School starting is going to be such an unmitigated disaster. With the utterly inept handling of this pandemic (not just Trump, but our entire rotting neoliberal government) it just won't be feasible. Even if they do open, many teachers won't show up, and many parents will keep their kids home.
Talk of social distancing in schools is just ludicrous. It makes one wonder whether these officials have ever stepped foot inside of a school. Resources would be far better spent on trying to do remote learning passably well. For example, making sure that all schoolchildren have access to fast and reliable internet on a real computer, etc.
My wife actually wondered why they don't just "skip" this year - let everybody stay home and pretend this school year never even happened, and everybody who would have graduated in, say, 2023 will now graduate in 2024. I'm not sure that's such a bad idea - maybe better than remote learning.
Interesting idea - particularly for those that can manage it with their jobs. But then do you just keep paying everyone in public education for a whole year to take the year off, too?
Here in Seattle, the last 3 months of school the kids were enrolled in was a complete and utter joke. I have two kids, one in middle school and the other in elementary. When the kids got online to talk to teachers it was never about actual instruction, course work, etc. It was almost entirely kum-ba-yah sessions where the teachers would ask the kids what they were doing and how they were feeling. School was essentially put on hold. Grades were sent out and based mainly on the 1st half of the year.
The prospect of remote learning is very promising, but at least in 2020 there seems to be an utter lack in leadership or will to implement a quality product. It's a race to the bottom.
Skipping a year? Honestly, I think even if my kids wind up doing remote learning in the Fall they'll be going through the motions but intellectually skipping a year anyway. It's a mess.
> It was almost entirely kum-ba-yah sessions where the teachers would ask the kids what they were doing and how they were feeling.
Maybe in the middle of a pandemic, when you’re trapped at home, away from your friends, with parents who are busy working — what you really need is a little kumbaya?
At some point we need to transition away from “crisis mode” but making sure kids are doing ok, when their worlds have been turned upside-down, seems like a completely reasonable use of time to me.
I understand this. And honestly, a part of me believes in several years we (my wife and I) will look back on this time with fondness as we've never been able to spend this much time together as a family unit.
But what I meant in the OP was how - across 3 months - school was put on hold even though my kids would dial in a few times a week. I could tell some of the teachers _wanted_ to teach but I am certain there were orders from above not to. If there's one child who didn't have access to a laptop or internet across the district, I think the idea was that no one would be taught material as a result. I don't have the right answers - I just know that if that's what school looks like in the Fall, it will only deepen class divides where the well-off pay for private tutors, and the rest of the kids simply drift.
I have one friend who has a daughter here who - across 3 months - only had 2 sessions with her teacher. That was it. Effectively, school _was_ cancelled, if not officially.
Hence why the idea of just lobbing off a whole year's worth sounded intriguing.
But at the end of the day this is really all about economics and why there's a push to get kids back in school no matter what, plan or no plan. The economy won't start to heal until kids are under the in-person daycare of schools. It's just a fact.
This is all going to be very messy for at least another 12-18 months.
EDIT:
My dad taught for over 50 years at the high school level. He is now 81. He taught well into his 70s. I imagine there are quite a few teachers who are terrified of being forced back to work in-person unless significant changes are made, and even then... This may force a lot of early retirements.
My son did that for university — he was class of 2021, so now will be class of 2022. He shifted his job from part time to full time.
The university was very resistant (normally you can’t take a break unless you are in academic trouble or have health issues) but he convinced them to cave.
For regular schooling it’s harder as one function of school is to keep the kids busy while the parents are working. Plus the teachers And other school personnel need paychecks as well.
It's inevitable that the parents that care will still homeschool their kid and those kids will do better than the ones that don't. Humans are a sponge for knowledge when they are young. Eliminating an entire year of education during that period is a lost opportunity.
Public school is daycare, the pandemic has made that abundantly clear. We'll be sending our kids to school because even with two parent's working from home distance learning just doesn't work.
Talk of social distancing in schools is just ludicrous. It makes one wonder whether these officials have ever stepped foot inside of a school. Resources would be far better spent on trying to do remote learning passably well. For example, making sure that all schoolchildren have access to fast and reliable internet on a real computer, etc.