NYC parents vs DC parents

[Anonymous]

NYC just reopened its elementary schools. What's our reason for not doing so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

True but remember, many parents are working- some not from home. So schools being closed creates the impossible and leads to countless issues. The fact is school is childcare as much as teachers or whomever don't want to believe that. Society has been set up so that children go to school during the work day- unless families choose to homeschool or have other arrangements. Children under a certain age can not be at home by themselves and after a certain age can not attend daycare or other typical options offered to younger children.

There are child care options for those who are working out of the home. Or, you hire help. Most people on DCUM can afford to hire help and if they cannot its because they have a very large mortgage payment and their spending habits. They didn't plan for any emergencies and relied on free child care. Life has changed so now they have to adapt and change their lifestyle to fit the new normal.

What kind of bizarre rationalization are you making?

+1...let's just find random hobo on the street to watch our kids. News flash- even with searching and interviewing- finding help without having long-term guarantees is impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that the NYC schools were only open for about six weeks and are now closed right?

And the numbers in NYC were super low when they first opened. Much lower than DC. By NYC reopening standards, DC schools wouldn’t have opened.

Ummm where are you getting that from? DC has had some of the lowest numbers in the nation for months and months until relatively recently. DC had test positively rates right around NYC's for most of the fall. Where you not paying attention?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYC just reopened its elementary schools. What's our reason for not doing so?

Yep! Not only that, but they are ditching hybrid because it is complicated, burdensome, and doesn't really seem to reduce risk, so what is the point? They are going 5 days a week. They are keeping middle and high school DL for now, which makes sense. They are also only opening it up to those that chose in person to begin with, which I think also makes sense. Hopefully, they will open it up to more students in the spring if all goes well (and I think it mostly will because it basically has everywhere that people allow it to).

DC and its neighbors should take note: It is possible to not keep double down on bad decisions. There is always the option to make a better decision at literally any point in time. It is not too late.

And no one said that the school year has to end in May, so there is no excuse to say, "Well, we are already half way through the school year at this point..." or whatever nonsense thing is going to crop up in a month two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

We're glad your kids are those rare unicorns who are doing well right now. The point is that *many* other families are not served well by DL even with parents martyring themselves trying to make it work. Your incessant shouting that everything must be fine is drowning out those other legitimate perspectives.

Clearly you are very fortunate that you haven't experienced anything bad in your life. We have. We've had multiple bad things happen. COVID is a pandemic. They happen every so often but we've been lucky we haven't had one in our life time or anything like war on our soil. DL and having your kids at home is no big deal compared to some of the other things we've gone though. You need involved parents who are setting the standard on how it should work. The flexible camera's off, kids can read or do other things during class time or not caring if their kids show up are a huge issue as are those not monitoring to make sure the work is turned in. Many of those kids have the same behaviors in person but the parents are checked out so they don't know about it.

I truly hope nothing truly bad ever happens to some of the people who cannot handle DL as they couldn't handle much else either.

Its 2020. Time to adapt to our new normal and be thankful we have DL/online or we'd all have to be homeschooling.

There is no safe way to bring these large school systems back.

Most are not willing to stay home under a lockdown so this is going to continue for a very long time. So, no point in fighting it and just find ways to make it work.

That is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. Because you have had bad things happen, doesn't mean that it is okay to impose a bad policy decision on an entire generation that will have terrible effects on our entire society. It isn't about an individual person or an individual family being able to handle something. And it certainly isn't about you. It is about the broader affects on the entire society that start with the effects on millions of children and families. People are so unbelievable self-centered. It is mind boggling.


And what the hell are you even talking about that there is no safe way for a large school system to do it? We literally saw the largest school system in America doing it in a safe way a week ago and they are about to do it again! And there are large systems that are going to be dong it all over the world tomorrow.

Sorry, you are on the wrong side of history here. I look forward to all the articles in a year talking about how we really screwed this one up. The comments section is going to be quite entertaining to see compared to the ones now...

[Anonymous]

NYC was surprised how few opted for in person, I think that is the only reason they can do 5 days per week. Low numbers.

[Anonymous]

Update on NYC. If you want your child to be in person, they must be tested for covid weekly. If you refuse, your kid does DL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYC was surprised how few opted for in person, I think that is the only reason they can do 5 days per week. Low numbers.

Yes, very low numbers. My friend is a principal and she told me 75% of her students are doing all virtual. They expect that number to go up. So her school will easily be able to go to 5 days a week in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

We're glad your kids are those rare unicorns who are doing well right now. The point is that *many* other families are not served well by DL even with parents martyring themselves trying to make it work. Your incessant shouting that everything must be fine is drowning out those other legitimate perspectives.

Clearly you are very fortunate that you haven't experienced anything bad in your life. We have. We've had multiple bad things happen. COVID is a pandemic. They happen every so often but we've been lucky we haven't had one in our life time or anything like war on our soil. DL and having your kids at home is no big deal compared to some of the other things we've gone though. You need involved parents who are setting the standard on how it should work. The flexible camera's off, kids can read or do other things during class time or not caring if their kids show up are a huge issue as are those not monitoring to make sure the work is turned in. Many of those kids have the same behaviors in person but the parents are checked out so they don't know about it.

I truly hope nothing truly bad ever happens to some of the people who cannot handle DL as they couldn't handle much else either.

Its 2020. Time to adapt to our new normal and be thankful we have DL/online or we'd all have to be homeschooling.

There is no safe way to bring these large school systems back.

Most are not willing to stay home under a lockdown so this is going to continue for a very long time. So, no point in fighting it and just find ways to make it work.

That is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. Because you have had bad things happen, doesn't mean that it is okay to impose a bad policy decision on an entire generation that will have terrible effects on our entire society. It isn't about an individual person or an individual family being able to handle something. And it certainly isn't about you. It is about the broader affects on the entire society that start with the effects on millions of children and families. People are so unbelievable self-centered. It is mind boggling.


And what the hell are you even talking about that there is no safe way for a large school system to do it? We literally saw the largest school system in America doing it in a safe way a week ago and they are about to do it again! And there are large systems that are going to be dong it all over the world tomorrow.

Sorry, you are on the wrong side of history here. I look forward to all the articles in a year talking about how we really screwed this one up. The comments section is going to be quite entertaining to see compared to the ones now...

You clearly are not looking at history if you don’t think a lockdown is needed including schools closed. You clearly don’t care about all the deaths and those sick. You only care about your needs met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

We're glad your kids are those rare unicorns who are doing well right now. The point is that *many* other families are not served well by DL even with parents martyring themselves trying to make it work. Your incessant shouting that everything must be fine is drowning out those other legitimate perspectives.

Clearly you are very fortunate that you haven't experienced anything bad in your life. We have. We've had multiple bad things happen. COVID is a pandemic. They happen every so often but we've been lucky we haven't had one in our life time or anything like war on our soil. DL and having your kids at home is no big deal compared to some of the other things we've gone though. You need involved parents who are setting the standard on how it should work. The flexible camera's off, kids can read or do other things during class time or not caring if their kids show up are a huge issue as are those not monitoring to make sure the work is turned in. Many of those kids have the same behaviors in person but the parents are checked out so they don't know about it.

I truly hope nothing truly bad ever happens to some of the people who cannot handle DL as they couldn't handle much else either.

Its 2020. Time to adapt to our new normal and be thankful we have DL/online or we'd all have to be homeschooling.

There is no safe way to bring these large school systems back.

Most are not willing to stay home under a lockdown so this is going to continue for a very long time. So, no point in fighting it and just find ways to make it work.

That is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. Because you have had bad things happen, doesn't mean that it is okay to impose a bad policy decision on an entire generation that will have terrible effects on our entire society. It isn't about an individual person or an individual family being able to handle something. And it certainly isn't about you. It is about the broader affects on the entire society that start with the effects on millions of children and families. People are so unbelievable self-centered. It is mind boggling.


And what the hell are you even talking about that there is no safe way for a large school system to do it? We literally saw the largest school system in America doing it in a safe way a week ago and they are about to do it again! And there are large systems that are going to be dong it all over the world tomorrow.

Sorry, you are on the wrong side of history here. I look forward to all the articles in a year talking about how we really screwed this one up. The comments section is going to be quite entertaining to see compared to the ones now...

Very well said. People fail to look at this as a policy decision. This isn't a matter of individual morality in crisis. Europeans understand this and a are keeping schools open. History will judge America harshly and the effects will be felt for a long time to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

We're glad your kids are those rare unicorns who are doing well right now. The point is that *many* other families are not served well by DL even with parents martyring themselves trying to make it work. Your incessant shouting that everything must be fine is drowning out those other legitimate perspectives.

Clearly you are very fortunate that you haven't experienced anything bad in your life. We have. We've had multiple bad things happen. COVID is a pandemic. They happen every so often but we've been lucky we haven't had one in our life time or anything like war on our soil. DL and having your kids at home is no big deal compared to some of the other things we've gone though. You need involved parents who are setting the standard on how it should work. The flexible camera's off, kids can read or do other things during class time or not caring if their kids show up are a huge issue as are those not monitoring to make sure the work is turned in. Many of those kids have the same behaviors in person but the parents are checked out so they don't know about it.

I truly hope nothing truly bad ever happens to some of the people who cannot handle DL as they couldn't handle much else either.

Its 2020. Time to adapt to our new normal and be thankful we have DL/online or we'd all have to be homeschooling.

There is no safe way to bring these large school systems back.

Most are not willing to stay home under a lockdown so this is going to continue for a very long time. So, no point in fighting it and just find ways to make it work.

That is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. Because you have had bad things happen, doesn't mean that it is okay to impose a bad policy decision on an entire generation that will have terrible effects on our entire society. It isn't about an individual person or an individual family being able to handle something. And it certainly isn't about you. It is about the broader affects on the entire society that start with the effects on millions of children and families. People are so unbelievable self-centered. It is mind boggling.


And what the hell are you even talking about that there is no safe way for a large school system to do it? We literally saw the largest school system in America doing it in a safe way a week ago and they are about to do it again! And there are large systems that are going to be dong it all over the world tomorrow.

Sorry, you are on the wrong side of history here. I look forward to all the articles in a year talking about how we really screwed this one up. The comments section is going to be quite entertaining to see compared to the ones now...

Very well said. People fail to look at this as a policy decision. This isn't a matter of individual morality in crisis. Europeans understand this and a are keeping schools open. History will judge America harshly and the effects will be felt for a long time to come.

History will judge America for having a leader who didn't take this seriously, who was willing to sacrifice his supporters for his own talking points. History will judge Americans who couldn't wear a piece of fabric over their face but need to carry an AK to buy a sandwich (not DC folk I know but that is also America). History will judge Americans as people who couldn't just netflix and chill and cuddle their kids and live on beans and rice and HAD to go see family for thanksgiving and host parties for holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYC was surprised how few opted for in person, I think that is the only reason they can do 5 days per week. Low numbers.

Yes, very low numbers. My friend is a principal and she told me 75% of her students are doing all virtual. They expect that number to go up. So her school will easily be able to go to 5 days a week in person.

How in the world is 350,000 kids a low number? Up to 30% of families who need to have their children in school can now send them. In DC that number would be around 13.7 k. How many have the option in DC? 0

It's good to hear that the largest and most complicated school district in the United States is making this work for the families that need and want it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are definitely kids who are doing better in DL. They tend to be kids who had significant anxiety issues around in-person school before. I think one lesson that should be learned from this pandemic is that there is a group of kids for whom the stress of in-person learning impedes their access to education.

However, this group shouldn't be driving education policy for the population as a whole.

My kids do well at both. We've taught them to be flexible when an emergency comes up as we've had many and to make the best of a hard situation. We also heavily support them in school regardless of how the actual teaching is done. Parental support, especially k-6th is vital. You cannot expect a K to just do DL or even in school and not supplement with the basics.

We're glad your kids are those rare unicorns who are doing well right now. The point is that *many* other families are not served well by DL even with parents martyring themselves trying to make it work. Your incessant shouting that everything must be fine is drowning out those other legitimate perspectives.

Clearly you are very fortunate that you haven't experienced anything bad in your life. We have. We've had multiple bad things happen. COVID is a pandemic. They happen every so often but we've been lucky we haven't had one in our life time or anything like war on our soil. DL and having your kids at home is no big deal compared to some of the other things we've gone though. You need involved parents who are setting the standard on how it should work. The flexible camera's off, kids can read or do other things during class time or not caring if their kids show up are a huge issue as are those not monitoring to make sure the work is turned in. Many of those kids have the same behaviors in person but the parents are checked out so they don't know about it.

I truly hope nothing truly bad ever happens to some of the people who cannot handle DL as they couldn't handle much else either.

Its 2020. Time to adapt to our new normal and be thankful we have DL/online or we'd all have to be homeschooling.

There is no safe way to bring these large school systems back.

Most are not willing to stay home under a lockdown so this is going to continue for a very long time. So, no point in fighting it and just find ways to make it work.

That is absolutely untrue and ridiculous. Because you have had bad things happen, doesn't mean that it is okay to impose a bad policy decision on an entire generation that will have terrible effects on our entire society. It isn't about an individual person or an individual family being able to handle something. And it certainly isn't about you. It is about the broader affects on the entire society that start with the effects on millions of children and families. People are so unbelievable self-centered. It is mind boggling.


And what the hell are you even talking about that there is no safe way for a large school system to do it? We literally saw the largest school system in America doing it in a safe way a week ago and they are about to do it again! And there are large systems that are going to be dong it all over the world tomorrow.

Sorry, you are on the wrong side of history here. I look forward to all the articles in a year talking about how we really screwed this one up. The comments section is going to be quite entertaining to see compared to the ones now...

Very well said. People fail to look at this as a policy decision. This isn't a matter of individual morality in crisis. Europeans understand this and a are keeping schools open. History will judge America harshly and the effects will be felt for a long time to come.

History will judge America for having a leader who didn't take this seriously, who was willing to sacrifice his supporters for his own talking points. History will judge Americans who couldn't wear a piece of fabric over their face but need to carry an AK to buy a sandwich (not DC folk I know but that is also America). History will judge Americans as people who couldn't just netflix and chill and cuddle their kids and live on beans and rice and HAD to go see family for thanksgiving and host parties for holidays.

Sure, those things, too. But don’t kid yourself that the rest of the world isn’t already shaking their heads at Americans’ willingness to keep kids out of school for the better part of and likely more than a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYC was surprised how few opted for in person, I think that is the only reason they can do 5 days per week. Low numbers.

Yes, very low numbers. My friend is a principal and she told me 75% of her students are doing all virtual. They expect that number to go up. So her school will easily be able to go to 5 days a week in person.

How in the world is 350,000 kids a low number? Up to 30% of families who need to have their children in school can now send them. In DC that number would be around 13.7 k. How many have the option in DC? 0

It's good to hear that the largest and most complicated school district in the United States is making this work for the families that need and want it.

We have CARE rooms. So the number isn’t zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we know all these "I need my kids out of the house moms" - insert reason - their education; I need to work; its not good for the poor brown kids - aren't actually teenagers trolling on DCUM.

I literally have not heard a single poster here say "I need my kids out of the house." I've heard many posters claiming that is the motivation of parents who want school to open. But posters have all almost uniformly focused on their kids social and educational needs that are not (cannot be) served in DL. "I need my kids out of the house" is a toxic WTU caricature to deflect blame.

Look back at other threads. The reasons to send kids back as the infection rates soar, people traveling to hot zones for thanksgiving and during flu season have been shifting:
1. I need my kids out of the house
2. Think of how this is hurting poor brown kids I have never known or seen
3. Think of the moms who can't afford a nanny
4. My sped kid can't learn on DL
5. My kid isn't learning from DL
6. If private schools are open why can't we

It changes - they keep shifting the argument to see which one will stick to get them sympathy.

Meanwhile, arguments from teachers have been remarkably consistent:

1. When rates went up:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate your kids!“

2. When rates went down to almost zero:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate your kids!“

3. When private schools reopened:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate your kids!“

4. When asked to be part of the solution and find reasonable ways of reopening:
“I don’t wanna DIE! You must hate your kids!”

5. When presented with science that DL is hurting kids and schools aren’t actually superspreaders:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate your kids!“

6. Next year, when offered to get vaccinated:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate their kids!”

7. In 2027, after everyone else on the planet has been vaccinated:
“I don’t wanna DIE!!! You must hate their kids!”

You forgot - "You all hate black and brown kids, we know that their families are at higher risk."

This thread is about NYC schools, where very few black and brown kids opted in to “in person” schooling. So, maybe don’t? All the crazed lunatics advocating for schools to open amidst a surge (in a city with 24,000 COVID deaths) are white. Take a look a the videos of people protesting last week. Do you see black and brown families there, screaming about wanting to see the manager of the coronavirus? No.

wow yeah, that's right. all the parents who think it's terrible that you can only be educated if you have the money for private schools are Karens.

BTW lots of prominent black advocates for public education think schools should reopen. check out Nikole Hannah Jones' twitter feeds.

Nikole Hannah Jones is brilliant, but she is an education expert, not a public health expert. And it really doesn't matter what she thinks -- she isn't going to convince the average Black or Latino parent in NYC or DC.

The PP's point remains -- the loudest voices HERE IN DC are white people. Talk to them, figure out why they are concerned or if they share your goals, and how to address the concerns of people whose experiences are different than yours. Because you're never going to get anywhere unless your protests look like DC.

How do you know the loudest voices HERE IN DC are white people? And that's funny that you're dismissing Nikole Hannah Jones as an "education expert" ... as if that's not relevant here? Shifting the goal posts again?

Because at my kid’s title 1 school the Black parents don’t want in person and the white families do. This tracks with surveys from DC and beyond. And given the disparate levels of cases and deaths it makes sense. People need to stop screaming and listen to each other.

I'm sorry but no. The job of the school district is to educate kids. Not to "listen to the voices ..." Everyone involved in education knows that DL is rapidly failing kids. It only makes sense to argue that black kids should stay out of school if you're completely ignorant about the underlying science, educational, and policy issues.