Why do some people say schools will never go back to normal?

[Anonymous]

I hear people say this a lot but I don’t really know what they mean? Are people really saying that in 10 years we won’t have 5 day face to face school anymore? If so, why not? This pandemic won’t last forever. Why wouldn’t schools go back to normal after the pandemic passes?

[Anonymous]

People are really bad at predicting how major events like this will change things. Schools closed during the 1918 pandemic and then they reopened once closure wasn't necessary anymore. I seriously doubt that kids will never be in school in person again. It might take a while, and perhaps schools will be more likely to incorporate distance learning for things like snow days.

[Anonymous]

First of all, because even if we get a vaccine, if you listen, it would not be 100% effective and would take a year to rollout. We will probably be dealing with COVID in schools through the class of 2022 graduating.

But mostly, it’s like 9/11, but going on for years. There has been a whole paradigm shift in education.

Some kids do very well in DL and now that there, won’t go back.

Parents with money are finding creative ways to educate their kids. If pods work, parents won’t want to go back. They will homeschool in a small group with a teacher.

People are now starting to realize the demand to fill educational gaps is huge, and I think we will see new businesses and new ideas in education and supporting education. A few will likely be very good and change the educational landscape permanently.

But mostly, people have lost confidence in public schools. Even if FCPS, there is a growing movement for vouchers. And it’s going to get launder as people start paying tutors and pod teacher to do the job the public schools are supposed to.

I think we will see a national demand to give parents their local educational allotment per pupil, and let them choose public, private, parochial, one of the new virtual HSs that will start popping up, use it to pay a pod teacher, use it for homeschool curriculum and enrichment, including things like private language classes and fine arts.

I think we will see expanded opportunities where fine arts, strong IB, voc tech focused, immersion, STEM focused, etc charter or private schools will take the vouchers, and maybe charge parents a few hundred dollars a month above them for expanded resources and smaller classes.

It’s Betsy DeVos’s wet dream, but it could be very could for kids from affluent families. The kids would get left behind when the higher kids leave, not so much.

I know I would love to put my kid in a smaller IB private or charter. And since FCPS can’t figure out how to open schools, they should step aside and let kids attend places that can.

[Anonymous]

Normal = not caring or worrying about an infection.

Even with a vaccine, we will be a couple years away from that.

[Anonymous]

With the school closings, the education divide and achievement gaps that we have worked so hard to close is going to widen almost irreparably. The affluent will continue to be able to educate their children, while everyone else falls behind.

The pandemic has exposed the brokenness of our educational system, and has hit the most impoverished areas hardest.

Also yes, covid-19 will never completely go away. The hope is that we will eventually have a vaccine that is not only effective, but will also be safe and affordable and available to the masses, and/or that they will eventually develop a treatment that would improve outcomes, and also that the virus will not mutate again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are really bad at predicting how major events like this will change things. Schools closed during the 1918 pandemic and then they reopened once closure wasn't necessary anymore. I seriously doubt that kids will never be in school in person again. It might take a while, and perhaps schools will be more likely to incorporate distance learning for things like snow days.

Didn’t they only close for a few months?

[Anonymous]

Middle class and UMC parents fleeing public schools now that they have had a front row seat to how bad the educations actually is.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Because they're crazy. Of course school will go back to normal.

[Anonymous]

I really don’t see how we get back to school full time in person 5 days a week for ALL students until Fall 2022. We stuck with DL this year but we hired a teacher for Mondays and after school during the week. If we DL or hybrid next school year we’ll pull DS out and put him in private or hire a private teacher. I think there are plenty of parents willing to wait out this year, but will bail on the system if this continues. This will leave less money for schools and the only ones who are left behind will be FARM kids. Which will have a dramatic effect on our school system, housing prices and society as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all, because even if we get a vaccine, if you listen, it would not be 100% effective and would take a year to rollout. We will probably be dealing with COVID in schools through the class of 2022 graduating.

But mostly, it’s like 9/11, but going on for years. There has been a whole paradigm shift in education.

Some kids do very well in DL and now that there, won’t go back.

Parents with money are finding creative ways to educate their kids. If pods work, parents won’t want to go back. They will homeschool in a small group with a teacher.

People are now starting to realize the demand to fill educational gaps is huge, and I think we will see new businesses and new ideas in education and supporting education. A few will likely be very good and change the educational landscape permanently.

But mostly, people have lost confidence in public schools. Even if FCPS, there is a growing movement for vouchers. And it’s going to get launder as people start paying tutors and pod teacher to do the job the public schools are supposed to.

I think we will see a national demand to give parents their local educational allotment per pupil, and let them choose public, private, parochial, one of the new virtual HSs that will start popping up, use it to pay a pod teacher, use it for homeschool curriculum and enrichment, including things like private language classes and fine arts.

I think we will see expanded opportunities where fine arts, strong IB, voc tech focused, immersion, STEM focused, etc charter or private schools will take the vouchers, and maybe charge parents a few hundred dollars a month above them for expanded resources and smaller classes.

It’s Betsy DeVos’s wet dream, but it could be very could for kids from affluent families. The kids would get left behind when the higher kids leave, not so much.

I know I would love to put my kid in a smaller IB private or charter. And since FCPS can’t figure out how to open schools, they should step aside and let kids attend places that can.

Great post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they're crazy. Of course school will go back to normal.

+ 1,000,000

[Anonymous]

I have lost trust in my public school officials. Before, my main exposure to their decision making was seeing my child come home and seeing how much they are learning. I was happy about the progress, and believed the people making it happen had their sh!t together.

Once I started seeing the terrible planning and decision making for MCPS, I cannot unsee it. As soon as the schools shut in March, why weren’t they figuring the logistics of coming back in Sept? It was obvious to me by the time the school year ended in June that even if they wanted to start the school year in person they did not have the time to implement safety measures - it takes time to buy and order and distribute and install PPE. At that point they should have been pivoting to DL instead of waffling all summer. They should have asked for funds to pay teachers to come back early to learn how to maximize the impact of DL.

We have switched to private, which I never thought I would do. It’s not that I think that they are so much better in terms of the education they deliver, but when I started touring the schools in early June, they had clearly already spent weeks thinking about how they could open - one directional hallways, outdoor classroom spaces, modifications to use bathrooms safely, etc, etc.

It also made me realize that MCPS cannot respond quickly to changing conditions. They won’t just “go back to normal”, it will takes months and process.

FWIW, my DH and I are both products of public schools, we fully expected to put our kids in McPS for their entire k-12 education.

On a more hopeful note, Inhope MCPS realizes they to change their processes to be more nimble and responsive. If I see that, I would come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, because even if we get a vaccine, if you listen, it would not be 100% effective and would take a year to rollout. We will probably be dealing with COVID in schools through the class of 2022 graduating.

But mostly, it’s like 9/11, but going on for years. There has been a whole paradigm shift in education.

Some kids do very well in DL and now that there, won’t go back.

Parents with money are finding creative ways to educate their kids. If pods work, parents won’t want to go back. They will homeschool in a small group with a teacher.

People are now starting to realize the demand to fill educational gaps is huge, and I think we will see new businesses and new ideas in education and supporting education. A few will likely be very good and change the educational landscape permanently.

But mostly, people have lost confidence in public schools. Even if FCPS, there is a growing movement for vouchers. And it’s going to get launder as people start paying tutors and pod teacher to do the job the public schools are supposed to.

I think we will see a national demand to give parents their local educational allotment per pupil, and let them choose public, private, parochial, one of the new virtual HSs that will start popping up, use it to pay a pod teacher, use it for homeschool curriculum and enrichment, including things like private language classes and fine arts.

I think we will see expanded opportunities where fine arts, strong IB, voc tech focused, immersion, STEM focused, etc charter or private schools will take the vouchers, and maybe charge parents a few hundred dollars a month above them for expanded resources and smaller classes.

It’s Betsy DeVos’s wet dream, but it could be very could for kids from affluent families. The kids would get left behind when the higher kids leave, not so much.

I know I would love to put my kid in a smaller IB private or charter. And since FCPS can’t figure out how to open schools, they should step aside and let kids attend places that can.

Great post.

Up until “mostly.” It has nothing to do with confidence.

People with money find ways to educate their kids. People who don’t will suffer.

[Anonymous]

I for one hope we use this opportunity to make schools better when we get back — where we can promote more equity and opportunity.

Unfortunately it’s only going to further inequity and disadvantage. If and when we get back to “normal” there will be an even larger gap in the range of knowledge, skills and abilities in a single “grade.” We’re going to have to figure out how to differentiate because the kids on either end are going to be left behind....