Solar Eclipse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did any class manage to get any work done?

HS teacher and it was a normal day. 1-2 absent per class, which is less than normal. Some kids had glasses and said they were going to look outside at dismissal.

[Anonymous]

My kids school did not let the kids go out after 1:30 PM. They told the kids they could not go outside without a parent there but it sounds like that was not well enforced. I sent my son with 6 pairs of glasses and he shared we the other kids. The kids said it was cool.

The thing is that the precautions were unnecessary. We had people at work who made a viewing device out of two pieces of paper and a pen. They poked a hole into one pice of paper and made a pin hole projector. Any school could have done that with kids. The sun was still bright, negating the possibility of anyone looking at it. The danger of looking at it was in areas with totality where the sun was completely covered and you were looking when the moon stopped covering the sun and you were hit by the pulse of initial light. We did not have to worry about that.

We had parents pull kids from school when they heard the school wasn’t going to let the kids go outside and watch. Lots of kids pulled between 1:30-2:00.

[Anonymous]

PP- One thing is you’re wrong about totality being unsafe to look at it. It’s not. We actually were the ones at risk of looking at it because we were NOT in totality and needed glasses on at all times to look at it. Even then I stared for about 30 minutes straight with my ISO glasses and felt eye strain later.

That being said I’m in LCPS, we made the kids go outside for a fire drill, they all had glasses, and it was fine. Nobody had to look up at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids school did not let the kids go out after 1:30 PM. They told the kids they could not go outside without a parent there but it sounds like that was not well enforced. I sent my son with 6 pairs of glasses and he shared we the other kids. The kids said it was cool.

The thing is that the precautions were unnecessary. We had people at work who made a viewing device out of two pieces of paper and a pen. They poked a hole into one pice of paper and made a pin hole projector. Any school could have done that with kids. The sun was still bright, negating the possibility of anyone looking at it. The danger of looking at it was in areas with totality where the sun was completely covered and you were looking when the moon stopped covering the sun and you were hit by the pulse of initial light. We did not have to worry about that.

We had parents pull kids from school when they heard the school wasn’t going to let the kids go outside and watch. Lots of kids pulled between 1:30-2:00.

Wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids school did not let the kids go out after 1:30 PM. They told the kids they could not go outside without a parent there but it sounds like that was not well enforced. I sent my son with 6 pairs of glasses and he shared we the other kids. The kids said it was cool.

The thing is that the precautions were unnecessary. We had people at work who made a viewing device out of two pieces of paper and a pen. They poked a hole into one pice of paper and made a pin hole projector. Any school could have done that with kids. The sun was still bright, negating the possibility of anyone looking at it. The danger of looking at it was in areas with totality where the sun was completely covered and you were looking when the moon stopped covering the sun and you were hit by the pulse of initial light. We did not have to worry about that.

We had parents pull kids from school when they heard the school wasn’t going to let the kids go outside and watch. Lots of kids pulled between 1:30-2:00.

Precautions aren't totally unnecessary (people have gone blind from looking at partial eclipses), but there's reasonable and there's insane. Our school sent kids out with NASA-endorsed eclipse glasses and lots of parent volunteers and my children reported it was great. Kindergarteners did a project where they surrounded their glasses with paper plates as is recommended for small children and the rest of the primary grades were pretty jealous.

That said, even at our school the "abundance of caution" language did some harm. One of my oldest kid's friends was so concerned that they refused to look at the eclipse even through glasses, worrying that the glasses wouldn't work (they did, my kid who used them is fine). The idea that keeping kids physically safe by freaking them out is healthy is insane. This kid missed out on a cool experience because they were freaked out. That's not as harmful as being blind, maybe, but still harmful.

[Anonymous]

Even The Atlantic is calling out the safety-ism:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2...ic-eyes-hurt/678002/

[Anonymous]

Fairview Elementary took the entire school out for an hour (child reported- could’ve been less) and had glasses for everyone. They told the kids they would call their parents if they removed their glasses. My kid and the others at our bus stop all loved the experience. As a parent, I am glad the school embraced it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids school did not let the kids go out after 1:30 PM. They told the kids they could not go outside without a parent there but it sounds like that was not well enforced. I sent my son with 6 pairs of glasses and he shared we the other kids. The kids said it was cool.

The thing is that the precautions were unnecessary. We had people at work who made a viewing device out of two pieces of paper and a pen. They poked a hole into one pice of paper and made a pin hole projector. Any school could have done that with kids. The sun was still bright, negating the possibility of anyone looking at it. The danger of looking at it was in areas with totality where the sun was completely covered and you were looking when the moon stopped covering the sun and you were hit by the pulse of initial light. We did not have to worry about that.

We had parents pull kids from school when they heard the school wasn’t going to let the kids go outside and watch. Lots of kids pulled between 1:30-2:00.

Precautions aren't totally unnecessary (people have gone blind from looking at partial eclipses), but there's reasonable and there's insane. Our school sent kids out with NASA-endorsed eclipse glasses and lots of parent volunteers and my children reported it was great. Kindergarteners did a project where they surrounded their glasses with paper plates as is recommended for small children and the rest of the primary grades were pretty jealous.

That said, even at our school the "abundance of caution" language did some harm. One of my oldest kid's friends was so concerned that they refused to look at the eclipse even through glasses, worrying that the glasses wouldn't work (they did, my kid who used them is fine). The idea that keeping kids physically safe by freaking them out is healthy is insane. This kid missed out on a cool experience because they were freaked out. That's not as harmful as being blind, maybe, but still harmful.

This unfortunately happened with my oldest child as well. He was so freaked out and scared and basically missed most of it. We did manage to get him outside to look briefly with his glasses but it was tough.

[Anonymous]

Even though I used the eclipse glasses, and didn’t stare at the sun for that long each time I looked, by the end of it I did have a headache.

[Anonymous]

Has first lawsuit been filed yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Reid really missed the mark on this. Schools should have had a 2 hr early release today. The schools have been absolutely swarmed with early checkouts.

Interesting. Neither of my last two classes had even one student check out early. I also had zero absences in those two classes.

That’s because you are either a middle school or a high school which got out before the peak viewing time. Kids would have gotten home in time to see it. Also, parents are less likely to pull early from middle and high school because grades actually count. Next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Reid really missed the mark on this. Schools should have had a 2 hr early release today. The schools have been absolutely swarmed with early checkouts.

Interesting. Neither of my last two classes had even one student check out early. I also had zero absences in those two classes.

That’s because you are either a middle school or a high school which got out before the peak viewing time. Kids would have gotten home in time to see it. Also, parents are less likely to pull early from middle and high school because grades actually count. Next.

The only way your comment contributed to this post was to prove that you’re a jerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Reid really missed the mark on this. Schools should have had a 2 hr early release today. The schools have been absolutely swarmed with early checkouts.

Interesting. Neither of my last two classes had even one student check out early. I also had zero absences in those two classes.

That’s because you are either a middle school or a high school which got out before the peak viewing time. Kids would have gotten home in time to see it. Also, parents are less likely to pull early from middle and high school because grades actually count. Next.

The only way your comment contributed to this post was to prove that you’re a jerk.

You don’t think it’s being a jerk to brag about how you had no student check out early? As if her teaching prowess had something to do with it. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP- One thing is you’re wrong about totality being unsafe to look at it. It’s not. We actually were the ones at risk of looking at it because we were NOT in totality and needed glasses on at all times to look at it. Even then I stared for about 30 minutes straight with my ISO glasses and felt eye strain later.

That being said I’m in LCPS, we made the kids go outside for a fire drill, they all had glasses, and it was fine. Nobody had to look up at all.

The glasses state not to stare more than 3 minutes at a time with the glasses. You actually stated 30 minutes straight?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Reid really missed the mark on this. Schools should have had a 2 hr early release today. The schools have been absolutely swarmed with early checkouts.

Interesting. Neither of my last two classes had even one student check out early. I also had zero absences in those two classes.

That’s because you are either a middle school or a high school which got out before the peak viewing time. Kids would have gotten home in time to see it. Also, parents are less likely to pull early from middle and high school because grades actually count. Next.

The only way your comment contributed to this post was to prove that you’re a jerk.

You don’t think it’s being a jerk to brag about how you had no student check out early? As if her teaching prowess had something to do with it. Please.

I’m the PP and not a teacher. There are more than 2 people on this post. But you proved again that you are a still a jerk.