If you were firmly in the schools should stay closed camp ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone is so mad at PP for waking up at 4:30 every day. That's an example of a (pretty hardcore) schedule that worked for them. I've made similar sorts of sacrifices to support at home learning and my kids are okay though it has been a slog. I *have* had to be involved and a general supervisory presence; hands off had not worked, we found that out early on.

It does seem like a lot of the voices you hear complaining about schools not being fully open yet might have more successful children in virtual if the parents who complain over here for 2 hours a day would spend that time with their kids instead.

It's not the bolded. It's a combination of being smug, out of touch, and completely unaware of how hostile she actually is, i.e., not "thriving."

As to the italicized, that's the same gaslighting nonsense we've heard from PP and others like her who claim that the success of virtual school is largely about "attitude" and not, you know, children's brain development or the appropriateness of 5+ hours a day of Zoom or parents' ability to have total control over their schedules or any number of things.

Really, the bottom line at this point is that anyone (still!) heavily invested in criticizing people who struggled with DL (1) is not thriving and (2) needs to stuff it. Have some compassion, FFS.

+1

Also they are incredibly selfish in face of the enormous educational loss the most vulnerable kids have suffered.

I have been strongly against school closures not because of my own life (my kids did well and I liked having them home) but because I can see what it has done to a huge, huge cohort of vulnerable children. In other words I think about kids other than my own, which the gaslighting PPs don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going to look back on this extra time that I spent with my middle schooler with some fondness later on. I'm glad I had it. This was my kid's first year of middle school. MIDDLE SCHOOL! Do you remember that? It was awful being on the bottom at middle school. Instead of THAT, my kid spent the school year at home with us and went in for the rest a few days a week. We made lunch together, played outside together, I listened in on classes and heard what other kids in his class said about slavery and writing assignments and art class and planets.

I know it was a lot harder on other people and it wasn't all bubblegum and rainbows over here but I will never get this chance again and I'm glad I had this peek into my kid's life. It was hard to fit everything in but I'm so grateful to have had this look into his life. He is a pretty neat guy tbh, I didn't really understand how cool until now.

+1000 I love the extra time with my middle schooler.

My MS did not receive the home-based services specified in his IEP and therefore missed over a year of schooling. Meanwhile I worked full time outside the home. This may have been the year my son went from standard diploma track to certificate track. He's also a pretty neat guy and it's hard seeing him written off at such a young age.

I'm so, so sorry, PP. Try to ignore the awful people in this thread who are fine writing off your child. They are terrible people. I really hope services resume this year and that your DS recovers some ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone is so mad at PP for waking up at 4:30 every day. That's an example of a (pretty hardcore) schedule that worked for them. I've made similar sorts of sacrifices to support at home learning and my kids are okay though it has been a slog. I *have* had to be involved and a general supervisory presence; hands off had not worked, we found that out early on.

It does seem like a lot of the voices you hear complaining about schools not being fully open yet might have more successful children in virtual if the parents who complain over here for 2 hours a day would spend that time with their kids instead.

It's not the bolded. It's a combination of being smug, out of touch, and completely unaware of how hostile she actually is, i.e., not "thriving."

As to the italicized, that's the same gaslighting nonsense we've heard from PP and others like her who claim that the success of virtual school is largely about "attitude" and not, you know, children's brain development or the appropriateness of 5+ hours a day of Zoom or parents' ability to have total control over their schedules or any number of things.

Really, the bottom line at this point is that anyone (still!) heavily invested in criticizing people who struggled with DL (1) is not thriving and (2) needs to stuff it. Have some compassion, FFS.

+1

Also they are incredibly selfish in face of the enormous educational loss the most vulnerable kids have suffered.

I have been strongly against school closures not because of my own life (my kids did well and I liked having them home) but because I can see what it has done to a huge, huge cohort of vulnerable children. In other words I think about kids other than my own, which the gaslighting PPs don't.

That whole post was one of the more ridiculous ones I've read on this board. If that represents successful DL, no wonder it's not a sustainable and/or effective model at the district level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will not find many people admitting, even to themselves, that they did something that was wrong for their children. No matter what evidence is presented to them. They will literally go to their graves saying they did the right thing. Otherwise, they’d have a hard time living with themselves.

Oh I readily admit it. I was wrong not to take the IPL seat offered in February. Very wrong.

I admit I was wrong too and I'm eternally grateful that our kids schools were able to take them back in person when we begged. It has been wonderful for our kids and only further highlighted the mistake of them not having school for a year.

[Anonymous]

No I think APS did a good job trying to balance every different faction's concerns given the information that was available at the time.

I'm glad more people didn't die. I feel bad for the kids who are going through a rough time academically right now, but also feel for the kids who have lost loved ones due to Covid. These academic losses may be felt over the next year or two while parents (hopefully) help kids who are behind catch back up, but the the people who have died from Covid won't be coming back.

Couldn't respond for a while here because I was helping my kid in remote learning. Feel like some of the complaining parents could do more helping and less complaining but ymmv (and it obviously does).

[Anonymous]

I feel like APS forgot it's core mission: education. Instead it focused on feeding families and preventing community spread. When truthfully that slack would likely have been picked up by state government, local government and community groups if the schools had just done what they needed to do to educate students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like APS forgot it's core mission: education. Instead it focused on feeding families and preventing community spread. When truthfully that slack would likely have been picked up by state government, local government and community groups if the schools had just done what they needed to do to educate students.

Listen to how privileged you sound. I am so over the whining of the upper class Open Up Now - APE crowd. So over it. If your complaint is virtual learning, you are very, very privileged. Others died or lost family members.

It's a pandemic. No one had normal. Get over it. Things are getting back to normal and we will get there. Have some patience, grace and empathy.

And for god's sake, stop blaming.

[Anonymous]

Yes, +10,000,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone is so mad at PP for waking up at 4:30 every day. That's an example of a (pretty hardcore) schedule that worked for them. I've made similar sorts of sacrifices to support at home learning and my kids are okay though it has been a slog. I *have* had to be involved and a general supervisory presence; hands off had not worked, we found that out early on.

It does seem like a lot of the voices you hear complaining about schools not being fully open yet might have more successful children in virtual if the parents who complain over here for 2 hours a day would spend that time with their kids instead.

It's not the bolded. It's a combination of being smug, out of touch, and completely unaware of how hostile she actually is, i.e., not "thriving."

As to the italicized, that's the same gaslighting nonsense we've heard from PP and others like her who claim that the success of virtual school is largely about "attitude" and not, you know, children's brain development or the appropriateness of 5+ hours a day of Zoom or parents' ability to have total control over their schedules or any number of things.

Really, the bottom line at this point is that anyone (still!) heavily invested in criticizing people who struggled with DL (1) is not thriving and (2) needs to stuff it. Have some compassion, FFS.

+1

Also they are incredibly selfish in face of the enormous educational loss the most vulnerable kids have suffered.

I have been strongly against school closures not because of my own life (my kids did well and I liked having them home) but because I can see what it has done to a huge, huge cohort of vulnerable children. In other words I think about kids other than my own, which the gaslighting PPs don't.

That whole post was one of the more ridiculous ones I've read on this board. If that represents successful DL, no wonder it's not a sustainable and/or effective model at the district level.

Agreed. The post was quintessential DCUM, equal parts smug, dismissive, and clueless.

By the way, I spent my children's early years when I had a stressful demanding job getting up at 3-4 a.m. every day and working whenever I could so that I could volunteer at school, be there for their events and activities, and in the evenings. It was extremely taxing and unhealthy. I don't even know what to say to anyone who thinks that adequate public education is being provided if it requires the level of parental commitment and employment/family flexibility described by the PP. It's one for the ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone is so mad at PP for waking up at 4:30 every day. That's an example of a (pretty hardcore) schedule that worked for them. I've made similar sorts of sacrifices to support at home learning and my kids are okay though it has been a slog. I *have* had to be involved and a general supervisory presence; hands off had not worked, we found that out early on.

It does seem like a lot of the voices you hear complaining about schools not being fully open yet might have more successful children in virtual if the parents who complain over here for 2 hours a day would spend that time with their kids instead.

I'm glad that schedule worked for PP, but it's a model that only works if you have a spare bedroom (many kids are doubled up before covid), at least two adults in the home, and a job that can be "toggled" in terms of hours.

There are a ton of Arlington families who don't check those boxes, and I'm appalled that PP is putting her solution out there as some sort of model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like APS forgot it's core mission: education. Instead it focused on feeding families and preventing community spread. When truthfully that slack would likely have been picked up by state government, local government and community groups if the schools had just done what they needed to do to educate students.

Listen to how privileged you sound. I am so over the whining of the upper class Open Up Now - APE crowd. So over it. If your complaint is virtual learning, you are very, very privileged. Others died or lost family members.

It's a pandemic. No one had normal. Get over it. Things are getting back to normal and we will get there. Have some patience, grace and empathy.

And for god's sake, stop blaming.

You do realize how privileged you sound, right? Having the means to educate and provide childcare for your children without relying on public schools is absolutely a privilege.

It's a false choice to say that closing schools is better than people dying. What about closing high risk activities like bars, restaurants and gyms and proving support for those displaced workers? That surely would have saved many more lives than closing schools. APS could have forced the community's hand by saying "education is a priority so we're going to open" and then forcing local government to react to lower community spread. Please stop being a lemming and consider what actual leadership would have looked like.

[Anonymous]

But there are a ton of other Arlington families that this sort of solution would have worked for who prefer to complain about APS and how their kids are failing. I live in a North Arlington household surrounded with two parent families who mostly work from home, still. Of course this solution doesn't work for everyone, but it did work for PP and others who can't seem to be bothered and prefer to complain. *shrug*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like APS forgot it's core mission: education. Instead it focused on feeding families and preventing community spread. When truthfully that slack would likely have been picked up by state government, local government and community groups if the schools had just done what they needed to do to educate students.

You have that exactly backwards. The reason schools have to do those things is because we as a society have not placed enough value on a social safety net like most of the rest of the world has. School should not have to be a primary meal distribution site for families, but in a lot of places they are because we have vilified what people derisively call “the welfare state.”

If schools had just stopped feeding families then those families likely wouldn’t have eaten and even fewer kids would have received any sort of education. But I guess it feels better to blame the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like APS forgot it's core mission: education. Instead it focused on feeding families and preventing community spread. When truthfully that slack would likely have been picked up by state government, local government and community groups if the schools had just done what they needed to do to educate students.

Listen to how privileged you sound. I am so over the whining of the upper class Open Up Now - APE crowd. So over it. If your complaint is virtual learning, you are very, very privileged. Others died or lost family members.

It's a pandemic. No one had normal. Get over it. Things are getting back to normal and we will get there. Have some patience, grace and empathy.

And for god's sake, stop blaming.

You do realize how privileged you sound, right? Having the means to educate and provide childcare for your children without relying on public schools is absolutely a privilege.

It's a false choice to say that closing schools is better than people dying. What about closing high risk activities like bars, restaurants and gyms and proving support for those displaced workers? That surely would have saved many more lives than closing schools. APS could have forced the community's hand by saying "education is a priority so we're going to open" and then forcing local government to react to lower community spread. Please stop being a lemming and consider what actual leadership would have looked like.

Completely agree. For whatever reason, county/school leadership just implicitly agreed that schools were the one institution that needed to stay closed. And if you disagreed, you were just a Trumper, part of some vile group, anti-science, whatever. And more, if you weren't able to re-arrange your life to accommodate this idiotic decisioning, you were a failure of a parent and you should be questioning your initial decision to have kids in the first place. It's just a batsh@t insane narrative being pushed here.

[Anonymous]

Mystified by these parents who in one breath are appalled by APS not providing all needed education and services this year and in the next breath are wishing APS had played chicken with the health and safety of Arlingtonians. Sure, that seems like a good calculus.

I can't decide whether these people are real or are just trolling for anti-APE sentiment. Do people really think like this?

I also can't help but notice the large number of complainer posts that are coming during school hours. Seems like you could be doing more for your kids than posting here at this time, but maybe that's a little too hands on for this team. Never change!