Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But at what cost? Am i supposed to pay the other family’s share of the tutor? Their transportation to the pod? The cost of technology so they can adequately participate? Spend my own time teaching them because their parents don’t have the time? All of that would be at a cost to my family. Why would I do that? I will lobby and speak out for change and organize events to help change, but I’m not going to put my family at a disadvantage to help another family, particularly during an epidemic. But it’s the same for a well-to-do family. I purposefully wild not pod with a family whose parent(s) is/are doctors or other essential workers who have to go into work everyday or who need to take public transportation. I’m simply unwilling to take that risk for my family. And I’m not alone in that...

I don’t know lady - I can’t tell you what to do. But if in this time of crisis that is disproportionaly hitting minorities you circle the wagons even more and don’t help others ... that’s a problem.

It's really not. I prioritize the kids that I chose to birth/adopt, and others get the energy and money that I can spare. If this situation means I have none to spare, so be it.

Right. I’m an AA mom of one I homeschool and have a “pod” of sorts with another AA mom, also one child. We live in different neighborhoods where we are the only AA people (neither of our husbands are AA). I have an amazing classroom space I invested a lot of time and money in designing, her basement is an occupational therapist’s dream, huge backyards with pools, tons of therapeutic stuff, etc. We’ve been sharing our spaces for about a year and we were considering adding another family to the mix before coronavirus, but we’re sticking to ourselves for now. We are very like-minded, cautious, and trust each other re: social distancing. It has absolutely been suggested to both of us, with varying levels of subtlety, that we share our resources or even do childcare which is hilarious. That is so not happening for a plethora of reasons, including that the moms asking didn’t care why we were homeschooling before all this. There was no care or concern (like in both our cases, our kids were not safe at the so-called excellent public schools), just little digs how they could never. Well, we will all carry on somehow. I applaud parents being proactive. There were inequities before for a LOT of families. I don’t think race has anything to do with the proposed pod solutions and it’s very disturbing how quickly those with an agenda pivoted to that.

Anonymous wrote:Now people are saying it's racist and privileged to hire a tutor or form pods. What's even more ridiculous is suggesting to make it illegal or force parents to include others for free to promote diversity of race and income. Lol good luck.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220656647060383&set=a.1168976058860&type=3&theater

I don't see the problem with her concerns. She's actually being empathetic to a real issue. The act of hiring a tutor or forming pods is not racist and thats not what the OP is claiming. You intentionally misunderstood and re-framed the discussion to make it seem like raising such concerns indicates people who do so are racist. This is a projection and is likely due to your personal biases and contempt you have for racial issues. That and/or you are simply trolling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other countries have much larger inequality. The US has free public education for everyone for 13+ years. I guess that’s not enough anymore.

Like where???

Please name one developed country with more inequality than the U.S.

NP - I don't care about inequality. It is meaningless. What is meaningful is the standard of living for our population. The poor in the United States have more square footage of housing than most in the developed world, world class health care without rationing, free public education, more calories, cheaper transportation, and other luxuries such as cell phones, cable, etc.

Our population of poor people is constantly being supplemented by the very poor who flock to our country from around the world. Of course they are "poor" but apparently are still better off than they were before. Who cares what a billionaire has.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fail to see why if you have kids getting together to study in pods with a tutor you can't accompolish the same thing in a school.

Spread some of the classes out into the gym and cafeteria.

Clearly your children are not in school that is overcrowded by hundreds (mine both are, and there's not enough room anywhere in the building, the classrooms, the portables, the gyms, the media centers etc. to appropriately social distance all those students). Clearly you are privileged.

I work in a city school. The gym is a classroom (so, small) without desks. There is no auditorium or library. There aren't these empty palatial spaces available to us. Every single inch of space is used for a class. Therapists work in hallways and in closets. This isn't an exaggeration. Stop acting like you can fix something that you know NOTHING about and then blaming the people who work in those places, trying to serve their communities. You don't deserve a seat at this table. We heard you loud and clear that you want schools to open. If you don't have an informed opinion, then sit down while we try to make that happen.

Anonymous wrote:I fail to see why if you have kids getting together to study in pods with a tutor you can't accompolish the same thing in a school.

Spread some of the classes out into the gym and cafeteria.

Clearly your children are not in school that is overcrowded by hundreds (mine both are, and there's not enough room anywhere in the building, the classrooms, the portables, the gyms, the media centers etc. to appropriately social distance all those students). Clearly you are privileged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh yes, another “...issues for poor minorities“ from a not-poor not-minority! Do you even know any poor black people? The actual racism here is the transparent belief that minorities can’t make their own judgments for the benefit of their children.

So, I volunteer heavily for three organizations that work with very poor communities. Childcare and lack of school related health care is a huge concern. School attendance for teens is a concern. The financial impact of the pandemic on these communities is a concern. ESOL programs via distance learning is concern. Food distribution is a concern (sorry, but it’s really hard to get food distributed properly). But from my perspective, the greatest concern is the lack of proper outreach to these communities to figure out what they need. And honestly, if people are concerned about the impact on them, that’s a good thing. It’s better than not caring at all because “my number one concern as a parent is my own kid,” which is stated time and time again on this board.

I think your post is completely disingenuous and it concerns me that your are attacking people for showing interest in the wellbeing of others.

*you’re

Also, I want to emphasize PP’s comment about poor internet, grab and go lunches, etc. Just because we are providing something doesn’t mean it is adequate or even helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Oh yes, another “...issues for poor minorities“ from a not-poor not-minority! Do you even know any poor black people? The actual racism here is the transparent belief that minorities can’t make their own judgments for the benefit of their children.

So, I volunteer heavily for three organizations that work with very poor communities. Childcare and lack of school related health care is a huge concern. School attendance for teens is a concern. The financial impact of the pandemic on these communities is a concern. ESOL programs via distance learning is concern. Food distribution is a concern (sorry, but it’s really hard to get food distributed properly). But from my perspective, the greatest concern is the lack of proper outreach to these communities to figure out what they need. And honestly, if people are concerned about the impact on them, that’s a good thing. It’s better than not caring at all because “my number one concern as a parent is my own kid,” which is stated time and time again on this board.

I think your post is completely disingenuous and it concerns me that your are attacking people for showing interest in the wellbeing of others.

Anonymous wrote:People are entitled to their opinions about how pods are going to leave some kids out. They have a point.
People are also entitled to hire a tutor if they want.
People can believe BLM and still feel the need to form a pod.
One could even extend an invitation to a friend to join the pod who might not be able to afford the same rate as the rest of the members.

All these things can be true and realistically, no one is going to stop you from doing what you have to do or paying what you want to pay to educate your kid.

This is so dum, as if parents haven't been paying for tutors, nannies, after school sports/clubs/extra curricula for years before covid. Alas, those that could could, and those that couldn't well somehow society claims its your fault. Ed inequity since the beginning of public ed, it's all a sham, they when those that can take exams they claim its inate intelligence or buy their way into schools yet deny affirmative action. Im so sick of the lot of you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Honestly the most equitable thing would be to put the money you would be spending on this in a pot and the divvy it out to everyone based on need. The SAHM who has a college degree needs it much less than the single mom with a GED who has to work to support the family...

But again, most likely you only want to spend on your kid... so face the fact that you’ll be furthering inequity.

Perhaps pay all costs for a kid who needs it in addition to your own?

This is like saying you’ve come up with the solution for homelessness because you watched Dr Zhivago last week

Easy enough to halve your kid's meals and spend the money on others.

Anonymous wrote: Honestly the most equitable thing would be to put the money you would be spending on this in a pot and the divvy it out to everyone based on need. The SAHM who has a college degree needs it much less than the single mom with a GED who has to work to support the family...

But again, most likely you only want to spend on your kid... so face the fact that you’ll be furthering inequity.

Perhaps pay all costs for a kid who needs it in addition to your own?

This is like saying you’ve come up with the solution for homelessness because you watched Dr Zhivago last week

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking care of your children isn’t racist.

It is when you're also advocating to keep schools closed and keep poorer kids from getting any education at all.

Who is advocating that poor kids shouldn't get any education at all? Isn't this what distance learning, free loaner computers and grab and go lunches are for?

Do you really think it's fair to send poor kids to community schools during a pandemic????

I opted for hybrid but, the logic here fails no matter what. We are depriving the poor or we are sending them into danger. How do you think a covid hospitalization plays out in a poor family?

Get out of your bubble. None of this will work for most poor children. It's lip service that ignores the problems these children will have learning from home (no parent supervision, poor internet connection, multiple other children in a small home or apartment to not be distracted by).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other countries have much larger inequality. The US has free public education for everyone for 13+ years. I guess that’s not enough anymore.

Like where???

Please name one developed country with more inequality than the U.S.

Most European countries. People on this board love to focus on the cost of college as a measure of "inequality," but completely fail to consider the methods that European countries use to narrow the pool of kids that are deemed qualified to attend college, often at a fairly early age. They rely on standardized testing (decried as racist in the U.S.) to determine who is directed to the college path vs. trade school. Your fate is determined early. Do you think that Europeans have some magical formula that makes underprivileged kids do better on standardized testing than the kids of educated, affluent parents?

E.g., Germany:

https://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/upward-mobility-berlin-education-system/

The harsh truth is that it is not just a superficial perception – the stratified school system in Germany is rife with problems and has institutionally failed to integrate the bulk of students from less advantaged backgrounds, be it migrant, low-income, or otherwise.

At the core of the problem is the system of early tracking which, in Berlin, starts after only four or six years of primary school. At the age of ten or twelve, students are separated into certain schools based on perceived intellectual ability. After the release of a 2007 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on Education in Germany, it was stated that the country had “the least permeable of all school systems (despite being free of charge) in respect to social preconditions,” according to a government official from the Federal Ministry of Collaboration and Economic Development.

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-social-mobility-among-poorest-worse-than-in-the-united-states-oecd/a-44245702#:~:text=The%20Paris%2Dbased%20organization%20blamed,them%20in%20full%2Dday%20schooling.

The "tracking" of school children — funneling some students to more academic secondary schools and others to vocational schools — in Germany tends to make it harder for children to move up and down the social ladder.

Oh yes, another “...issues for poor minorities“ from a not-poor not-minority! Do you even know any poor black people? The actual racism here is the transparent belief that minorities can’t make their own judgments for the benefit of their children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, it's OK for kids and parents/ teachers to get together in these "pods" -- or even, as I've heard is happening in California -- form defacto schools of 20 + children -- but it's not OK for them to be in "real school?"

Got it.

This is why scientists are lousy at public policy. They never think beyond step one with regard to human behavior. Step One: We're going to make all the kids stay home from school, that way they won't give the virus to each other.

Okay. Now what happens? It is not sustainable for working parents -- especially those who have to go to their workplace to do their job, but even people who can work from home -- to work and educate/babysit their children. So, the parents who can afford it basically pay to recreate school, with all of the attendant health risks, and the parents who can't afford to leave their kids alone, with even greater risks to health and safety. So, now, we haven't ameliorated the health risk, and we've added additional risk with unattended children, PLUS the added bonus of increasing educational disparity between the wealthy and less-privileged.

Good job, experts!

P.S. -- I do have say that the pediatricians are speaking out about this. It seems to be the epidemiologists who are on the "we can't open schools" bandwagon. Why aren't we listening to the people who actually take care of the kids?

Well stated. Like I said on another thread, I better not hear another word from our School Board about the "achievement gap" if they get rid of any in school education.
And, they are changing the name of Lee High this week. A needed change--but, if the kids are not attending the school, why bother? What a bunch of hypocrites.

Anonymous wrote:So, it's OK for kids and parents/ teachers to get together in these "pods" -- or even, as I've heard is happening in California -- form defacto schools of 20 + children -- but it's not OK for them to be in "real school?"

Got it.

This is why scientists are lousy at public policy. They never think beyond step one with regard to human behavior. Step One: We're going to make all the kids stay home from school, that way they won't give the virus to each other.

Okay. Now what happens? It is not sustainable for working parents -- especially those who have to go to their workplace to do their job, but even people who can work from home -- to work and educate/babysit their children. So, the parents who can afford it basically pay to recreate school, with all of the attendant health risks, and the parents who can't afford to leave their kids alone, with even greater risks to health and safety. So, now, we haven't ameliorated the health risk, and we've added additional risk with unattended children, PLUS the added bonus of increasing educational disparity between the wealthy and less-privileged.

Good job, experts!

P.S. -- I do have say that the pediatricians are speaking out about this. It seems to be the epidemiologists who are on the "we can't open schools" bandwagon. Why aren't we listening to the people who actually take care of the kids?