I wish the conversation on school closures/Covid precautions focused just on major stakeholders
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
And by major stakeholders, I mean teachers of course, but also kids, parents, paraprofessionals and other staff. The people who are actually in schools, or who are parents/families of people in schools. I think if the stakeholders could actually just talk to each other and work this out, we could come up with common sense solutions that would result in school closures when necessary but also preserve in-person school whenever possible. The conversations I've had with teachers, admin, paras, and other parents have been calm and productive and no one yells at each other, and we all seem to inherently understand where the other is coming from because we have a lot of shared interests. Like my kids' teachers obviously care about their own safety, but I care about their safety too because otherwise who will teach my kids? And they understand why school is really important to us because they are teachers and know their work is important, so they would never say "whatever you just want free childcare" because they know it's way, way more than that.
I think this conversation gets super muddy when people who aren't in one of those stakeholder groups get involved. Like one thing I've seen a lot of lately is people who are parents but don't have school age kids weighing in. I don't get it. Just count your blessings! You don't have to choose between sending your kid to school (which for most parents is where their kids want and need to be under the right circumstances) and keeping them safe/not endangering other students or teachers. That must be amazing! Congratulations. And yes, of course, working parents need the childcare too and don't have many other better options. I just think it's frustrating how often the loudest voices are not even teachers or kids or people with kids in school. Like, yes okay, good for you being able to hire a nanny for your 2 year old to keep them safe but that's not an option for most people with school age kids so maybe just sit this one out? You don't have to weight in on everything. |
Anonymous
| Really? I don't know anyone without school age kids weighing in. If anything, they are so blissfully unaware that it's annoying. Like my boomer parents not understanding why I've been stressed for 2 years straight (DD was in kindergarten last year) |
Anonymous
OP here and I’m glad to hear that. Meanwhile my boomer parents feel free to weigh in and suggest things they personally would never have been okay with when I was in school (I.e. “what if you send them to school and pick them up every day to eat lunch in your car and then they go back to school”). It’s been… interesting. I also know several people with kids too young for school who like to be shouty about it and it’s exhausting because they are speaking from a parents perspective as though their kids going to school is on the table, which it’s not, because their kids are 2 and 3 (but too young for PK in our district). I just don’t really get it. Sit it out, folks! I wish I could! |
Anonymous
PP here. I think our stance on boomer parents is the same. Just so blissfully ignorant to reality. I don’t know any non-school age parents weighing in though thankfully. When all this started, we didn’t have a school age kid and I was so sympathetic to school age parent when schools down. Our preK stayed open (though we kept her home at our choice for awhile). |
Anonymous
|
Schools have a huge influence on property values. Anyone who owns property, regardless of whether or not they have school aged kids, are "major stake holders."
Don't agree? Then start arguing just as forcefully that property owners without kids should get a major discount on their property tax to compensate for the fact they aren't utilizing the public school system. |
Anonymous
And people without kids shouldn't get social security! And people without cars and who don't ride buses shouldn't have to pay for roads! This is a dumb libertarian line and you know it. |
Anonymous
| People just like to hold forth with their opinions. They were in school once so they think they know all they need to about school operations. Blowhards. |
Anonymous
OP sounds like she needs a break from listening to her folks. |
Anonymous
| There are a lot of people on this board who aren't parents, a lot of Republican trolls. |
Anonymous
Good thing there are no Democrat trolls... |
Anonymous
| Respectfully, I don’t think that the thing you’re wishing for is going to solve the problem. |