Why are parents so fixated on reopening schools in-person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a few friends that have lost their minds during this and are gung ho about opening schools. One is out in Carlsbad, CA and apparently, they are opening in January. Hmm. Bad idea. She just seems so far gone that I don't think she is thinking straight. Another one is in FFX County and her kid needs to get back to school so he can earn a sports scholarship to college. She wants all schools to reopen like normal. This person is very well educated too. I don't get it. I think it's desperation talking.

Carlsbad? That's in San Diego County. They could have outdoor classrooms all year, and schools there are generally designed to be open to the elements anyway. In a lot of them you enter the classroom from the outside, no hallway to walk through. There's literally no reason to keep the schools there closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fixated because private school and Catholic school kids have been in school ALL YEAR in DC and elsewhere. There's no reason, other than politics, for public schools to be closed and private schools to be opened.

I'm also fixated because I can cite you name after name of public health experts, doctors, educators, who all say we need to reopen schools and prioritize schools. Yet contrary to the grandiose claims to "believe science," parents and politicians in DC are now completely ignoring all of this science.

And finally I'm fixated on the incredibly hypocrisy of progressives in DC pretending to care about black kids and marginalized people, all the while refusing to engage with the actual facts in front of their eyes: rich white kids in DC are being educated; poor black kids are not.

Teacher here. I'm also a parent of a Catholic school student who is in school twice a week. I teach in public school. Public and private schools are like night and day with reopening. My district asked for volunteers to open for certain student populations. I attended the meeting and my main questions were about masks. I would go back if schools could send children home for failure to comply with mask rules. They said they couldn't do that. If a kid won't wear a mask properly, teachers are supposed to ENCOURAGE them to wear it the right way. Um, what? At my son's school, a few boys weren't wearing theirs correctly and they were immediately sent home and couldn't return to school at all. If I don't pick up my sick kid at school within 40 minutes of being called, he cannot return to school at all. They are serious and no-nonsense and that's why I allow him to go to school. Nobody is "encouraging" the students to follow the rules there. If they don't follow them, they go home permanently. No questions asked.

Is that somehow supposed to make me think you're anything less hypocritical? Particularly since you yourself opt for Catholic for your own kids!

Slight differences in mask policies are not "night and day". The actual research on actual children (who actually imperfectly comply with mask requirements) shows that elementary schools are not covid spreaders.

Read up:

"Raw data and case studies provide support for Whitmer’s decision [to keep elementary schools open]. The latest data have failed to provide compelling evidence that in-person schooling leads to meaningful increases in infections in communities. While there have been some outbreaks in contexts without strong mitigation measures, there is no evidence suggesting spread within schools when effective mitigation measures are in place. Studies across geographies focused on examining the spread of the virus within schools have consistently found little compelling evidence that schools themselves are drivers of spread. While K-8 schools have shown the most success, high schools, too, have in fact done well with robust infection controls in place."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/19/covid-safe-keep-schools-open/

[Anonymous]

Not a hypocrite. My DH used to work for Pepsi but only drank Coke. Does that make him a hypocrite? You can post whatever you want but I'm still not going into a classroom when students won't wear masks. We have students who will not wear them. Their parents don't wear them either. I'm not risking my health and the health of my family because of other people's poor decisions. I'm not going to "encourage" any kid to follow the rules. Follow them or don't come to school. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have dumped so many social responsibilities on the school system—childcare, food, social skills, counseling, etc.—that we are just in a state of shock when they assert that their main job is education.

And they haven't been doing their main job--education--since March.

Where do your kids go to school? What are you talking about? My kid's teachers are online live nearly all day except for lunch and their special area class. Do you have any idea how long it takes to prepare for a daily 5+ hour live session? I have two meetings a week that I lead for an hour and it takes a loooooong time to prepare for them (and they are for adults).

I do not care at all about how hard teachers are working. The kids are not learning. These two are completely separate things. Public education is results-focused not input-focused. School is not designed as a vehicle for teachers to teach, but as a place for students to learn. If students are not learning, then education is not happening, and it doesn't matter at all that teachers think they're working harder.

This is why we are saying that teachers have not been doing their job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fixated because private school and Catholic school kids have been in school ALL YEAR in DC and elsewhere. There's no reason, other than politics, for public schools to be closed and private schools to be opened.

I'm also fixated because I can cite you name after name of public health experts, doctors, educators, who all say we need to reopen schools and prioritize schools. Yet contrary to the grandiose claims to "believe science," parents and politicians in DC are now completely ignoring all of this science.

And finally I'm fixated on the incredibly hypocrisy of progressives in DC pretending to care about black kids and marginalized people, all the while refusing to engage with the actual facts in front of their eyes: rich white kids in DC are being educated; poor black kids are not.

What about poor white kids? What about rich black kids, or spanish kids, rich and poor? Etc.

My kids are "poor white" and doing well with DL. Statements like yours, PP, are pure evil. You are using disadvantaged kids to try to win your argument and get your way. Nasty person, PP.

I’m always amazed at the depths of poverty being racialized in the USA. It’s amazing how poor white Americans are completely ignored and not acknowledged. And liberals do this the most. Poor white people are not seen nor heard. Completely hidden away.

As if there aren’t poor white children across America. Upstate NY, Mississippi, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio anyone???

Uh, the PP referred to "the incredible hypocrisy of the progressives" so I'm guessing she is not a liberal.

Oh but I am. Progressive even! My point is that anyone who is ACTUALLY progressive should be very, very upset at what's happening with school closures.

I’m a Democrat and I’m pissed schools are closed, I’m pissed education sucks, I’m pissed we have high schoolers who can’t read, I’m pissed we are so far in our bubbles that we are rejecting common sense and practical solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a hypocrite. My DH used to work for Pepsi but only drank Coke. Does that make him a hypocrite? You can post whatever you want but I'm still not going into a classroom when students won't wear masks. We have students who will not wear them. Their parents don't wear them either. I'm not risking my health and the health of my family because of other people's poor decisions. I'm not going to "encourage" any kid to follow the rules. Follow them or don't come to school. Period.

Yeah good luck with that. I’ve been working in person in a school since September and the district policy was watered down from “if your child won’t wear a mask and/or doesn’t have consent to be tested, they have to go remote” to “your child is exempt if they have a physical or psychological reason that wearing a mask would be harmful” and testing is totally up to the parent. Guess which parents don’t think their kids need to wear a mask or be tested? The same parents whose children tell me things like, “We went to a wedding this weekend!”

[Anonymous]

I’ll give an honest answer. Because our family’s life was pretty good in 2019 and I desperately miss that and I’m scared it will never be the same. We picked our house for the elementary school a block away and my daughter had the most amazing 3/4 of a year in kinder. We loved the school and her teacher who taught her to read in just seven months. Our younger child was eligible for kinder this year and we were excited to send her and yes, be able to breath a bit financially with no more daycare costs. Then COVID happened and school went virtual and then the hybrid plan was scrapped and then the hybrid phase in plan was scrapped and we were starring down the barrel of having a virtual kindergartener and a virtual first grade for an entire school year plus two working parents whose employers were getting less understanding by the day. Some things are ok. Like we had time to make waffles this morning but god I miss last year.

[Anonymous]

Schools are fully funded and getting additional funding to run but are no in-person while parents suffer from the lack of services . That funding should go to parents while schools go virtual or parents should be paid for schools that are open such as private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have dumped so many social responsibilities on the school system—childcare, food, social skills, counseling, etc.—that we are just in a state of shock when they assert that their main job is education.

And they haven't been doing their main job--education--since March.

Where do your kids go to school? What are you talking about? My kid's teachers are online live nearly all day except for lunch and their special area class. Do you have any idea how long it takes to prepare for a daily 5+ hour live session? I have two meetings a week that I lead for an hour and it takes a loooooong time to prepare for them (and they are for adults).

I do not care at all about how hard teachers are working. The kids are not learning. These two are completely separate things. Public education is results-focused not input-focused. School is not designed as a vehicle for teachers to teach, but as a place for students to learn. If students are not learning, then education is not happening, and it doesn't matter at all that teachers think they're working harder.

This is why we are saying that teachers have not been doing their job.

Your kids may not be learning but mine our, which our support. Don't make blanket statements kids are not learning. Kids are learning in a different way. The issue is you don't want to b involved and help and you don't want to do your responsibility as a parent. This is 2020 in a pandemic. Change with the times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have dumped so many social responsibilities on the school system—childcare, food, social skills, counseling, etc.—that we are just in a state of shock when they assert that their main job is education.

And they haven't been doing their main job--education--since March.

Where do your kids go to school? What are you talking about? My kid's teachers are online live nearly all day except for lunch and their special area class. Do you have any idea how long it takes to prepare for a daily 5+ hour live session? I have two meetings a week that I lead for an hour and it takes a loooooong time to prepare for them (and they are for adults).

I do not care at all about how hard teachers are working. The kids are not learning. These two are completely separate things. Public education is results-focused not input-focused. School is not designed as a vehicle for teachers to teach, but as a place for students to learn. If students are not learning, then education is not happening, and it doesn't matter at all that teachers think they're working harder.

This is why we are saying that teachers have not been doing their job.

Your kids may not be learning but mine our, which our support. Don't make blanket statements kids are not learning. Kids are learning in a different way. The issue is you don't want to b involved and help and you don't want to do your responsibility as a parent. This is 2020 in a pandemic. Change with the times.

You didn't listen to the FCPS Town hall tonight. Some children are learning. Most aren't. It's not an issue of "parenting".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have dumped so many social responsibilities on the school system—childcare, food, social skills, counseling, etc.—that we are just in a state of shock when they assert that their main job is education.

And they haven't been doing their main job--education--since March.

Where do your kids go to school? What are you talking about? My kid's teachers are online live nearly all day except for lunch and their special area class. Do you have any idea how long it takes to prepare for a daily 5+ hour live session? I have two meetings a week that I lead for an hour and it takes a loooooong time to prepare for them (and they are for adults).

I do not care at all about how hard teachers are working. The kids are not learning. These two are completely separate things. Public education is results-focused not input-focused. School is not designed as a vehicle for teachers to teach, but as a place for students to learn. If students are not learning, then education is not happening, and it doesn't matter at all that teachers think they're working harder.

This is why we are saying that teachers have not been doing their job.

I've had parents ever year that don't do their jobs. It's not a perfect world, especially in a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we have dumped so many social responsibilities on the school system—childcare, food, social skills, counseling, etc.—that we are just in a state of shock when they assert that their main job is education.

And they haven't been doing their main job--education--since March.

Where do your kids go to school? What are you talking about? My kid's teachers are online live nearly all day except for lunch and their special area class. Do you have any idea how long it takes to prepare for a daily 5+ hour live session? I have two meetings a week that I lead for an hour and it takes a loooooong time to prepare for them (and they are for adults).

I do not care at all about how hard teachers are working. The kids are not learning. These two are completely separate things. Public education is results-focused not input-focused. School is not designed as a vehicle for teachers to teach, but as a place for students to learn. If students are not learning, then education is not happening, and it doesn't matter at all that teachers think they're working harder.

This is why we are saying that teachers have not been doing their job.

Your kids may not be learning but mine our, which our support. Don't make blanket statements kids are not learning. Kids are learning in a different way. The issue is you don't want to b involved and help and you don't want to do your responsibility as a parent. This is 2020 in a pandemic. Change with the times.

You didn't listen to the FCPS Town hall tonight. Some children are learning. Most aren't. It's not an issue of "parenting".

Part of it is, but FCPS isn't ever going to say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll give an honest answer. Because our family’s life was pretty good in 2019 and I desperately miss that and I’m scared it will never be the same. We picked our house for the elementary school a block away and my daughter had the most amazing 3/4 of a year in kinder. We loved the school and her teacher who taught her to read in just seven months. Our younger child was eligible for kinder this year and we were excited to send her and yes, be able to breath a bit financially with no more daycare costs. Then COVID happened and school went virtual and then the hybrid plan was scrapped and then the hybrid phase in plan was scrapped and we were starring down the barrel of having a virtual kindergartener and a virtual first grade for an entire school year plus two working parents whose employers were getting less understanding by the day. Some things are ok. Like we had time to make waffles this morning but god I miss last year.

We all miss last year and want things back, but it's time to move forward. In my family, things have been tough - but this year actually brought us closer.

[Anonymous]

There’s nobody worse than public school teachers refusing to go to work all year while putting their own precious Larlas in private school, preschool or daycare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s nobody worse than public school teachers refusing to go to work all year while putting their own precious Larlas in private school, preschool or daycare.

Agree!!!!! A mom in our neighborhood is the biggest whiner on Facebook about it’s not saaaaaafe! She drives her three kids to catholic school every morning five days a week then comes home and “teaches PE” online.