Schools reopening or not

[cman]

I refuse to settle and accept the raw deal our kids are getting

It's a raw deal for those districts that closed with low infection rates, and a prudent decision for us that live in areas with a high infection rate. Regardless of the situation, the message to my kids is to do the best you can with the tools that you have. No need to whine about your situation, it's not going to make it better. Just use the tools that you have to do the best that you can. And again, these kids are much more resilient than we give them credit for. They're not going to be "damaged", my guess is that this thing will make them stronger.

 

[jabberwocky]

It's a raw deal for those districts that closed with low infection rates, and a prudent decision for us that live in areas with a high infection rate. Regardless of the situation, the message to my kids is to do the best you can with the tools that you have. No need to whine about your situation, it's not going to make it better. Just use the tools that you have to do the best that you can. And again, these kids are much more resilient than we give them credit for. They're not going to be "damaged", my guess is that this thing will make them stronger.

It is one thing to do the best with the tools you have, it is quite another thing to have tools actively taken away from you. Yes, kids are resilient and those that survive this will undoubtedly be stronger, the question is how many kids do we lose along the way.

 

[cman]

It is one thing to do the best with the tools you have, it is quite another thing to have tools actively taken away from you. Yes, kids are resilient and those that survive this will undoubtedly be stronger, the question is how many kids do we lose along the way.

If your tools are "actively taken away from you", then you do the best you can with the tools that you have. It's simple as that. We're in the midst of a pandemic. Never happened in my lifetime. My kids have never experienced anything like this either. So, we can gather up in a pity circle, give each other reassuring hugs, or we can get off our butts and do the best with what we have. The bottom line is that school is going to be virtual. That's the way it's going to be. So now your task is to figure out how you can get the best education with the tools provided to you. School started yesterday. The time to whine about it has passed.

 

[Cornell]

Chicago Public Schools charging $15K for VIRTUAL KINDERGARTEN. Then you have to pay for "day care" on top of it.


CPS did not respond to a Tribune request for information related to tuition-based pre-K enrollment and what would happen to teachers who no longer have classes.

CPS will charge thousands in tuition for virtual prekindergarten this fall — day care not included

When it meant a 10-hour school day with social interaction and field trips for their children, the Theis-Brigells and many other families decided high-quality public prekindergarten was worth about…

www.chicagotribune.com

 

[Cornell]

This is great -- teens volunteering to help seniors in Montgomery County.

But if kids can have this physical proximity with our most vulnerable citizens, then why can't they be in school?

 

[bluehende]

This is great -- teens volunteering to help seniors in Montgomery County.

But if kids can have this physical proximity with our most vulnerable citizens, then why can't they be in school?

View attachment 25392

You honestly cannot see the difference between a grocery delivery and a school week?

 

[Cornell]

You honestly cannot see the difference between a grocery delivery and a school week?

Apparently I’m really stupid

 

[bluehende]

Apparently I’m really stupid

Playing the victim again but no comment on how a 2 minute contactless delivery is the same as 30 hrs inside with close contact is the same thing.

 

[Cornell]

Playing the victim again but no comment on how a 2 minute contactless delivery is the same as 30 hrs inside with close contact is the same thing.

Using condescension in your comments to me again .

Let's try this to illustrate the lack of logic in this whole situation:

>> My 17 year old daughter cannot visit her grandmother in her assisted living facility. But she can work there as a meal server.

>> My school district is offering paid child care with district subs, 15 kids per classroom. But no "actual school".

This makes zero sense, This isn't about public health anymore.

 

[bluehende]

Using condescension in your comments to me again .

Let's try this to illustrate the lack of logic in this whole situation:

>> My 17 year old daughter cannot visit her grandmother in her assisted living facility. But she can work there as a meal server.

>> My school district is offering paid child care with district subs, 15 kids per classroom. But no "actual school".

This makes zero sense, This isn't about public health anymore.

but no comment on how a 2 minute contactless delivery is the same as 30 hrs inside with close contact is the same thing.

 

[Cornell]

'Pandemic pods' give kids space to learn, play

Monday marked the first day of school for thousands of students across the suburbs who are starting the new year the way they ended the last one: virtually. But rather than stay at home, a small numb...

www.dailyherald.com

 

[Cornell]

Can parents leave pre-teens home alone for remote learning?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) — More than 430,000 Illinois households with children under 14 may not have a parent who could stay home to supervise their online learning. For parents who decide their pre-teen is responsible enough to

www.wjpf.com

 

[rapmarks]

Using condescension in your comments to me again .

Let's try this to illustrate the lack of logic in this whole situation:

>> My 17 year old daughter cannot visit her grandmother in her assisted living facility. But she can work there as a meal server.

>> My school district is offering paid child care with district subs, 15 kids per classroom. But no "actual school".

This makes zero sense, This isn't about public health anymore.

Isn’t this the core of the problem. No sensible protocols

 

[TravelTime]

Isn’t this the core of the problem. No sensible protocols

Yes I agree. There is no logic when it comes to Covid.

 

[needvaca]

Can parents leave pre-teens home alone for remote learning?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) — More than 430,000 Illinois households with children under 14 may not have a parent who could stay home to supervise their online learning. For parents who decide their pre-teen is responsible enough to

www.wjpf.com

No choice. Parents have to work.
Schools should be open

 

[Ken555]

No choice. Parents have to work.
Schools should be open

So school really is daycare, eh?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[TravelTime]

Interesting point of view from a parent.

———

Until we actually know what’s happening, it’s impossible to make plans of any sort. I’m lucky enough to have some options, even if they are all terrible. I can move to the coronavirus hot spot where my retired parents live and get their help. I can go into debt to get my kids into learning pods, if I can find openings.

Yet when I lie in bed struggling to figure out how to balance physical risk, economic sustainability and emotional well-being, I can’t make the equation work. And if I can’t do it, I’m not sure how parents with far fewer resources are doing it either.

A friend who works in chronically underfunded city high schools pointed out that privileged parents like me are getting a taste of something that other urban parents have always gone through. No matter what I do — no matter how much futile energy I spend trying to think my way out of this — an adequate public education is now out of reach for my family, and I’m not quite sure how to secure a private one. I’m one of many relatively rich people experiencing what poor people experience all the time — total abandonment by our government.

Recently I ran into an acquaintance, a psychotherapist named Lesley Alderman, who told me that among her patients, those with young children were generally struggling the most. “Parents with young kids, they’re tearing their hair out,” she told me. Many of them, she said, “want their kids desperately to go back to school, and then there’s this kind of guilt: ‘Am I selfish for wanting this? Am I putting my kids in jeopardy? Are we putting the teachers in jeopardy?’”

These aren’t dilemmas that individuals should have to solve. “Why isn’t the government, particularly here in New York City, helping the schools, funding the schools properly, so that the schools can be a safe place where their kids can go?” asks Alderman. Though parents are blaming themselves for not being able to make their lives work, she said, “Someone failed them.”.

When safety and education are so profoundly privatized, when even the meager social supports America once offered to families simply disappear, panic and self-recrimination result. There are only two ways out of pandemic-driven insecurity: great personal wealth or a functioning government. Right now, many of us who’d thought we were insulated from American precarity are finding out just how frightening the world can be when you don’t have either.

 

[needvaca]

So school really is daycare, eh?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nope. “School” is an essential service.
If School employees, aka teachers, were able to 100% serve their “customers” aka students age 5-13 in a remote way, then all would be fine. BUT THEY ARE NOT! It requires another adult employee/IT director/parent/whoever to facilitate the learning. Hence, teachers are not doing their full job.
If Other workers were not doing their full job, they would be fired. GET IT?
I’m taking one of my few PTO days today to help “teach my kids” in their first week of school.
My kids will be home alone, and unfortunately the remote setup is not even 50% conducive to them “learning” at home.

Ken- do you have school age children at home?
So many people have OPINIONS, with no school age kids

 

[Cornell]

Nope. “School” is an essential service.
If School employees, aka teachers, were able to 100% serve their “customers” aka students age 5-13 in a remote way, then all would be fine. BUT THEY ARE NOT! It requires another adult employee/IT director/parent/whoever to facilitate the learning. Hence, teachers are not doing their full job.
If Other workers were not doing their full job, they would be fired. GET IT?
I’m taking one of my few PTO days today to help “teach my kids” in their first week of school.
My kids will be home alone, and unfortunately the remote setup is not even 50% conducive to them “learning” at home.

Ken- do you have school age children at home?
So many people have OPINIONS, with no school age kids

And remember -- kids don't have a "voice" in society whereas full blown adults do.

And if I choose to advocate for children (because someone has to!) then I'm "whining".

 

[geist1223]

I am just so happy all my kids are out of college and my GKids are too young for school.

 

[Ken555]

Nope. “School” is an essential service.
If School employees, aka teachers, were able to 100% serve their “customers” aka students age 5-13 in a remote way, then all would be fine. BUT THEY ARE NOT! It requires another adult employee/IT director/parent/whoever to facilitate the learning. Hence, teachers are not doing their full job.
If Other workers were not doing their full job, they would be fired.

What do you think we would have done had this pandemic hit in the 1980s, before the internet? I suspect we would have tried more of the tactics used in the early 1900s (outdoor lessons regardless of weather, small groups with distancing, etc). It could also have simply been a lost year or two, which obviously is seriously detrimental to learning growth...though it may happen this year for some, regardless how much we try to prevent it.

GET IT?

Actually, I got it months ago, but I understand you're upset. That's reasonable.

I’m taking one of my few PTO days today to help “teach my kids” in their first week of school.
My kids will be home alone, and unfortunately the remote setup is not even 50% conducive to them “learning” at home.

Not ideal.

Ken- do you have school age children at home?
So many people have OPINIONS, with no school age kids

No, I don't. And while I am sympathetic for the pain you and others are going through, trying to dismiss the vast majority of us who don't have kids at home who are trying to help in any way we can by even asking the question is inappropriate (and now "the haters" will undoubtedly attack me for writing this). I see both sides, and the outspoken parents in this thread *only* see their perspective, with occasional concern about the valid points from the teachers and others. Don't blame me for repeating the obvious... it's unsafe in most schools right now for a variety of reasons. No question people will continue to get sick (children and their families) if we have anything close to a "normal" school experience.

I wrote months ago that school issues and lack of education would be an inevitable outcome from an unprepared, unsupported, and even threatened education system without full governmental and community support. Here we are... it didn't take a rocket scientist to predict what is happening now, especially in regards to community spread in schools. It's really a shame. We could have done so much better.

I understand you're angry and upset, probably at the education system, your children's teachers, and many others. I am, too, though perhaps for different reasons. This isn't going to be easy for anyone and blaming each other for having an opinion isn't going to help.

Still, it seems clear to me that for many, school is really little more than daycare, especially for working parents with young children. Those are the people I have the most sympathy for at the moment, since older children (middle/junior high and high school) should be fine with virtual education assuming they have the resources for it. Naturally, there are negative social implications for virtual learning.

 

[bogey21]

Pandemic-pods-give-kids-space-to-learn-play...

What is the cost?

George

 

[TravelTime]

People who call other people “haters” are showing their values. That is such a derogatory term.

 

[Ken555]

People who call other people “haters” are showing their values. That is such a derogatory term.

Perhaps you should have commented when you were mentioned in this earlier post, eh?

@TravelTime The stereotype (I'm waiting for the haters to pile on , but remember TUGGERs -- I am one!) is those that aren't smart enough to go to Univ of Illinois.

 

[PigsDad]

I see both sides, and the outspoken parents in this thread *only* see their perspective, with occasional concern about the valid points from the teachers and others.

So you're perfect and see both sides. Got it. Thanks for clarifying that for the rest of us mouth-breathers.

Kurt