honest question - what do we do with our kids after May 29?

[Anonymous]

And, btw, I am totally down with teachers getting any added hazard pay that other essential professions get. The proposal in Michigan seems like a good starting point.

[Anonymous]

Obviously that poster didn’t mean rave clubs. I assume they meant offices, with exceptions made for age and immunocompromised office workers allowed to work remotely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s preposterous. What happens when teachers start calling out or dying or coming down with the virus in the numbers that grocery workers etc are? Then what? Subs? They aren’t gonna show up. Who watches the kids? Oh wait....the schools will close again but this time may reopen with dead teachers. But during this time you will be able to quietly work from home and then maybe get the virus when your kid brings it home from
School. And you won’t understand how you were so careful and still got sick.

But all the first responders definitely have to go in, right? What happens when some of them get sick? Oh, you use subs, double up shifts, half nursing coverage, etc. Just like you could for teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s preposterous. What happens when teachers start calling out or dying or coming down with the virus in the numbers that grocery workers etc are? Then what? Subs? They aren’t gonna show up. Who watches the kids? Oh wait....the schools will close again but this time may reopen with dead teachers. But during this time you will be able to quietly work from home and then maybe get the virus when your kid brings it home from
School. And you won’t understand how you were so careful and still got sick.

But all the first responders definitely have to go in, right? What happens when some of them get sick? Oh, you use subs, double up shifts, half nursing coverage, etc. Just like you could for teachers.

Exactly. I'm a nurse. My colleagues have been calling in sick on occasion during this crisis. We work double shifts or 1.5 times our shifts (18 hours), we take twice the number of patients while we're working. We get subs.

Good grief. Teachers by in large are the whiniest professionals. YOU FREAKING FIGURE IT OUT and you PITCH IN. Nurses have been doing it for 2 months during this pandemic.

Okay you realize you’re a nurse, right? As in you chose a profession to solely centered around caring for sick people. So yeah....you have to work during a global pandemic. Imagine that! Other professionals do not and it’s to make your job easier. We’re staying home and working from home to stop this virus. So quit crying that teachers are not working your shifts. Architects aren’t, lawyers aren’t, pharmaceutical sales reps aren’t, museum curators aren’t....i could go on and on if you’d like. It’s not because we’re all lazy...it’s because that is what is smartest right now for this city that we all live in and love.

I know right? Calling teachers whiny when you’re whining right now? Okay. I don’t get how the ‘blame’ has been shifted towards teachers, actually I do because that’s how it’s been for a while now 😂

This is a pandemic, figure out what to do with your kids and job like I did. This is why my family has an emergency fund, so if I get called back to work as a teacher and it’s too soon I will take leave without pay no sweat. Thank goodness for that seeing all these sour and selfish attitudes.

I’m also a self-contained special education teacher, meaning my students have full time services and if they can do distance learning with some of them having behavioral and cognitive disabilities you’re saying your neurotypical children can’t deal or is it really just you can’t deal?

Arguing like this won’t help, the mayor will be coming up with the plan, not us. No use for all of us to whine and cry.

[Anonymous]

OMG.

Where did this thread end up????

OP did not ask for schools to go back in session!!! Op is only asking for ideas starting June 1 when many of us have to go back to work. It's a fair question and lots of us need ideas! Even if we work from home, we need to know how to entertain children for 10 hours in a house. Let's help OP!

[Anonymous]

What will we do with our children after May 29th if there are no camps? You will watch them yourself or you will try to find a babysitter willing to come watch them or maybe you can pay family to watch them. Those are the only choices They suck but they are your new reality. Get used to it.

[Anonymous]

Find a high schooler or college student to babysit your kids. Try to find someone in your neighborhood who is socially distancing. They have no jobs this summer so they will probably be more than happy for the cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Let’s ditch ECE & use those classrooms for limiting class sizes. Repurpose PS teachers to teach K-2, so kids can be more spread out.

That would have been a solution before the lottery...maybe. But in some WOTP schools there are only two ece rooms but 4/5 sections per grade. That won’t solve much

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Let’s ditch ECE & use those classrooms for limiting class sizes. Repurpose PS teachers to teach K-2, so kids can be more spread out.

One problem is that, babysitting-wise, PK kids are actually the biggest barriers to telework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Let’s ditch ECE & use those classrooms for limiting class sizes. Repurpose PS teachers to teach K-2, so kids can be more spread out.

One problem is that, babysitting-wise, PK kids are actually the biggest barriers to telework.

PK is not compulsory.
The nature of school has changed. Parents can’t have it both ways. You can’t insist on opening up & not be willing to trim the fat of what the school day use to look like. Your kids go for reading, writing, math. You pick them up 4 hours later.
Deal with schooling that is required. PK isn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What we need to admit as a country is that public school IS childcare. We rely on it as such, and it’s our only form of publicly subsidized childcare or support to parents whatsoever. This is not to belittle the actual content of education, but it’s not optional, it’s essential. Most families and indeed our entire economy rely on it, but we are acting like it’s “just” to benefit kids minds. Clearly that’s not essential enough (actually learning) but it’s much bigger than that, it’s the engine of the economy as a whole. Should schools and teachers alone near that burden? No, but like all the other workers and systems mentioned, they probably have to. Like one teacher said we need to recognize this overall and not just during this pandemic. If schools are child care and we cannot work without it, then it should be the backbone of reopening plans to either reopen schools or childcare canters of some sort, or, to provide paid extended leave to parents in general. Basically it needs to be thought through as a vital service. In some countries childcare is free right now for essential workers.

+1000

This post hasn't gained much traction, but it hits the nail on the head. The US has a spotty and insufficient safety net. Local taxes that fund public schools are the only safety net that can manage to get funding, then the federal government contributes as well.

We can either develop a different social safety net or we can massively increase school funding. However, I'm afraid we're not going to do either of those things and magically expect parents to get back to work without childcare. Little Mary goes to school two mornings per week, while her mom has shifts at the grocery store whenever they are assigned to her. It's a recipe for a massive depression and frankly, societal unrest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we need to admit as a country is that public school IS childcare. We rely on it as such, and it’s our only form of publicly subsidized childcare or support to parents whatsoever. This is not to belittle the actual content of education, but it’s not optional, it’s essential. Most families and indeed our entire economy rely on it, but we are acting like it’s “just” to benefit kids minds. Clearly that’s not essential enough (actually learning) but it’s much bigger than that, it’s the engine of the economy as a whole. Should schools and teachers alone near that burden? No, but like all the other workers and systems mentioned, they probably have to. Like one teacher said we need to recognize this overall and not just during this pandemic. If schools are child care and we cannot work without it, then it should be the backbone of reopening plans to either reopen schools or childcare canters of some sort, or, to provide paid extended leave to parents in general. Basically it needs to be thought through as a vital service. In some countries childcare is free right now for essential workers.

+1000

This post hasn't gained much traction, but it hits the nail on the head. The US has a spotty and insufficient safety net. Local taxes that fund public schools are the only safety net that can manage to get funding, then the federal government contributes as well.

We can either develop a different social safety net or we can massively increase school funding. However, I'm afraid we're not going to do either of those things and magically expect parents to get back to work without childcare. Little Mary goes to school two mornings per week, while her mom has shifts at the grocery store whenever they are assigned to her. It's a recipe for a massive depression and frankly, societal unrest.

If schools are the backbone of the economy then pay teachers accordingly. We aren’t going to put our lives on the line for the sake of the economy when we literally have to beg for every dollar we get. If schools are such a vital force in the economy then pay teachers like other masters level professionals and stop being so dismissive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we need to admit as a country is that public school IS childcare. We rely on it as such, and it’s our only form of publicly subsidized childcare or support to parents whatsoever. This is not to belittle the actual content of education, but it’s not optional, it’s essential. Most families and indeed our entire economy rely on it, but we are acting like it’s “just” to benefit kids minds. Clearly that’s not essential enough (actually learning) but it’s much bigger than that, it’s the engine of the economy as a whole. Should schools and teachers alone near that burden? No, but like all the other workers and systems mentioned, they probably have to. Like one teacher said we need to recognize this overall and not just during this pandemic. If schools are child care and we cannot work without it, then it should be the backbone of reopening plans to either reopen schools or childcare canters of some sort, or, to provide paid extended leave to parents in general. Basically it needs to be thought through as a vital service. In some countries childcare is free right now for essential workers.

+1000

This post hasn't gained much traction, but it hits the nail on the head. The US has a spotty and insufficient safety net. Local taxes that fund public schools are the only safety net that can manage to get funding, then the federal government contributes as well.

We can either develop a different social safety net or we can massively increase school funding. However, I'm afraid we're not going to do either of those things and magically expect parents to get back to work without childcare. Little Mary goes to school two mornings per week, while her mom has shifts at the grocery store whenever they are assigned to her. It's a recipe for a massive depression and frankly, societal unrest.

If schools are the backbone of the economy then pay teachers accordingly. We aren’t going to put our lives on the line for the sake of the economy when we literally have to beg for every dollar we get. If schools are such a vital force in the economy then pay teachers like other masters level professionals and stop being so dismissive.

I don’t disagree and I’m a teacher myself, but this is unlikely. Grocery store workers and meat packing workers are incredibly crucial right now. What’s the federal government doing? Trying to insulate the companies from lawsuits resulting from unsafe working conditions. We teachers have it a lot better than that, especially as schools are probably going to go with hybrid in-person/online model this fall. I just don’t see how that gets us back to a functioning economy as parents won’t have childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What we need to admit as a country is that public school IS childcare. We rely on it as such, and it’s our only form of publicly subsidized childcare or support to parents whatsoever. This is not to belittle the actual content of education, but it’s not optional, it’s essential. Most families and indeed our entire economy rely on it, but we are acting like it’s “just” to benefit kids minds. Clearly that’s not essential enough (actually learning) but it’s much bigger than that, it’s the engine of the economy as a whole. Should schools and teachers alone near that burden? No, but like all the other workers and systems mentioned, they probably have to. Like one teacher said we need to recognize this overall and not just during this pandemic. If schools are child care and we cannot work without it, then it should be the backbone of reopening plans to either reopen schools or childcare canters of some sort, or, to provide paid extended leave to parents in general. Basically it needs to be thought through as a vital service. In some countries childcare is free right now for essential workers.

+1000

This post hasn't gained much traction, but it hits the nail on the head. The US has a spotty and insufficient safety net. Local taxes that fund public schools are the only safety net that can manage to get funding, then the federal government contributes as well.

We can either develop a different social safety net or we can massively increase school funding. However, I'm afraid we're not going to do either of those things and magically expect parents to get back to work without childcare. Little Mary goes to school two mornings per week, while her mom has shifts at the grocery store whenever they are assigned to her. It's a recipe for a massive depression and frankly, societal unrest.

If schools are the backbone of the economy then pay teachers accordingly. We aren’t going to put our lives on the line for the sake of the economy when we literally have to beg for every dollar we get. If schools are such a vital force in the economy then pay teachers like other masters level professionals and stop being so dismissive.

I don’t disagree and I’m a teacher myself, but this is unlikely. Grocery store workers and meat packing workers are incredibly crucial right now. What’s the federal government doing? Trying to insulate the companies from lawsuits resulting from unsafe working conditions. We teachers have it a lot better than that, especially as schools are probably going to go with hybrid in-person/online model this fall. I just don’t see how that gets us back to a functioning economy as parents won’t have childcare.

When the people stocking the shelves have to work for and fund a masters degree to do so then I’ll accept the equivalency.

[Anonymous]

not to be obnoxious but nurses have been the backbone of the corona response and no one has rewarded us financially. I'm making $42/hour as an RN /MSN to work in a DC hospital with corona patients and many of my coworkers who have less experience are making $35/hour. (72k/year)
Nurses and teachers have never been paid what they're worth and even now when we're vital to society no one is suggesting we get paid more. 😫