Drew Magary's article: "It’s Insane We’re Even Discussing Sending Kids to School This Fall"

[Anonymous]

Fantastic article
https://gen.medium.com/its-insane-we-re-even-discussing-sending-kids-to-school-this-fall-c71b8c8459d6

"The risk level is well beyond what a rational parent would deem acceptable. I know it, and you probably know it too. Shut down the schools. Shut them all down, from preschool to grad school. There are some things not worth learning."

[Anonymous]

... says the writer with older kids who works from home anyway.

[Anonymous]

I think he sounds a little naive, honestly. He's smart and all. I do agree with shut down schools...and I mean all of it. Screw distance learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... says the writer with older kids who works from home anyway.

His kids are pretty young, in fact. Grade school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he sounds a little naive, honestly. He's smart and all. I do agree with shut down schools...and I mean all of it. Screw distance learning.

this.

In person, or just close down education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... says the writer with older kids who works from home anyway.

His kids are pretty young, in fact. Grade school.

he said the older two are 11 and 14.

[Anonymous]

The complexity of the situation makes it not an all or nothing scenario. There are many vulnerable children in severe poverty suffering exploitation, sexual abuse, violence, malnutrition, not to mention a lack of ANY instruction, external stimuli, social interaction or development. What might be right for his kids is not necessarily right for others.

An overly simplistic solution could be disastrous.

[Anonymous]

I don't think declaring that the entire country should shut down all school and childcare for ages 0-18 is a very intelligent or nuanced stance. Should Florida be opening schools 5 days/week in person in August? Absolutely not. Could some places in the country be ready to open schools for at least for K-2 in the next few months? Absolutely yes.

[Anonymous]

As a parent of an 8 year old, i'm not very worried at all about my kid's safety or the safety of my family. We both work from home and plan to continue to socially distance. We will not be sending COVID to school or out into the community. Though DS may pick up COVID at school and bring it home - where it would be confined to our nuclear family of 3. Statistically, our healthy family has lower risk from COVID than from, say, a car accident.

I worry about other kids bringing COVID to school and making teachers and admin sick.

I am very, very worried about my SN kid -- who already has social issues -- not having a single social interaction with another kid for 1.5 years. DL was particularly useless for this population -- who struggle with the stimulus of Zoom meetings, delayed maturity, executive planning and attention issues.

So for our family, i consider the risks of in person school (both giving and receiving COVID) to be close to zero, and the risks of DL to be as high as, say, a year of letting DS watch tv for 8 hours a day.

But this author's point is that we should be worried for our own kids - which is not true for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think declaring that the entire country should shut down all school and childcare for ages 0-18 is a very intelligent or nuanced stance. Should Florida be opening schools 5 days/week in person in August? Absolutely not. Could some places in the country be ready to open schools for at least for K-2 in the next few months? Absolutely yes.

We are in Florida (not in South Florida) and want to go back to in person school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... says the writer with older kids who works from home anyway.

His kids are pretty young, in fact. Grade school.

he said the older two are 11 and 14.

Then they're pretty young and there's a younger one to boot....he's in the same boat as most of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think declaring that the entire country should shut down all school and childcare for ages 0-18 is a very intelligent or nuanced stance. Should Florida be opening schools 5 days/week in person in August? Absolutely not. Could some places in the country be ready to open schools for at least for K-2 in the next few months? Absolutely yes.

We are in Florida (not in South Florida) and want to go back to in person school.

According to this site the lowest 7 day moving average county in the state is Sumter County with 18.6 cases/100,000 per day. https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/

To me that is still too high to be opening in person schools. The highest spread in, say, Vermont is Lamoille County with 2.3 cases/100,000 per day. I would say Vermont has a decent chance at in person schools.

[Anonymous]

It’s hard to take seriously someone who tosses around a word like “insane” so cavalierly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of an 8 year old, i'm not very worried at all about my kid's safety or the safety of my family. We both work from home and plan to continue to socially distance. We will not be sending COVID to school or out into the community. Though DS may pick up COVID at school and bring it home - where it would be confined to our nuclear family of 3. Statistically, our healthy family has lower risk from COVID than from, say, a car accident.

I worry about other kids bringing COVID to school and making teachers and admin sick.

I am very, very worried about my SN kid -- who already has social issues -- not having a single social interaction with another kid for 1.5 years. DL was particularly useless for this population -- who struggle with the stimulus of Zoom meetings, delayed maturity, executive planning and attention issues.

So for our family, i consider the risks of in person school (both giving and receiving COVID) to be close to zero, and the risks of DL to be as high as, say, a year of letting DS watch tv for 8 hours a day.

But this author's point is that we should be worried for our own kids - which is not true for us.

You are describing my kid exactly, but we’re older parents and I’m pretty terrified about us getting it.

[Anonymous]

His annual Williams-Sonoma Haters Guides are hilarious, but I'm not sure why he's qualified to make this kind of simplistic pronouncement.