Why does everyone think masked are unhealthy to wear all day when health care workers are expected to wear them for 12 hours a day while doing complicated tadkes?

Anonymous wrote:

MCPS IS TOO OVERCROWDED FOR SHIFTS TO WORK UNLESS IT'S ONE DAY A WEEK OF IN-PERSON SCHOOL.

(Sorry to shout, it's to draw your attention and cut through the morass.)

If you recall, we were in the middle of a boundary study because many schools in the county are terribly overcrowded. My son's high school has "up" staircases and "down" staircases, as well as one-way corridors, because there is a river of bodies flowing everywhere between classes, and it's impossible to fight the current in the opposite direction - I know, I tried one day because I was was invited to a meeting and didn't know the rules! The days when students could fit in the cafeteria are long gone, and the school encourages students to go out to eat. All the core spaces are ridiculously inadequate for the current student population. There is no way they can cut that number in half and comply with physical distancing. They need to divide in fifths, one group for each day of the week, and then it *might* work.


So the question is: is it worth it to have students come in once a week?

It could be useful for certain populations, certain classes, and students whose needs can only be addressed face-to-face. Speech therapy, counseling, PE, art, resource class, etc.


I hear the argument about families needing childcare. Of course they do!

The other option is to open up schools and offer distance learning as an option for those who can stay home. However this will fly in the face of physical distancing orders and I don't think it will be happen any time soon, and not in fall 2020. Perhaps later, when labs create a vaccine and while we wait for most people to be vaccinated.


Whatever we decide to do, we must remember that we need:
MASKS
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
SYSTEMATIC TESTING
CONTACT TRACING.

Please call your Representatives, Governors and Senators to make those critical things happen. The person in the White House is not competent, he should be taking the initiative, but he cannot. We need to bypass him.

None of that list will happen, certainly not long-term. Masks are a non-starter, they are so unbelievably unhealthy to wear for any extended period of time. K-5 kids, 6-8 kids for that matter, will never wear them all day long, not even for a week of school time could you hope to enforce mandatory masks on younglings. The others issues are just memes, at least in this context. Already the (equity-minded) system can barely afford or handle logistics for Chromebooks. MCPS gonna provide smart phones with spyware/tracing apps to every kid? lol

Testing is a ridiculous meme too. False positives, false negative, negative one day, entirely possible to be positive the next. Testing every day? Yeah, right.

MCPS IS TOO OVERCROWDED FOR SHIFTS TO WORK UNLESS IT'S ONE DAY A WEEK OF IN-PERSON SCHOOL.

(Sorry to shout, it's to draw your attention and cut through the morass.)

If you recall, we were in the middle of a boundary study because many schools in the county are terribly overcrowded. My son's high school has "up" staircases and "down" staircases, as well as one-way corridors, because there is a river of bodies flowing everywhere between classes, and it's impossible to fight the current in the opposite direction - I know, I tried one day because I was was invited to a meeting and didn't know the rules! The days when students could fit in the cafeteria are long gone, and the school encourages students to go out to eat. All the core spaces are ridiculously inadequate for the current student population. There is no way they can cut that number in half and comply with physical distancing. They need to divide in fifths, one group for each day of the week, and then it *might* work.


So the question is: is it worth it to have students come in once a week?

It could be useful for certain populations, certain classes, and students whose needs can only be addressed face-to-face. Speech therapy, counseling, PE, art, resource class, etc.


I hear the argument about families needing childcare. Of course they do!

The other option is to open up schools and offer distance learning as an option for those who can stay home. However this will fly in the face of physical distancing orders and I don't think it will be happen any time soon, and not in fall 2020. Perhaps later, when labs create a vaccine and while we wait for most people to be vaccinated.


Whatever we decide to do, we must remember that we need:
MASKS
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
SYSTEMATIC TESTING
CONTACT TRACING.

Please call your Representatives, Governors and Senators to make those critical things happen. The person in the White House is not competent, he should be taking the initiative, but he cannot. We need to bypass him.

Anonymous wrote:Look, MCPS can’t even manage the logistics to let high schoolers sleep in for an extra hour. No way they’re going to be able to work out anything like split shifts, with both in-person and online instruction, and deep-cleaning in between. We’ll be luck of our middle school manages soap and paper towels in the bathrooms.

That’s not totally a dig at MCPS, either. The logistics of managing a system this large and this diverse are mind-boggling, and barely manageable even under normal circumstances. It‘s going to take a lot longer than four months to turn a ship this size.

Never mind the serious lack of bus drivers, the kids in some schools in Maryland are so late because they can't get drivers!

Anonymous wrote:No matter the situation in the Fall we should take all precautions and limit the exposure by introducing the change that
would solve many problems. Not only would it allow for the adequate degree of separation but also would solve crowding.

Voila!.. Not a new concept at all:


Double shift school is a type of school which operates in two shifts, with one group of students in the building early in the day and a second group of students later in the day.[1] The purpose of a double shift school is to increase the number of students that can be taught without having to build another building. To avoid crowded classrooms, a school may adopt a dual shift system without reducing the students actual study time.[2]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_shift_school

It’s a fail because there isn’t enough time or money to disinfect all surfaces between shifts

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I,expect a lot of older teachers and paras will not return next year or will take a leave of absence. Subs will not come either. This two,shift system has no chance. Schools are not baby sitters.

True: Schools are not babysitters.

Also true: One of the things schools do is provide child care.

Then states should just hire child care workers if what is most important is having any adult willing to watch the kids 6-7 hours a day, whether or not that adult knows the content or how to teach it. Just open child care centers and pack 30 kids into a room. Hell, why offer only the regular school day hours? Run ‘em 24 hours a day. Then the parents will be free to do whatever they want. Any parent who really wants their child to learn can opt for distance learning instead. That can be done asynchronously.

I mean, I agree with you that states should hire child care workers. But child care is a need in states that want everybody to go back to work. And if everybody is supposed to go back to work, why keep the schools closed and set up a new separate non-school child-care system? Re-opening the schools should be one of the highest priorities. Kids need to go to school.

Health should be the highest priority. If people want to put their children in unhealthy settings so they can work more than they want learning at home, give them state-funded cattle pens. But don’t force others to have only one unhealthy option.

no one is forcing you to go back to work or send your kids to school. Unemployment and home school are options. You don't get to slow the world down because you're a puss

This!

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea of split shifts and 4 day weeks. School is not daycare. It never was until around 30-40 years ago when families decided it was, because both partners chose to work outside the home and use one income to supplement the job of a homemaker, thinking they would have so much extra money. Fast forward to today and now it is basically forced.

Two overworked parents expecting FT daycare, food, mental health care, etc... with school because the economy caught up to two parents working. Constant cries of days off, no cheap camps, extra holidays, overpriced aftercare etc... Now everything but salaries has risen in the last 30 years and poverty has increased. Parents raising kids instead of daycare providers has decreased. Families barely surviving on two salaries and tons of credit card and mortgage debt. So many depending on the government for help.

Maybe this pandemic will make some families realize priorities need to change. This won’t be the last pandemic. Life can change drastically. Be prepared.

How would this work for single parent households?

How would this work for two income families today? One person will simply have to give up his or her job? I am guessing you would say yes, that the person who makes less give up their job and the family sucks up the reduction in wages. What if that person's job provided the health insurance for the family? What if they can no longer afford their mortgage/rent? A lot of families have parents working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Only fairly well to do UMC families can suddenly go down to one income voluntarily with a lot of pain.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No matter the situation in the Fall we should take all precautions and limit the exposure by introducing the change that
would solve many problems. Not only would it allow for the adequate degree of separation but also would solve crowding.

Voila!.. Not a new concept at all:


Double shift school is a type of school which operates in two shifts, with one group of students in the building early in the day and a second group of students later in the day.[1] The purpose of a double shift school is to increase the number of students that can be taught without having to build another building. To avoid crowded classrooms, a school may adopt a dual shift system without reducing the students actual study time.[2]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_shift_school

My husband had this as a child. He grew up in the Middle East and it was during a war. I’ve thought about it too. Or every other day shifts.

I taught in a school structured this way as a Peace Corps volunteer, and the half-day system rests on a couple of pillars that are absent in American culture:

1) Low mobility that means parents are near support networks;

2) An early pension age that means grandparents are available to provide care;

3) Free or very low cost childcare;

4) Communal living situations that mean that even kids without grandparents nearby have neighbors in the same building;

5) A cultural acceptance of both kids being home alone at an early age and a more laissez-faire attitude toward childhood death and disability.

I

In this situation, grandparents and neighbors likely won't provide care because they need.to isolate from the possibly infected, asymptomatic children. And childcare won't be available, no matter the cost.

I also want to know how this would work with more than one child in the household. I've got a first grader and a third grader. Would they go to school on the same day/same shift?

Anonymous wrote:

no one is forcing you to go back to work or send your kids to school. Unemployment and home school are options. You don't get to slow the world down because you're a puss

Well, they're options for some people.

And I'm not even talking about the states that have decided that, if your workplace wants you back, but you don't go back because you think it's not safe, then you no longer qualify for unemployment.

Anonymous wrote:Look, MCPS can’t even manage the logistics to let high schoolers sleep in for an extra hour. No way they’re going to be able to work out anything like split shifts, with both in-person and online instruction, and deep-cleaning in between. We’ll be luck of our middle school manages soap and paper towels in the bathrooms.

That’s not totally a dig at MCPS, either. The logistics of managing a system this large and this diverse are mind-boggling, and barely manageable even under normal circumstances. It‘s going to take a lot longer than four months to turn a ship this size.

Sorry—“...lucky if...”

Look, MCPS can’t even manage the logistics to let high schoolers sleep in for an extra hour. No way they’re going to be able to work out anything like split shifts, with both in-person and online instruction, and deep-cleaning in between. We’ll be luck of our middle school manages soap and paper towels in the bathrooms.

That’s not totally a dig at MCPS, either. The logistics of managing a system this large and this diverse are mind-boggling, and barely manageable even under normal circumstances. It‘s going to take a lot longer than four months to turn a ship this size.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I,expect a lot of older teachers and paras will not return next year or will take a leave of absence. Subs will not come either. This two,shift system has no chance. Schools are not baby sitters.

True: Schools are not babysitters.

Also true: One of the things schools do is provide child care.

Then states should just hire child care workers if what is most important is having any adult willing to watch the kids 6-7 hours a day, whether or not that adult knows the content or how to teach it. Just open child care centers and pack 30 kids into a room. Hell, why offer only the regular school day hours? Run ‘em 24 hours a day. Then the parents will be free to do whatever they want. Any parent who really wants their child to learn can opt for distance learning instead. That can be done asynchronously.

I mean, I agree with you that states should hire child care workers. But child care is a need in states that want everybody to go back to work. And if everybody is supposed to go back to work, why keep the schools closed and set up a new separate non-school child-care system? Re-opening the schools should be one of the highest priorities. Kids need to go to school.

Health should be the highest priority. If people want to put their children in unhealthy settings so they can work more than they want learning at home, give them state-funded cattle pens. But don’t force others to have only one unhealthy option.

no one is forcing you to go back to work or send your kids to school. Unemployment and home school are options. You don't get to slow the world down because you're a puss