The prospect of kids not going back to school until 2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a strong opinion on the protections, but I want schools to reopen. We see in the news that people gather in large crowds anyway, I don't want schools to be the victim of social isolation while other parts of the society open up. If anything, schools should have the priority of opening. (Frankly, I don't see an end to this until we reach some level of herd immunity anyway. In the meantime, I believe the most vulnerable should limit exposure to outside society, but schools should definitely open in my opinion.)

Right? Restaurants have to re-open for eating in, because people work in the restaurant industry. Salons have to re-open because, because people work in the beauty industry/people want haircuts. Meat-packing plants have to keep running, because people want to be able to buy cheap meat at the grocery store. But schools? Shrug.

The comparison breaks down because parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. They are not legally obligated to get their nails done or buy meat.

DP, but the point is that if these services, which lack any legal obligation to be used, can be reopened, then we need to reopen schools. Yeah: parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. Schools need to open so that we can do that. Distance learning isn't cutting it, especially not when so many parents have to work concurrently.

I don’t follow the logic. The businesses you mention can open because people have the choice to go or not. Opening schools is like telling the whole population they are legally required to go get a haircut, regardless of whether they have health conditions or elderly family at home.

The way to solve this is to set up a parallel school option for people who have health conditions or elderly family at home.

Agreed. Why not set up a camera in the back of the classroom and continue providing Zoom sessions for kids whose parents have opted not to send them back to school? This is how business meetings work with geographically diverse staff attendance.

Because school is not a geographically-diverse staff meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a strong opinion on the protections, but I want schools to reopen. We see in the news that people gather in large crowds anyway, I don't want schools to be the victim of social isolation while other parts of the society open up. If anything, schools should have the priority of opening. (Frankly, I don't see an end to this until we reach some level of herd immunity anyway. In the meantime, I believe the most vulnerable should limit exposure to outside society, but schools should definitely open in my opinion.)

Right? Restaurants have to re-open for eating in, because people work in the restaurant industry. Salons have to re-open because, because people work in the beauty industry/people want haircuts. Meat-packing plants have to keep running, because people want to be able to buy cheap meat at the grocery store. But schools? Shrug.

The comparison breaks down because parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. They are not legally obligated to get their nails done or buy meat.

DP, but the point is that if these services, which lack any legal obligation to be used, can be reopened, then we need to reopen schools. Yeah: parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. Schools need to open so that we can do that. Distance learning isn't cutting it, especially not when so many parents have to work concurrently.

I don’t follow the logic. The businesses you mention can open because people have the choice to go or not. Opening schools is like telling the whole population they are legally required to go get a haircut, regardless of whether they have health conditions or elderly family at home.

The way to solve this is to set up a parallel school option for people who have health conditions or elderly family at home.

Agreed. Why not set up a camera in the back of the classroom and continue providing Zoom sessions for kids whose parents have opted not to send them back to school? This is how business meetings work with geographically diverse staff attendance.

That would be worthless. A better option would be to enroll the kids in a known cyber school or home school option. For kids who are legitimately medically fragile, the district pays for cyber school. For kids who’s parents want to just #shelterforever, those parents can pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a strong opinion on the protections, but I want schools to reopen. We see in the news that people gather in large crowds anyway, I don't want schools to be the victim of social isolation while other parts of the society open up. If anything, schools should have the priority of opening. (Frankly, I don't see an end to this until we reach some level of herd immunity anyway. In the meantime, I believe the most vulnerable should limit exposure to outside society, but schools should definitely open in my opinion.)

Right? Restaurants have to re-open for eating in, because people work in the restaurant industry. Salons have to re-open because, because people work in the beauty industry/people want haircuts. Meat-packing plants have to keep running, because people want to be able to buy cheap meat at the grocery store. But schools? Shrug.

The comparison breaks down because parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. They are not legally obligated to get their nails done or buy meat.

DP, but the point is that if these services, which lack any legal obligation to be used, can be reopened, then we need to reopen schools. Yeah: parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. Schools need to open so that we can do that. Distance learning isn't cutting it, especially not when so many parents have to work concurrently.

I don’t follow the logic. The businesses you mention can open because people have the choice to go or not. Opening schools is like telling the whole population they are legally required to go get a haircut, regardless of whether they have health conditions or elderly family at home.

The way to solve this is to set up a parallel school option for people who have health conditions or elderly family at home.

Agreed. Why not set up a camera in the back of the classroom and continue providing Zoom sessions for kids whose parents have opted not to send them back to school? This is how business meetings work with geographically diverse staff attendance.

That would be worthless. A better option would be to enroll the kids in a known cyber school or home school option. For kids who are legitimately medically fragile, the district pays for cyber school. For kids who’s parents want to just #shelterforever, those parents can pay.

But that would be tantamount to a school voucher. No go in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But that would be tantamount to a school voucher. No go in MoCo.

Actually, go in MoCo.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/instruction/faq.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You miss the point. I am a teacher and I desperately want to get back with my students. I zoom with them daily for about an hour and have optional “check in” zooms every afternoon. I am working with some awesome parents who think of school as a partnership...and with some who are completely overwhelmed just trying to put food on the table...and some who have checked out because, despite access to technology and time, they have just given up because it is “too hard.” I want to go back...but I am very concerned that protocols and adequate funding for the myriad things we will need to stay safer (not completely safe) will not be followed or available. I don’t want to be put in the same position as the VERY brave hospital workers and others who had to improvise and scramble for basic protections. In regular times, schools are known to be vectors for spreading diseases. One HUGE unanswered question is whether kids can easily pass on the virus. There is not enough info yet to determine that. If they prove to be poor carriers, we can all breathe more easily. If they do turn out to be “good” carriers, not only are they endangering their classmates and school staff, they are endangering their own families. Those who advocate spreading the virus to foster herd immunity are simply saying a certain number of people will have to die in order to “beat” this. They have a point. But, the initial estimate, which the president likes to cite, predicted 2 million dead if we did NOTHING to halt the spread. We are approaching 100,000. How many are too many?

You lost me at the sarcastic quotation marks. Guess what? We're struggling because it is hard. I have technology and sometimes time. But Im stressed. Im going in covid + rooms at my job. I don't have a choice to say no like you all. My kids aren't learning at all. My 4 year old has forgotten how to write her numbers even though i work on them in evenings when we get home. She cries everyday if when the virus will go away. She's even forgotten what our local grocery store looks like. My 8 year old is buried in screens. They both cry that they're bored all day every day. My 8 year old watches that video for class and is completely confused. The distance learning is a joke. So try to be more empathetic if someone tells you its hard.

Former PP here. I have reread the PP teacher’s quotes. This one says they want to go back to work to teach but they really don’t. This one wants to stay home. Everything this person says is an excuse. Everything they say is all whine...It’s all me, me, me, my family while criticizing parents for wanting their kids to go back for extremely valid reasons. Listen, teacher, whomever you are. If you don’t like the job especially in it’s most challenging moments during a pandemic when kids need dedicated teachers more than ever, please do kids and families a favor and look for another line of work. You sound really young inexperienced and spoiled. You aren’t a good spokesperson, there are amazing dedicated teachers, so please just shut it so they can be better represented here.

I can see why you interpreted the quotation marks as sarcastic, but they were not intended to be. I put that in quotes because that is what a few of the parents said when I had a check in zoom with them. They meant that there are too many places the kids must go to find assignments, do the work, and hand it in. As many of you know, it is not a one-click set up. For reading they need to go to myMCPS Classroom (or Google Classroom, if that is what their teacher is using) and then to Benchmark. Within Brnchmark they might have to go to specific assignment links. Similarly for Math, they go to Eureka, etc.

The parents’ point was that the online learning has to be more seamless for it to work for their kids. I personally believe MCPS is going to persuade, cajole, demand or require all teachers to use myMCPS Classroom in the Fall. No more Google Classroom. I could be wrong, but MCPS didn’t want teachers to use Google Classroom at all, from the outset of distance learning. Teachers pushed back because about half of the classes, particularly in ES, have been using Google Classroom for years, and that was the platform with which students were most experienced and familiar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You miss the point. I am a teacher and I desperately want to get back with my students. I zoom with them daily for about an hour and have optional “check in” zooms every afternoon. I am working with some awesome parents who think of school as a partnership...and with some who are completely overwhelmed just trying to put food on the table...and some who have checked out because, despite access to technology and time, they have just given up because it is “too hard.” I want to go back...but I am very concerned that protocols and adequate funding for the myriad things we will need to stay safer (not completely safe) will not be followed or available. I don’t want to be put in the same position as the VERY brave hospital workers and others who had to improvise and scramble for basic protections. In regular times, schools are known to be vectors for spreading diseases. One HUGE unanswered question is whether kids can easily pass on the virus. There is not enough info yet to determine that. If they prove to be poor carriers, we can all breathe more easily. If they do turn out to be “good” carriers, not only are they endangering their classmates and school staff, they are endangering their own families. Those who advocate spreading the virus to foster herd immunity are simply saying a certain number of people will have to die in order to “beat” this. They have a point. But, the initial estimate, which the president likes to cite, predicted 2 million dead if we did NOTHING to halt the spread. We are approaching 100,000. How many are too many?

You lost me at the sarcastic quotation marks. Guess what? We're struggling because it is hard. I have technology and sometimes time. But Im stressed. Im going in covid + rooms at my job. I don't have a choice to say no like you all. My kids aren't learning at all. My 4 year old has forgotten how to write her numbers even though i work on them in evenings when we get home. She cries everyday if when the virus will go away. She's even forgotten what our local grocery store looks like. My 8 year old is buried in screens. They both cry that they're bored all day every day. My 8 year old watches that video for class and is completely confused. The distance learning is a joke. So try to be more empathetic if someone tells you its hard.

Former PP here. I have reread the PP teacher’s quotes. This one says they want to go back to work to teach but they really don’t. This one wants to stay home. Everything this person says is an excuse. Everything they say is all whine...It’s all me, me, me, my family while criticizing parents for wanting their kids to go back for extremely valid reasons. Listen, teacher, whomever you are. If you don’t like the job especially in it’s most challenging moments during a pandemic when kids need dedicated teachers more than ever, please do kids and families a favor and look for another line of work. You sound really young inexperienced and spoiled. You aren’t a good spokesperson, there are amazing dedicated teachers, so please just shut it so they can be better represented here.

I can see why you interpreted the quotation marks as sarcastic, but they were not intended to be. I put that in quotes because that is what a few of the parents said when I had a check in zoom with them. They meant that there are too many places the kids must go to find assignments, do the work, and hand it in. As many of you know, it is not a one-click set up. For reading they need to go to myMCPS Classroom (or Google Classroom, if that is what their teacher is using) and then to Benchmark. Within Brnchmark they might have to go to specific assignment links. Similarly for Math, they go to Eureka, etc.

The parents’ point was that the online learning has to be more seamless for it to work for their kids. I personally believe MCPS is going to persuade, cajole, demand or require all teachers to use myMCPS Classroom in the Fall. No more Google Classroom. I could be wrong, but MCPS didn’t want teachers to use Google Classroom at all, from the outset of distance learning. Teachers pushed back because about half of the classes, particularly in ES, have been using Google Classroom for years, and that was the platform with which students were most experienced and familiar.

I knew that you weren't intending for them to be sarcastic. I could feel from your paragraph that you weren't some of the other teachers on here. But I just think parents dont really know how or why we are sucking so bad keeping it together so we really can't explain that to you either. So if someone says they cant do it.. then they cant do it. no judgement needed.

And on another note I completely agree with your parent. the setup is horrible and anything but seamless. I know it was a last minute patch job so Im not here to bash that but after seeing other online setups like khan acadamy etc.. mcps is going to have to do overtime this summer if they think any portion of DL will succeed with the current setup ( not talking to you know, just in gen).

[Anonymous]

Do you ever wonder how history repeats? A virus could reset and have us repeat history again. I can see very easily how kids, a lot of kids, can slump through the cracks and end up as child laborers. I can see a huge underclass forming and I can see those that have the means and those kids who are disciplined and resource rich ending up as decision makers in the future. A huge shift is occurring and it is ugly. A lot of families will be out of work, split up, struggling to feed themselves and survive. But, there will be some who hang on and stay in the middle while some still rise and join a ruling class. But, I mostly see child labor to increase money in households (under the table), serving class and ruling class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever wonder how history repeats? A virus could reset and have us repeat history again. I can see very easily how kids, a lot of kids, can slump through the cracks and end up as child laborers. I can see a huge underclass forming and I can see those that have the means and those kids who are disciplined and resource rich ending up as decision makers in the future. A huge shift is occurring and it is ugly. A lot of families will be out of work, split up, struggling to feed themselves and survive. But, there will be some who hang on and stay in the middle while some still rise and join a ruling class. But, I mostly see child labor to increase money in households (under the table), serving class and ruling class.

Keep toking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a strong opinion on the protections, but I want schools to reopen. We see in the news that people gather in large crowds anyway, I don't want schools to be the victim of social isolation while other parts of the society open up. If anything, schools should have the priority of opening. (Frankly, I don't see an end to this until we reach some level of herd immunity anyway. In the meantime, I believe the most vulnerable should limit exposure to outside society, but schools should definitely open in my opinion.)

Right? Restaurants have to re-open for eating in, because people work in the restaurant industry. Salons have to re-open because, because people work in the beauty industry/people want haircuts. Meat-packing plants have to keep running, because people want to be able to buy cheap meat at the grocery store. But schools? Shrug.

The comparison breaks down because parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. They are not legally obligated to get their nails done or buy meat.

DP, but the point is that if these services, which lack any legal obligation to be used, can be reopened, then we need to reopen schools. Yeah: parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. Schools need to open so that we can do that. Distance learning isn't cutting it, especially not when so many parents have to work concurrently.

I don’t follow the logic. The businesses you mention can open because people have the choice to go or not. Opening schools is like telling the whole population they are legally required to go get a haircut, regardless of whether they have health conditions or elderly family at home.

The way to solve this is to set up a parallel school option for people who have health conditions or elderly family at home.

Agreed. Why not set up a camera in the back of the classroom and continue providing Zoom sessions for kids whose parents have opted not to send them back to school? This is how business meetings work with geographically diverse staff attendance.

How many cameras and associated computers will that require? Which budget will those purchases come from?

Who’s doing the Zoom and camera setup, managing the waiting room, and troubleshooting while the teachers are busy corralling kids and teaching? How will the teacher effectively monitor both classroom and computer screen to ensure all students are engaged and participating?

At best, you might be able to record classroom lectures or lessons to provide asynchronous instruction, but that would still require the purchase of a whole lot of additional equipment and hiring of staff to set up and maintain it. And legally speaking, recording students in a classroom might require parental permission.

[Anonymous]

The teachers will never allow their classrooms to be taped all day...they’d all rather get covid. This isn’t bashing them, I wouldn’t want someone taping me all day while I was at work either...think about that and all the problems it will cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a strong opinion on the protections, but I want schools to reopen. We see in the news that people gather in large crowds anyway, I don't want schools to be the victim of social isolation while other parts of the society open up. If anything, schools should have the priority of opening. (Frankly, I don't see an end to this until we reach some level of herd immunity anyway. In the meantime, I believe the most vulnerable should limit exposure to outside society, but schools should definitely open in my opinion.)

Right? Restaurants have to re-open for eating in, because people work in the restaurant industry. Salons have to re-open because, because people work in the beauty industry/people want haircuts. Meat-packing plants have to keep running, because people want to be able to buy cheap meat at the grocery store. But schools? Shrug.

The comparison breaks down because parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. They are not legally obligated to get their nails done or buy meat.

DP, but the point is that if these services, which lack any legal obligation to be used, can be reopened, then we need to reopen schools. Yeah: parents are legally obligated to send their kids to school. Schools need to open so that we can do that. Distance learning isn't cutting it, especially not when so many parents have to work concurrently.

I don’t follow the logic. The businesses you mention can open because people have the choice to go or not. Opening schools is like telling the whole population they are legally required to go get a haircut, regardless of whether they have health conditions or elderly family at home.

The way to solve this is to set up a parallel school option for people who have health conditions or elderly family at home.

Agreed. Why not set up a camera in the back of the classroom and continue providing Zoom sessions for kids whose parents have opted not to send them back to school? This is how business meetings work with geographically diverse staff attendance.

How many cameras and associated computers will that require? Which budget will those purchases come from?

Who’s doing the Zoom and camera setup, managing the waiting room, and troubleshooting while the teachers are busy corralling kids and teaching? How will the teacher effectively monitor both classroom and computer screen to ensure all students are engaged and participating?

At best, you might be able to record classroom lectures or lessons to provide asynchronous instruction, but that would still require the purchase of a whole lot of additional equipment and hiring of staff to set up and maintain it. And legally speaking, recording students in a classroom might require parental permission.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever watched a livestream of a classroom but it is absolutely incoherent. There won’t be a professional cameraman or editing happening, and all you would hear would be papers shuffling, chairs screeching on the floor, and mumbled dialogue. It would fail day 1. Furthermore it is a huge legal issue to record children at school and violates FERPA.

[Anonymous]

The schools will open. Stop with the hysteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever wonder how history repeats? A virus could reset and have us repeat history again. I can see very easily how kids, a lot of kids, can slump through the cracks and end up as child laborers. I can see a huge underclass forming and I can see those that have the means and those kids who are disciplined and resource rich ending up as decision makers in the future. A huge shift is occurring and it is ugly. A lot of families will be out of work, split up, struggling to feed themselves and survive. But, there will be some who hang on and stay in the middle while some still rise and join a ruling class. But, I mostly see child labor to increase money in households (under the table), serving class and ruling class.

Keep toking

It's extreme but yes, the trends of our country is that the poor are getting much poorer, the rich are getting much richer, and the middle class - what's left of it - is grateful for any scraps they can get. The gig economy further amplifies this. And part of this is that there's so much contempt for poor and working class people in this country, politically and socially.

Just look at the whole boundary analysis in MoCo. At the end of the day, it's all about middle and upper class middle income people who are pissed off at the prospect that there might be more poor kids in their schools. The very kids they believe they paid to get away from. Do you really believe that anyone of these of these "anti-poor" people cares if poor kids work? No, of course not. They'll say something like, "well, that's what you get for having kids you can't afford."

While I don't know about child labor starting back up tomorrow, in the longer term it's absolutely conceivable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever wonder how history repeats? A virus could reset and have us repeat history again. I can see very easily how kids, a lot of kids, can slump through the cracks and end up as child laborers. I can see a huge underclass forming and I can see those that have the means and those kids who are disciplined and resource rich ending up as decision makers in the future. A huge shift is occurring and it is ugly. A lot of families will be out of work, split up, struggling to feed themselves and survive. But, there will be some who hang on and stay in the middle while some still rise and join a ruling class. But, I mostly see child labor to increase money in households (under the table), serving class and ruling class.

Keep toking

It's extreme but yes, the trends of our country is that the poor are getting much poorer, the rich are getting much richer, and the middle class - what's left of it - is grateful for any scraps they can get. The gig economy further amplifies this. And part of this is that there's so much contempt for poor and working class people in this country, politically and socially.

Just look at the whole boundary analysis in MoCo. At the end of the day, it's all about middle and upper class middle income people who are pissed off at the prospect that there might be more poor kids in their schools. The very kids they believe they paid to get away from. Do you really believe that anyone of these of these "anti-poor" people cares if poor kids work? No, of course not. They'll say something like, "well, that's what you get for having kids you can't afford."

While I don't know about child labor starting back up tomorrow, in the longer term it's absolutely conceivable.

No it isn’t. Distance learning is causing child labor? Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever wonder how history repeats? A virus could reset and have us repeat history again. I can see very easily how kids, a lot of kids, can slump through the cracks and end up as child laborers. I can see a huge underclass forming and I can see those that have the means and those kids who are disciplined and resource rich ending up as decision makers in the future. A huge shift is occurring and it is ugly. A lot of families will be out of work, split up, struggling to feed themselves and survive. But, there will be some who hang on and stay in the middle while some still rise and join a ruling class. But, I mostly see child labor to increase money in households (under the table), serving class and ruling class.

Keep toking

It's extreme but yes, the trends of our country is that the poor are getting much poorer, the rich are getting much richer, and the middle class - what's left of it - is grateful for any scraps they can get. The gig economy further amplifies this. And part of this is that there's so much contempt for poor and working class people in this country, politically and socially.

Just look at the whole boundary analysis in MoCo. At the end of the day, it's all about middle and upper class middle income people who are pissed off at the prospect that there might be more poor kids in their schools. The very kids they believe they paid to get away from. Do you really believe that anyone of these of these "anti-poor" people cares if poor kids work? No, of course not. They'll say something like, "well, that's what you get for having kids you can't afford."

While I don't know about child labor starting back up tomorrow, in the longer term it's absolutely conceivable.

No it isn’t. Distance learning is causing child labor? Get a grip.

C'mon. You can't be that obtuse. That's not what the PPs were saying. Rather that distance learning adds to the erosion of the working and middle class and further creates a tier of children who will be vulnerable - because their families are desperately poor.