Anyone listen to this week's this American Life? It is terrifying what school closures has done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the democrats did closing schools was terrible and I'm basically an independent now because of it.

Yup. My husband jokes the school debacle turned me -- the liberalist liberal who ever libbed -- Republican. That's not exactly true. But it's not exactly false either.

This fascinates me, because I would argue that anyone who identifies as liberal would have identified the systemic issues that the pandemic revealed. If you take the TAL episode, Neah suffered in part because her mother did not have access to affordable childcare. What is the Republican plan to support working single moms, or to ensure that the have affordable high quality childcare?

The other story also reveals systemic issues. What is the Republican platform to protect renters? How would they have helped a child who needed to be out of school to support grandparents?

Well, keeping schools open is the first step. Democrats refuse to even accomplish that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll be honest, I’m really pissed schools were closed for so long. It was done because unions refused to let their teachers return to school. Before anyone says I’m a Trumpie, I am not. I’m a lifelong Democrat! But that’s what happened and we can’t pretend otherwise. It made me change my opinion about teacher unions, for sure. I’m sorry for all the millions of kids who are behind in the US and no one cares. Affluent parents will just say “kids are resilient” - remember that line?

Affluent parents put their kids in private schools that stayed open.

or formed pods and hired tutors.

Like Melanie Maren, school board member. Kept schools closed and hired a pod for her kid and drove all around for travel soccer.

That should be criminal.

If pandering to special interests were illegal, politicians would cease to exist.

[Anonymous]

I live in Pennsyltucky and our school was closed from March 2020 to April 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What the democrats did closing schools was terrible and I'm basically an independent now because of it.

Yup. My husband jokes the school debacle turned me -- the liberalist liberal who ever libbed -- Republican. That's not exactly true. But it's not exactly false either.

This fascinates me, because I would argue that anyone who identifies as liberal would have identified the systemic issues that the pandemic revealed. If you take the TAL episode, Neah suffered in part because her mother did not have access to affordable childcare. What is the Republican plan to support working single moms, or to ensure that the have affordable high quality childcare?

The other story also reveals systemic issues. What is the Republican platform to protect renters? How would they have helped a child who needed to be out of school to support grandparents?

There isn’t one. They believe woman should stay at home and care for the children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you didn't get realize you were getting a front row seat to the dysfunction that is public education during the pandemic, I'm not sure what will open your eyes to the dysfunction, lack of resources and politics that run education these days.

My kids are now in private school. They had no learning loss. Their teachers did not die. Grandma is still alive.

My kids are in public and the bold is true of them too. The common thread is that we are both affluent, not that your kids are in private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you didn't get realize you were getting a front row seat to the dysfunction that is public education during the pandemic, I'm not sure what will open your eyes to the dysfunction, lack of resources and politics that run education these days.

My kids are now in private school. They had no learning loss. Their teachers did not die. Grandma is still alive.

My kids are in public and the bold is true of them too. The common thread is that we are both affluent, not that your kids are in private.

Majority of grammas who died were in nursing homes. Pretty sure those cost $$$ and it wasn’t only poor elderly people dying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you didn't get realize you were getting a front row seat to the dysfunction that is public education during the pandemic, I'm not sure what will open your eyes to the dysfunction, lack of resources and politics that run education these days.

My kids are now in private school. They had no learning loss. Their teachers did not die. Grandma is still alive.

My kids are in public and the bold is true of them too. The common thread is that we are both affluent, not that your kids are in private.

Majority of grammas who died were in nursing homes. Pretty sure those cost $$$ and it wasn’t only poor elderly people dying.

Yeah I am a nurse in the area. Sorry to bust your privileged ass bubble but people who did not live in nursing homes died of Covid. Young adults died of Covid. And yes brown people were disproportionately impacted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised about the lack of thought on the part of the administration at the 2nd girl's school to her missed learning and socializing. They knew she had disappeared, they knew she had not been attending school for the past 1.5+ years, they knew she was back and eagerly awaited her. Yet... they completely failed to anticipate any of these speed bumps (or not even speed bumps, but massive road barriers!). Instead of spending that 1-on-1 time with her figuring out getting her caught up, she spent it talking about high school applications! That just seemed so off and so tone deaf. I get the perspective that if they held her back, it would be demoralizing and maybe make her less likely to get through high school, although to me it could go both ways. But it seems like this is exactly the learning loss the whole education industry has been talking about during Covid and they did nothing for her. I hope they wake up and get her in some pull outs to get caught up in math, writing, reading. If administrators aren't getting organized about this, the ins and outs of the learning loss, then the kids really will be screwed long term. Plus, isn't this what the millions in Covid relief $ to schools is precisely for??

My DS didn’t complete his math curriculum in 7th grade because schools closed in March. His 8th grade year MCPS didn’t complete the math curriculum either because DL. He started ninth grade this year and was struggling in math. I called and reminded the teacher to at these kids hadn’t completed a full curriculum since sixth grade. He LITERALLY hadn’t thought about it. I was floored. There was no institutional efforts around learning loss, just a phone call from me. That’s it.

Holy shit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The repercussions of extended online learning for my high school student were significant and will affect his life for years to come. It was clear at every turn in those 18 months that my child’s education and wellbeing was not a priority. I am angry at everyone — school board, admin and teachers — and will not soon forget.

I wish everyone who is fed up would form a school board slate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to do shoulda coulda woulda on who opened schools and when, surely you also have to pull in the death rates, no?

DC has HALF the per capita death rate of Mississippi, Arizona, and Alabama.

I don't think anybody is arguing that virtual school is great. The choice was never "in person or virtual school, which is better." The choice was "virtual school or killing grandma, which is better."

This has nothing to do with school openings. It has to do with vaccination rates, communal living, and adherence to masking / distancing. Look at the myriad Catholic, Episcopalian, and other independent schools that remained open to no ill effect. We had Elrich and his former health department trying to shut down these schools instead of applying lessons learned to public schools. It was and is a great tragedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want to do shoulda coulda woulda on who opened schools and when, surely you also have to pull in the death rates, no?

DC has HALF the per capita death rate of Mississippi, Arizona, and Alabama.

I don't think anybody is arguing that virtual school is great. The choice was never "in person or virtual school, which is better." The choice was "virtual school or killing grandma, which is better."

This has nothing to do with school openings. It has to do with vaccination rates, communal living, and adherence to masking / distancing. Look at the myriad Catholic, Episcopalian, and other independent schools that remained open to no ill effect. We had Elrich and his former health department trying to shut down these schools instead of applying lessons learned to public schools. It was and is a great tragedy.

That is a big part of it, too. Especially later, after OG covid, which mostly spared children, had passed.

I hated the school closures and they harmed my children. But I understand that our area has better covid numbers than areas where schools opened earlier. When balancing factors, we shouldn't dismiss one factor, even if we don't like to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private school teacher here who went back in fall 2020 in person and sent my own child to a learning hub to do it. Now my kid is severely struggling and our family is hurting. There were no good choices. We are paying the price. Upper middle class. Moco family. We will never be the same. And my colleagues and I worked our tails off to support our students. And I know public school teachers who would have done the same if given the chance (and did yeomans work online). It was a messed up time and it will continue to mess us up for years to come.

Just curious, why didn’t you send your kid to private? Plenty of public school teachers do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised about the lack of thought on the part of the administration at the 2nd girl's school to her missed learning and socializing. They knew she had disappeared, they knew she had not been attending school for the past 1.5+ years, they knew she was back and eagerly awaited her. Yet... they completely failed to anticipate any of these speed bumps (or not even speed bumps, but massive road barriers!). Instead of spending that 1-on-1 time with her figuring out getting her caught up, she spent it talking about high school applications! That just seemed so off and so tone deaf. I get the perspective that if they held her back, it would be demoralizing and maybe make her less likely to get through high school, although to me it could go both ways. But it seems like this is exactly the learning loss the whole education industry has been talking about during Covid and they did nothing for her. I hope they wake up and get her in some pull outs to get caught up in math, writing, reading. If administrators aren't getting organized about this, the ins and outs of the learning loss, then the kids really will be screwed long term. Plus, isn't this what the millions in Covid relief $ to schools is precisely for??

My DS didn’t complete his math curriculum in 7th grade because schools closed in March. His 8th grade year MCPS didn’t complete the math curriculum either because DL. He started ninth grade this year and was struggling in math. I called and reminded the teacher to at these kids hadn’t completed a full curriculum since sixth grade. He LITERALLY hadn’t thought about it. I was floored. There was no institutional efforts around learning loss, just a phone call from me. That’s it.

Holy shit.

Calling BS on this.

[Anonymous]

This is thread is wildly self righteous. As a teacher I hate to tell you that I would do the exact same thing the next time a deadly pandemic came through. I was back as soon as we could get vaccinated but wasn't going to risk my life for my work. Obviously we learned later that some measures weren't needed during Covid, but I'd much prefer being more cautious than aggressive when it comes to my life.

[Anonymous]

There is no point in ruminating about the past or just being mad and resentful. All we can do is move forward and try to make the best of it. There has never been a better time to repeat a grade or repeat a level of math. It’s so easily explainable. Take whatever opportunities you can to mitigate.