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Schools and Education General Discussion
The science on remote schooling is now clear. Here’s who it hurt most.
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Anonymous
+1 Correct. Whoever is saying it’s one and done copy machine immune system is wrong. You need to constantly be rebuilding and strengthening immunity. Best way is healthy diet, exercise, sleep and normal germ exposures. |
Anonymous
+1000 International fmaily embarassed to be in Washington DC area for the pandemic. Kids way behind for our upcoming relocation. |
Anonymous
Agree Tutoring costs and lack of capacity are out of control around here. |
Anonymous
I think we should have had a hybrid option and that we could have been back in person sooner. My kid went in person as soon as it was an option. But I think you are wrong about the first argument. I have friends who teach across the country, many taught in person. All of them know a Teacher, most know more then one, who died of Covid. I know you can’t definitively say that they got it at school but for some people who were otherwise cautious it is highly likely they got it at school. The question then is how many sick or dead teachers, students were less likely to get sick, was ok? And what message were we sending when offices across the country went remote to protect people but schools stayed open? There was a balancing act that was handled badly on both ends of the spectrum which probably led to more deaths and hospitalization in places that choose to ignore Covid and learning loss and isolation in places that over reacted. We should have returned to school after that January 2021 surge ended, when vaccines were available. I was surprised at the MS and HS numbers when we did return in FCPS, the numbers were so low. Parents lost out on that time to get back to school and have the chance to start the repair work needed. ES seem to have more kids return, I know our school was at 80% back in the classroom 4 days a week. |
Anonymous
Except that they aren't. No one in higher ed is doing anything exceptional. Instead, scores of professors complain about how lazy kids are, how they are failing at much higher rates, and how they don't come to office hours or ask for help. Today's new college students may appear lazy and less likely to ask for help, but we need to look more closely at why that is. The answer is relationships and connectedness. It is critical that more effort is made to build connectedness at all levels of education. This is especially true in higher ed, where students are responsible for asking for help, held to higher standards of personal responsibility, and placed under greater stress due to the cost of higher education and fewer exams that mean more for grades (i.e. mid-term and final rather than more frequent tests). Why are we holding students who lost out on their high school experiences to the same standards that have made for a difficult adjustment under normal circumstances? As to your last statement about different reactions around the country, that's also why students who did not do well with remote learning are at such a disadvantage. We don't have to blame or question school decisions to recognize that some students received less than they needed, are not progressing, and are at risk of not being ready to attend or complete college. Honestly, it is baffling to me that the "greater good" was only a concern when it came to protecting the lives and health of the community (especially adults in school buildings) by keeping schools closed, but now that the impact of these decisions on the lives and health (especially mental health) of younger people is becoming apparent, it's all on individual students and families to figure it out. The "greater good" is no longer a concern. What happened? I loathe how these discussions tend to paint those of us who point to the negative consequences of the pandemic generally and school closings in particular, as Trump-supporting COVID minimizers who didn't care about teachers or students' family members dying. Ironically, many families like mine who supported teachers' right to a safe work environment and severely restricted their families' social interactions because we believed it was responsible and necessary to minimize community spread and promote school reopening now find that our kids are in bad shape. Apparently, the greater good doesn't involve caring about kids who regressed in isolation and loneliness. And while school closures were a tremendous burden on families with young kids who had to work and manage their kids' remote instruction, they might have hurt older kids the most. Turns out, "parenting" teenagers by having too much control and involvement in their lives and education during a life stage when they should have been venturing out on their own does not prepare them well for college. |
Anonymous
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Nobody should have been socially isolated during the pandemic.
Outdoor sports and exercise Outdoor lunch Picnics Beach barbecue parties Just a little common sense and creativity was required to socialise in person regularly. A teenager could have got a job at a supermarket or warehouse to make friends if their school was virtual. Or they could have gotten an admin job at a hospital or fire department. People where needed to book patients in etc and all the essential services remained in person. |
Anonymous
Often you can definitively say they didn’t catch it at school, since they got Covid when schools were closed or on break. Regardless, your post demonstrates how teachers had entirely different expectations for their jobs than other professions. Did you hear doctors and nurses ask how many health care workers were Ok to get sick or die to keep hospitals open? How many grocery and food service workers were ok to get sick to keep a steady supply of a broad range of foods? How many manufacturing workers were Ok to get sick so you could buy a new laptop and other gadgets? How many freight/transportation workers were OK to get sick so goods could make it to you? No, no one else approaches it that way. You keep essential services operating, taking reasonable steps to mitigate harms without significantly impacting the essential services they're providing. |
Anonymous
You can’t possibly find it baffling. It was always obvious that anyone talking about the “greater good” was simply gaslighting families, particularly those with young children, and had no interest in their well-being. |
Anonymous
Sure. You are right. They could have gotten jobs. And honestly, during the summer of 2020, I wish we had done much more outdoor socializing. But can't you see the dissonant messages? Teenagers should have gotten jobs in workplace settings like supermarkets and warehouses where COVID was rampant and people had no leave to take off work when they were sick, thereby exposing themselves and their families to COVID. At the same time, teachers and adults in schools should have been able to work from home to stay safe from COVID. If you make this argument, you acknowledge that one segment of the population needed to be protected from COVID (teachers and adults in schools), but the answer to meeting the social needs of teenagers was to expose them and their families to COVID hotbeds at the same time they are being denied in-person education because of the dangers of COVID? To this day, many college professors continue to teach remotely to protect their health or a family member's health. If schools needed to be closed because of COVID, you can't blame any family for not taking on as much, if not more, risk of COVID by not having their teenagers work in high transmission settings. |
Anonymous
LOL. You got me. My kids can't stand that I'm one of those people who never stops believing, or at least hoping, that we can do better. |
Anonymous
The pandemic caused me to completely loose faith in the humanity of people in the DMV. People here are incredibly two-faced, talking a big game about being “in this together,” but ultimately only caring about themselves. |
Anonymous
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You knew closures weren’t about the greater good because when people proposed options that might have protected teachers, they were always shot down as not feasible. And the options that were proposed to solve the problems posed by virtual school often put others in harms way and no one cared. Cases in point:
Many people proposed solutions like outdoor school, shortened school days with windows open, etc. These were angrily dismissed as impractical even though this was exactly the approach in other countries that kept schools open (including countries with a variety of climates). But it was consistently viewed as impossible in the US even though it would have allowed kids to maintain social ties to each other and teachers, been hugely beneficial to young learners who don’t learn well via screens, and helped address the childcare problem posed by remote school for families without SAHPs and without the means for paid in home care (most families). However, the solution that was ultimately adopted to address the social and childcare piece? To have lower paid childcare workers oversee remote schooling in group care environments. Teachers taught from home, kids went to group care environments with non-unionized workers (mostly WOC) and few of the protections that had previously been proposed to protect teachers beyond masks. Kids health and safety were not a priority. The health and safety of low paid childcare workers was not a priority. The wellness of working families was not a priority. Even after teachers had been given vaccine priority, these other groups were left to fend for themselves while teachers stayed home. This was NEVER about the greater good. This was about people with power flexing to protect themselves at the expense of others. Full stop. |
Anonymous
so the teen can’t go to school because it’s too dangerous, but can work in a warehouse? you’re ridiculous. |
Anonymous
Must be trolling. |
Anonymous
Did anyone honestly believe school closures were ever about protecting students? I think one of the recent pp's got it right. This was the teachers' unions flexing, with bitter and old teachers just looking for a way to stick it to the children and parents they have so much disdain for. |