slap* of course, how did I not think of that?
We’re struggling with this a bit here too, even though in my city the daily new case count has been in single digits for awhile now. Our school board just voted for full-time return to school across the board, and doesn’t seem to be looking at whether the plan should be different for elementary, middle, and high schools. When the likely option on the table was returning for 2 days a week it seemed less daunting for my household, where the kids are older and better able to do part-time remote. I’m not sure how I feel about a full 5 days of risk exposure every week.
To save people time and hassle of looking it up (though it really is worth reading the whole thing), the two things that stood out to me are:
1) “I posed the following question to 40 people today, representing professional and management roles in corporations, government agencies, and military commands: “Would your company or command have a 12 person, 45 minute meeting in a conference room?” 100% of them said no, they would not.” And this made me think about my workplace and what the response would be, and even with single-digit new daily infections in our city of about 1M people, the answer is NO. We’re not even allowed in our building at all without explicit permission at this time. Yet I’m internally debating about sending my kids into classrooms where there’d be more people, and for much longer.
2) ““Hardly any kids get COVID.” Yes, that is statistically true as of this writing. But it is a cherry-picked argument because you’re leaving out an important piece. One can reasonably argue that, due to the school closures in March, children have had the least EXPOSURE to COVID. In other words, closing schools was the one pandemic mitigation action we took that worked. There can be no discussion of the rate of diagnosis within children without also acknowledging they were among our fastest and most quarantined people. Put another way, you cannot cite the effect without acknowledging the cause.” This is also true in Canada, and how did I overlook this before? *forehead slap*
I am not arguing against you but research in the Netherlands was done after reopening and kids going back to school, though part-time (only half the number of kids from each class present at any given time). They found that children not only barely catch the virus, they also do not often pass it on, meaning that they could not trace back any infections in households to kids bringing them in (only teenagers and adults – who would give it to the children in the household sometimes, but never the other way around). Don’t mean to say this should make a difference in your decision but his point that children were barely infected because they were basically quarantined early does not really hold.
Now see, I’ve mostly seen sensational stories about kids getting infected after schools reopened:
– That case in France where “70 cases of COVID-19 at French schools days after reopening”.
– The class in Quebec where, despite the class being at less than half-capacity “Almost an entire class of students caught coronavirus at a Trois-Rivières school” (9 out of 11 kids in attendance caught it).
– And also “In England, schools see dozens of coronavirus outbreaks as they reopen”.
These of course are single stories and not necessarily trends. While I’ve looked to see what the spread was in families and the larger communities after these outbreaks (i.e., did they pass it on to adults who then spread it further, which is my biggest concern), the news seems to stop after the initial story comes out.
This seems like a good look at multiple sources of evidence: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/school-openings-across-globe-suggest-ways-keep-coronavirus-bay-despite-outbreaks
Oh, there’s a paragraph to your specific point in that article I linked:
“At the same time, open schools can change the overall balance of who becomes infected by adding cases among children. In Germany, the proportion of all new infections that were in children under age 19 ticked upward from about 10% in early May, when schools reopened, to nearly 20% in late June. But wider testing and a decline in cases among the elderly could also explain the increase. In Israel, infections among children increased steadily after schools opened. That paralleled a rise in cases nationwide, but it’s not clear whether the country’s rising caseload contributed to the increase within schools or vice versa.” So it’s a long way of saying “maybe kids have caught it less because they’ve been home, but maybe not”.
The school decisions are keeping me up at night. Ugh.
Add me to the voices of those pleading for solidarity with teachers and staff. I am worried sick that my son will be forced back to work as an elementary school speech pathologist before the virus is under control and/or the proper safety measures are taken.
Luckily he lives in a state where those in charge seem to be sane, but how long can they stay firm and continue to be allowed to work from home if their funds are cut off as threatened?
I want to add that contrary to many comments I’ve read around the web, these teachers and staff do not have it easier with distance teaching. My son has it many times worse trying to do his job well via video and has been working long hours every day, including summer school.
Gr.9-12 teacher here to confirm that teaching remotely is not having it easy. nope. not. at. all.
The people with the power to fix things have no interest in fixing things, and I am just hoping so hard that we somehow manage to hang on until we have someone new (and competent, and willing to listen to subject matter experts) in the White House.
Also I want to punch everyone who is refusing to decouple school from the various services and benefits families receive from having kids attend school in school buildings for predictable times. I won’t punch them because that would be wrong and also is impossible, but sheesh.
Yes, it does seem that suddenly all I see are posts and tweets about school. I am a preschool teacher in a public school. I’ve been trying to keep up with the news, but also telling myself that things are constantly changing, no need to get worked up about it, wait until it is more concrete, but I’ve been waking up with stomachaches in the mornings. Like everyone else is saying, there are no good solutions. I don’t see how I can do preschool online with kids I have no relationship with, who haven’t even met me in person. And while I would be happy to go back to school, as a person who is healthy and in my 50s, would I be the rare person with no preexisting conditions who gets very sick, or would I pass it on to students who bring it home to grandma? My students are low income Spanish speakers, and cases are high in Latino communities, but these are kids who are already facing so many obstacles to success in school. Missing a year is not helpful. And, if we do go back, can kids even play together? That’s the whole point of preschool, that’s how we learn.
As everyone has said, the lack of leadership and rejection of science, the inequities in school funding, and the economic difficulties faced by families makes this an impossible situation. I’m trying to tell myself it’s one year, I can get through it, and realize that I’m lucky in so many ways, but this just sucks.
Yes! I want to hear from all the lovely, sane Swistle readers!!
Preschool teacher here too. And I’m working full time right now. I applied to two remote HR jobs today. I can’t be in my classroom and manage distance learning for my kindergartner and second grader this fall. Especially since they are switching schools and this will all be new for them. And we live in a major metropolitan area with cases surging. The right choice for me is to keep them home. Now to make it work so I can still pay bills and cross my fingers that the ex agrees. I suspect he will. I’m feeling grateful that I have the teaching experience to manage homeschooling if necessary. If distance learning is a catastrophe we will be fine.
We got that survey on June 1 when our daily case rate was about 400 cases. Today our daily case rate is 1500 and the school is releasing their plan tonight after the board votes on it. Tomorrow I have to register my son for junior high and choose if he’s going to be home alone learning via a virtual program or in a classroom. So I think I know what is best for him, but what I’m trying to parse is what is best for the community? I don’t want to make a decision solely based on his needs, but how do I factor in what is best for his math teacher or his classmates? Is his buddy less safe if my kid is there? Is his teacher less safe if my kid is there (assuming some kids are there)? How can I factor in my community when making this decision?
” So I think I know what is best for him, but what I’m trying to parse is what is best for the community?”
This is the part that has me stumped. I just want to deliver tea and butter cookies and then have a sorrowful Zoom meeting during which someone will reveal the right answer. I sure haven’t come up with it on my own.
This! When I filled out that survey I wanted an in school option. At least part time. But now our city has cases surging and we live in a low income area. So the right thing FOR US is to keep the kids out if I can get a new job because so many of their peers must go to school to be safe and fed. Their parents don’t work jobs that can be done remotely.
Count me as another person who got the survey almost as soon as the last school year ended. Cases in our county numbered in the few thousands at most (and it’s a huge county – our city count was in the hundreds). They’re now at 25,000, with over 1000 in our city, and climbing. I voted for a hybrid model or in-person schooling “if it was deemed safe.” It now feels much less safe.
I’d just like to say that I LOVE that people are actually factoring in their community. This is why I read the blogs I read and not other blogs, because *it is a thing* to actually consider the needs of others as well as one’s own preferences.
So thank you, everyone who doesn’t stop short at their own convenience/preferences/needs! I totally understand that lots of people don’t have the bandwidth to make complicated decisions and factor in even *more* variables, but I love that this is at least on the radar and is a *desired* thing as opposed to an “only idiots consider people other than themselves” thing.
This is SO HARD. There are zero GOOD options. Every option sucks for one reason or another. My husband and I have decided to choose the option that we feel keeps our family the safest, which is not to send our kindergartener to in-person school, and to keep the toddler out of daycare as well. We made that decision a couple of weeks ago, when it became evident that people were ignoring mask recommendations and continuing to spread disease. Our numbers aren’t crazy high anymore, but they’re not zero.
Now, what this means for our kindergartener, I don’t know. My mom has offered to assist with homeschooling, but we’re hoping that the district provides an option for remote learning so we don’t have to find our own curriculum. I’m really disappointed that she’s going to be missing out on all of the wonderful benefits of in-person schooling. I keep telling myself she’ll get there eventually, and there will be plenty of other kids in the same situation as she is. Surviving this is the most important thing.
I just read about a country (don’t remember which) where they are considering this coming school year “lost.” This would never fly here, but wouldn’t it be easier?
I am in the pit of (menstrual) despair today and reading and thinking about all this is so difficult. Our 6yo got invited to her bff’s house for swimming but when scheduling it was “we have piano on x day, gymnastics on y day” etc. And I just thought well now we can’t come? Gymnastics?? Really?
I haven’t heard from her school in 3 weeks and no idea when to expect a plan. 3 weeks ago they said “we are definitely opening and if school is open, your child must be here” but I don’t know what might have changed. They really do not have capacity for distance learning, I don’t think. I have to start thinking about how to get an exemption if I don’t send her? Who do I even contact? No idea. It’s all so much to think about.
Okay, that is even worse than having to choose between digital and in-person. You don’t get a choice at all?
I don’t know yet! I just emailed the principal and he said the board is meeting tomorrow to approve a plan, but no details on what the plan is. Then they are mailing some stuff Wednesday (mailing, really?). Meanwhile, if I want to put her in public school instead, I have to choose virtual only or blended by July 24.
From your follow-up comment I’m guessing it is a private or charter school- opening fully seems to be the norm for privates around here too.
I would guess that the public school will have a plan for late-enrolled students if you miss the July 24 deadline, though. We don’t EVER get everything turned in by a deadline, plus people move into the area and whatnot.
Correct! Thank you. She’s my oldest, just going into first grade after going to K at a private school, and I’m totally lost on public school. I don’t want to get in trouble! Or have her miss out!
Despite surging numbers in our county and state, our county school board (which does not appear to set the rules for any given district, but does give recommendations) is full of forking loons who JUST came out with recommendations for all schools in the county to reopen fully, with NO masks and NO social distancing. They literally held a panel of cherry-picked “experts” to tell us that masks don’t work, and kids aren’t at that much risk, and everyone I know is in a frothing rage right now over this, but also, I have no idea how likely our district board is to listen to these crackpots.
If our schools do NOT implement any safety practices, I will be keeping my kids home, obviously, but also can you even imagine. Those of us privileged enough will opt out of this cluster, and the people who have to work outside the home (not to mention the teachers and school staff) and have to send their kids to school or risk job loss and financial ruin will once again be the ones hardest hit when the virus rips through the schools (the other attendees will be children of people who don’t believe the virus is a thing, and who are probably not social distancing in their daily lives, either). I have multiple teacher friends considering taking early retirement given the mess our county is making of this.
Meanwhile, two large counties on either side of ours just announced online-only school for at least the fall because of surging cases. I am desperately wanting this to pressure schools in our county, or at least our district, to do the same, but I’m not hopeful. And even if our district DOES implement reasonable safety measures, we are left with a slate of options that involve a couple days a week at our familiar school with familiar teachers and (maybe) some friends, or distance learning with a district teacher but no assigned school, and a chance that, if/when we decide it’s safe to return to schooling in person, space considerations will result in my kids having to attend a completely new school. It’s a mess.
Canadian here, so our cases our lower but still facing the same issues. I feel so bad for anyone with small or middle-grade kids, and for teachers and school workers. I only work in a school library a couple of days a week, so I could wear a mask and wash my hands and feel pretty safe, but I don’t see how the movement and touching can be contained to the point where it’s safe. As for my college-aged son, we are in the process of trying to send him BACK TO THE U.S. for the fall, so it’s possible we are just insane anyway (it’s a different situation, it’s New York, it’s a very small college with seemingly really good measures in place, but still. Oy.)
I honestly don’t see how they can open schools next month safely. Although, I don’t have to worry about homeschooling/overseeing remote learning, I do have an elementary school teacher (son) to worry about. It’s all so distressing. What vexes me to no end is that “the powers that be” keep having a wait and see attitude. At this point, it is clear that this isn’t over – and sending kids back to school is a horrible idea.
Yes, I realize the burden this puts on working parents and I sympathize but I just don’t see how it is feasible to send them back just yet.
Every teacher I know feels the same. And they all hate distance teaching, but still. I think one big problem is districts trying to provide parents with “options” to avoid having to deal with complaints from those who have to get back to work or (especially in my county) people who don’t think the pandemic is serious. This sounds like a good idea in theory, but really it’s just punting decisions about a *public health crisis* to individuals with exceedingly different motivations and concerns. Being in a position of leadership means making the tough decisions and dealing with the complaints from those who don’t agree with your decision. Not offloading those decisions in an attempt to please everyone and in fact getting people killed … er, I mean pleasing no one.
In Texas, the state is requiring those options as a condition of funding . Our school districts have no choice.
Not sure if that’s the case here in California, but ugh.
Those articles about the internal CDC memo stating that opening schools will be a disastrous spreading event give me zero hesitation in insisting on either virtual learning only or homeschooling for my kids.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/11/politics/cdc-documents-warn-high-risk-schools-reopening/index.html
I don’t have school aged children but I really, really sympathize with those of you that do. I live in an area experiencing a HUGE spike. Like, the hospital where I work is at capacity and we’re now opening up temp beds for new covid patients on a wing that is in the middle of a remodel and was previously empty. And yet our governor has said all schools are to open, our local school board has said all schools are to open for in person/no remote learning, no choices given. Meanwhile our county government has said they will not put a mandatory mask policy in place “because no one wants that and we can’t enforce it anyway”. OMG.
Parents, teachers, bus drivers, lunch servers, janitors, etc – my heart goes out to all of you.
Sounds like you and I are in the same state! Terrible leadership, terrible compliance with mask wearing and social distancing, and terrible numbers of Covid-19 cases.
Our county will be starting the semester with distance learning. It’s the right choice and it’s tough. I’m lucky in that we have 2 parents who are both working from home. But, it’s hard to supervise distance learning for little kids and get work done. Catching up on sleep is a dream at this point. I’ve considered quitting my job or trying to go part time. But I like my job, and also have concerns about finding a similar job, particularly with flexibility, in the future. Distance learning was tough for my now rising first grader and I have serious concerns about trying to do it for 6 hours a day. It almost makes me want to homeschool, but my partner is not yet in agreement. It’s going to be a tough year.
Yep. Definitely looking into the homeschool option, because it would at least give me the flexibility to choose exactly how we spend our time.
Getting through the Actual Intellectual Content for a first grader takes a whole lot less than 6 hours per day, so I’d opt for homeschooling if it’s between that and 6 hours [!!!] of distance learning, as long as your partner can get on board. (maybe “I’ll do the homeschooling active time if we do homeschooling; you do the distance learning supervision time if we do distance learning?” or maybe I am mean…)
I don’t have anything to add except to say this is so horribly hard for everyone and I’m sending you all so much love, all my empathy, and my deepest respect for all your sane, unselfish, and kind responses.
Such a disaster on every level and so much needless pain. Be gentle with yourselves.
Thanks for your writing, Swistle – and for creating this community.
There is just so much. I am a Gr.9-12 teacher in Ontario. COVID rates here are such that a return to school buildings is not totally unreasonable. BUT. I am not looking forward to it. I mostly feel safe going back to school but know that it’s going to be very unpleasant with constantly changing demands, ridiculous workload because the decision-makers are out-of-touch and so on. For myself, the thing I worry about most is burning out.
Plus socially-distanced F2F schooling is barely better than online schooling or even not as good, for some circumstances. I wish people understood that. I understand that the overall social benefits of crappy in-school schooling might outweigh fully remote. But still.
I’m okay with sending my kids back and am in the very fortunate position that we could pull them because my husband will be WFH for the foreseeable future and they are old enough that he can actually get work done.
OTOH, I am enraged that it is illegal for teachers to strike in some states and especially so because the infection rates in those areas are often the worst. I will absolutely donate to that cause and hope that there is a nation-wide teacher strike in solidarity with teachers in, e.g., Florida and Texas.
We also cannot overlook how gendered the impact of schooling is. A wise friend of mine said, “Pick TWO: full-time F2F, safe, cheap.”
*If we give up full-time F2F, that is disproportionately going to affect women, who will need to forgo paid labour so that they can perform unpaid labour.
*If we give up safe, that is going to harm teachers, who are disproportionately women, and children.
*If we give up cheap, LOL we are not going to give up cheap to hire more teachers (women) to make classes smaller. Stimulus packages go to male-dominated industries.
The powerful people making everyone go back full-time F2F are not doing it in the best interests of workers (who understandably want to return to their normal livelihood) or children. They are doing it in the interest of their donors who want their labour back, the labour that lets the workers scrape by but makes the donors wealthy.
And this just in: Was talking to my husband last night about our options, and he was adamant that we should do X, and I said, “OK, have you read the stuff that the school district has sent/published?” and he had not.
Dude, if I wanted unwavering clarity based on ignorance, I’d watch Fox.
THIS! Your vote counts, co-parent, but you HAVE TO DO THE HOMEWORK.
@#$%@$%@#!
Someone who lives in my house and is not one of the children likes to be all “I’m an equal parent” when I’m like “not a good time for you to butt in.” And rarely does he do the homework.
One day I was like “ok, did you think of what T is going to eat for snacks at pony camp next week?” (Which he went to, and it was lovely, and small, 3 hours/day, and STRESSFUL, but way less risky than sending him to school and idk, did I mention outdoors? Right…onward.) And he was like “why would I do that? it’s not until next week” Um, because he’s the picky child and we need to have snacks he will eat and they need to be procured prior to sending him out the door and PANDEMIC. That’s why we need to think of that. That’s what you need to think about, all the time, in advance BEFORE you come telling me that your vote should count as much as mine. It could count as much as mine, if I knew you weighed the information carefully before opening your mouth to give your uninformed opinion.
Z-snap at your whole 3rd paragraph. Feeling this SO HARD.
We have a high-risk person at home, so I’m leaning towards wanting the (HS and middle school aged) kids to do distance learning. Our district is offering that possibility, but I’m not clear yet about whether they are offering it for middle school or for all available courses in high school. They are (understandably) dribbling out the information and I have a lot of questions.
I teach middle school, abd I am paralyzed with anxiety (as are most of the teachers I speak with). I really don’t feel comfortable going back to school in person. I know there is a significant amount of learning loss happening, but I can’t justify risking lives to alleviate that issue. We as a society need to put our efforts into finding alternative solutions that work as opposed to simply trying to push people back to a school building because that is the only thing we have thought to do. We have had four months to work on a plan and nothing has been created. I am just exhausted and disappointed in the entire system.
The county in which I teach has not made a decision (announcing next week), but the city in which I live voted tonight to do fully virtual for the entire first semester. Several other districts in our state have made similar decisions just tonight, so I’m suspicious we’ll head that way as well (we are not a county to buck a trend set by other large counties in the area…).
Anyway. I got sucked in to a discussion on our city’s reddit page, and I thought this novella I wrote might be helpful if anyone is feeling despair at the prospect of more online school.
——————–
Please remember, friends, that this spring was “crisis schooling”, not true remote education (and was SIGNIFICANTLY hobbled by technology access and a lack of any true accountability for student participation due to the sudden nature of the transition. If assignments aren’t graded, why do them? If nobody is doing the first assignment, how can you move to the next piece of content for the second assignment?).
Every teacher I know is spending a big chunk of this summer making plans and learning about a new set of best practices and rebuilding their curriculum and materials for the online setting. By making this call now, RPS is setting up for success* by allowing teachers to prepare for proper distance learning, and giving parents time to plan, and giving the division time to distribute materials/devices. Reopening in person and then closing again (let’s be real it would happen) would be a scramble just like the spring.
Yes, this is going to be difficult. Yes, it is a huge pain and probably expense to find childcare. Yes, everyone knows that “normal” face to face school is superior, because teachers have spent years developing their techniques and materials, not months or weeks. **Try not to let your kids know you’re unhappy about it.** They will view online learning however you talk about online learning. Don’t set them up with a defeatist attitude before they start. Tell them how much they’re going to learn this fall! Tell them their teacher is getting things ready for them to learn! Remind them how important their education is, even when it comes through a screen. Tell them you’re proud of the hard work they’re doing online! A good attitude will help them get through it, and will help you get through it, and will help us all get through it TOGETHER. <3
*defining success here as providing the best safe education possible in the midst of a shitty no-win situation, with consistency, structure, scaffolded instruction, and intentionally designed assignments to assess progress.