We can't force a solution to the school problem

[DesertRat]

We can't "get back to normal" until we better understand the nature of the problem. We need to discuss the problem, discuss plausible outcomes, get some data, and then design solutions that mitigate risk.

I couldn't agree more with this sentiment:

Tom Rademacher
@MrTomRad
Going back to school buildings in fall is a bad idea.
Doing distance learning in fall is a bad idea.
Some combination of the two is a bad idea.
I do not have any better ideas.

I hate global pandemics.

Link to tweet

[gollygee]

1. I agree. There is no good answer.

Every choice is a bad one. I don't want to send my kids to school during a pandemic. I have seen enough of distance learning to figure out that it isn't very effective.

[DesertRat]

2. And now the WH will politicize opening schools

Just like masks.

[MontanaMama]

3. I'm afraid to send my kiddo back to school and

I’m afraid to NOT send him back to school...distance learning was a disaster for our family and my son is a 4.0 student. We had tears and anger every day about school during the shut down...sometimes his and sometimes mine. It was such a struggle.

I am already hearing from people I know that work in the schools that there are teachers who have lots of leave time built up that they’re going to take it if they are forced into coming back to school. Hence, we will need a crap ton of substitutes to fill the gap. The only reason distance learning worked at all, even on the small scale that it did was because he kids had a relationship with their teachers having been with them from September through the beginning of March. If we have to start school in the fall with new classes and new teachers and possibly substitute teachers who haven’t been immersed in the curriculum, then I fear distance learning will be worse than it was this past spring. I am dreading it.

[DesertRat]

9. Pence on schools reopening: "The best expert I know on this topic is my wife, Karen."

Karen is a teacher but she has no expertise in medicine, public health or epidemiology.

[MontanaMama]

12. AND her name is Karen.

Enough said.

[Shermann]

4. Distance learning is bad and yet home schooling is good

The only difference appears to be the parental involvement

[gollygee]

6. That's a pretty big difference for a single parent who has to work

or a two-parent home where both parents have to work.

[Shermann]

7. There are plenty of hardships to go around during a pandemic

The point is that the remote learning situation isn't inherently unworkable.

We may need to ask a bit more of parents in 2020 and 2021.

It isn't fair to ask more of health care workers and at-risk groups instead.

[gollygee]

8. Health care workers can't leave their kids home alone either

And they also don't have time to homeschool.

I don't think sending kids to school is a good idea. But homeschooling isn't really a great solution either. There is no good solution.

[Shermann]

10. It doesn't have to be a "good solution"

Was storming the beaches of Normandy a "good solution" to the Nazi problem?

Remember, the nation is on a war footing. Not everybody is going to be happy with the outcome.

[MontanaMama]

14. I disagree.

The only difference is not parental involvement. I spent 3 months hip to hip with my high school student during the shut down. He's a 4.0 student who loves school and every day was a struggle to find meaning in what was happening and finding creative way to take the information teachers sent home via Google Classroom and teach it to ourselves. Teachers sent material out at all hours of the day and night (no exaggeration) and no actual teaching happened at all. None. Distance learning is wrought with problems and at least in our community it wasn't a positive experience on any level. I personally know teachers who have high school students who say the same thing. It was a mess and I was involved all day every day.

[Hoyt]

5. I think we need to move ahead planning to reopen, even if that has to be pushed back as Fall

approaches.

There really is no good choice, but I don't think it is wise to just give up on opening in the Fall, even if it's later. Kids lost a couple months in the Spring and at some point, it's going to hurt their future.

[MontanaMama]

13. It will definitely hurt their future.

I can attest to that. I don't know if or how these learning experiences can be recovered. As you stated...there really is no good choice.

[Baclava]

11. Have teachers organizations been asked what they want? Its more than rooms full of kids

[DesertRat]

15. Data Shows a Majority of Educators Willing to Go Back to School if Key Safety Conditions Are Met

https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/june_2020_member_poll_slides_07072020.pdf