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

[Anonymous]

^ 2020-21, not 22

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids in those private schools lived with their parents who worked from home. Their home bubble transferred to a school bubble. Not all kids have parents who got to stay at home. When my Title One school reopened last spring, we barely had any parents wanting to send their kids back in person. Why? They had a lot of deaths and Covid illnesses in their families. Covid was something to be scared of because they saw it firsthand.

Or
Maybe they just don’t see as much value in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids in those private schools lived with their parents who worked from home. Their home bubble transferred to a school bubble. Not all kids have parents who got to stay at home. When my Title One school reopened last spring, we barely had any parents wanting to send their kids back in person. Why? They had a lot of deaths and Covid illnesses in their families. Covid was something to be scared of because they saw it firsthand.

Did that fear cause them to wear masks indoors when sick and to avoid indoor unmasked social gatherings with non-family members? Or was school with masks the only scary space?

DP. Exactly! They just were happy not to send kids because no early morning wake up and getting ready etc
Many were on UI so no need to go to work
And kids can always catch up later, they thought

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

Teachers are vital, just like police, fire, health professionals - all of whom stayed on the job.

grocery store workers, Lowe's workers, ABC store workers... They all stayed on the job.

The difference between those people and teachers is teachers have college degrees and other options. We also tend to be married, most of us to non-teachers. Do you have any clue how many of us would have summarily quit if forced to go back prior to vaccines? We can easily live on my spouse’s income, as is the case edit many of my coworkers. And there isn’t some deep bench of non working teachers waiting in the wings. There was already a teacher shortage before Covid. So your pouting and foot stomping is irrelevant.

Many school districts across the country DID stay open.

Most were not wealthy areas. I have an attorney husband and two kids myself. If we’d been forced back without vaccines, I would have just taken a year LOA, as would a huge chunk of my coworkers. This is why the counties didn’t force it - they knew they couldn’t staff it.

DP and in that case, I don't want to hear a single word about how essential your work is, and what a dedicated professional you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

Teachers are vital, just like police, fire, health professionals - all of whom stayed on the job.

Then pay them? Then respect them! Then don't try to tell them how to do their jobs! Support them! Teach your kids to respect them! If they are so damn valuable, treat them as such!

[Anonymous]

I love how every post about bad things that happened to children from school closures ends with defensive teachers saying "eff them kids."

Maybe take a breather?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how every post about bad things that happened to children from school closures ends with defensive teachers saying "eff them kids."

Maybe take a breather?

Great idea! Send all those subs lining up to take over! Oh, wait….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love how every post about bad things that happened to children from school closures ends with defensive teachers saying "eff them kids."

Maybe take a breather?

Great idea! Send all those subs lining up to take over! Oh, wait….

Just...take a breather and recognize that last year's school closures had ramifications for many, many kids, in many, many ways. You don't need to reject that fact constantly. I recognize that last year's closures mean that this year the kids have heightened behavioral issues, and other needs, which makes teaching even more difficult. Hopefully that last year taught us that school closures were a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The kids in those private schools lived with their parents who worked from home. Their home bubble transferred to a school bubble. Not all kids have parents who got to stay at home. When my Title One school reopened last spring, we barely had any parents wanting to send their kids back in person. Why? They had a lot of deaths and Covid illnesses in their families. Covid was something to be scared of because they saw it firsthand.

Or
Maybe they just don’t see as much value in school?

This is sort of the unspoken elephant in the room IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

Teachers are vital, just like police, fire, health professionals - all of whom stayed on the job.

Then pay them? Then respect them! Then don't try to tell them how to do their jobs! Support them! Teach your kids to respect them! If they are so damn valuable, treat them as such!

My public school district pays well actually. And they are respected.

Of course, my district was also open and not remote with the exception of the spring 2020.

They showed up for the kids and that is exactly why I respect them so much. That’s not the case for many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

Teachers are vital, just like police, fire, health professionals - all of whom stayed on the job.

Then pay them? Then respect them! Then don't try to tell them how to do their jobs! Support them! Teach your kids to respect them! If they are so damn valuable, treat them as such!

My public school district pays well actually. And they are respected.

Of course, my district was also open and not remote with the exception of the spring 2020.

They showed up for the kids and that is exactly why I respect them so much. That’s not the case for many.

DP: I mean this in the bluntest way possible: I don’t care for a moment about anon parent respect. I did exactly what I would do next time. Yes, it would have been safe, but we didn’t know that In certainty at the time of the debate. And when it comes to my life, I choose certainty. I guess I’ll just have to live w/o your respect, but at least I’m living

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

I literally did volunteer. I became a substitute only because of the pandemic. My kids go to Catholic school and were only out from March-June 2020. They operated safely throughout. It could be done, if it took a lot of planning to make it happen safely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we talk about how this being "terrifying" etc is the new overreaction?

You can offer criticism or different points of view without ladling on the drama.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a highly blue school district and with the exception of the spring of 2020 my kids have been doing in-person school and in-person activities this entire time. None of us have gotten covid (at least not that we know) and I don't know anyone personally who had a severe case or died. The red areas around us were even more wide open. Your individual experience does not equate to what the entire country experienced.

Neither does yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Seriously. I don’t see any of these folks volunteering to teach. Many of them STILL don’t go into their offices!

Teachers are vital, just like police, fire, health professionals - all of whom stayed on the job.

Then pay them? Then respect them! Then don't try to tell them how to do their jobs! Support them! Teach your kids to respect them! If they are so damn valuable, treat them as such!

My public school district pays well actually. And they are respected.

Of course, my district was also open and not remote with the exception of the spring 2020.

They showed up for the kids and that is exactly why I respect them so much. That’s not the case for many.

DP: I mean this in the bluntest way possible: I don’t care for a moment about anon parent respect. I did exactly what I would do next time. Yes, it would have been safe, but we didn’t know that In certainty at the time of the debate. And when it comes to my life, I choose certainty. I guess I’ll just have to live w/o your respect, but at least I’m living

My response was quite literally to a post asking for respect for teachers.