Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I most appreciated about this document is the idea that we need to think critically about how both Covid precautions and, importantly, the way we implement them, impacts kids mental health and ability to learn and function.

So much of the conversation around Covid precautions in schools is divisive, angry, reactionary. This is so stressful for kids. And yes, I am aware there are conservative jerks who drive a lot of this. But I live in a very blue area where there is basically no resistance among school families to things like masking and testing. People get frustrated with the way certain things are implemented, but there is no meaningful opposition to Covid precautions.

Rather, where I live, most of the combative, disruptive behavior is coming from people on the left (I'm on the left! I really disagree with how these people are handling things). And their behavior is really harmful to kids. It's really awful to be telling kids "If you get Covid, you die." When it's not even true! Kids and vaccinated + boosted adults have lower or equal risk from Covid than the flu or, in some cases, car accidents and other threats to safety. Think how damaging it is for kids to communicate this message to them. We should instead be emphasizing the effectiveness of vaccines, showing them how great it is that our society came together to develop these vaccines so quickly. Talk about how kids are at lower risk of Covid so they don't have be stressed or live in fear of the virus, and how that's such a relief to adults to know that kids are less vulnerable to this virus.

I just think a lot of people have become so addicted to doom, and are constantly fighting an imaginary war with Trump or anti-maskers or anti-vaxers


(whether they are in your community or not, which, they are not in my community) that they have lost sight of how their behavior is negatively impacting kids. It's like parents who have become so caught up in the conflict with one another during a contentious divorce that they are fighting over custody without every recognizing that the best possible thing they could do for their kids is chill the heck out.

So true.

DP and yup. I agree entirely. I live in a very blue part of deep blue MoCo, and I'm still not sure why so many of my educated, self-described progressive neighbors think that "school isn't daycare" is a progressive position. These are people who wear KN95s outside, all the time, and glare at anyone who doesn't, so their contact with the reality of COVID-related risk is tenuous. It's very harmful to kids to see both the anger AND the disconnect from science and evidence.

What I have learned from the pandemic is that the progressive left is deeply misogynist. The position of the left on childcare and education in this pandemic was appalling.

History is going to show that children did better in red states in the pandemic, and that is terrible. And I'm a lifelong Democrat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I most appreciated about this document is the idea that we need to think critically about how both Covid precautions and, importantly, the way we implement them, impacts kids mental health and ability to learn and function.

So much of the conversation around Covid precautions in schools is divisive, angry, reactionary. This is so stressful for kids. And yes, I am aware there are conservative jerks who drive a lot of this. But I live in a very blue area where there is basically no resistance among school families to things like masking and testing. People get frustrated with the way certain things are implemented, but there is no meaningful opposition to Covid precautions.

Rather, where I live, most of the combative, disruptive behavior is coming from people on the left (I'm on the left! I really disagree with how these people are handling things). And their behavior is really harmful to kids. It's really awful to be telling kids "If you get Covid, you die." When it's not even true! Kids and vaccinated + boosted adults have lower or equal risk from Covid than the flu or, in some cases, car accidents and other threats to safety. Think how damaging it is for kids to communicate this message to them. We should instead be emphasizing the effectiveness of vaccines, showing them how great it is that our society came together to develop these vaccines so quickly. Talk about how kids are at lower risk of Covid so they don't have be stressed or live in fear of the virus, and how that's such a relief to adults to know that kids are less vulnerable to this virus.

I just think a lot of people have become so addicted to doom, and are constantly fighting an imaginary war with Trump or anti-maskers or anti-vaxers


(whether they are in your community or not, which, they are not in my community) that they have lost sight of how their behavior is negatively impacting kids. It's like parents who have become so caught up in the conflict with one another during a contentious divorce that they are fighting over custody without every recognizing that the best possible thing they could do for their kids is chill the heck out.

So true.

DP and yup. I agree entirely. I live in a very blue part of deep blue MoCo, and I'm still not sure why so many of my educated, self-described progressive neighbors think that "school isn't daycare" is a progressive position. These are people who wear KN95s outside, all the time, and glare at anyone who doesn't, so their contact with the reality of COVID-related risk is tenuous. It's very harmful to kids to see both the anger AND the disconnect from science and evidence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I most appreciated about this document is the idea that we need to think critically about how both Covid precautions and, importantly, the way we implement them, impacts kids mental health and ability to learn and function.

So much of the conversation around Covid precautions in schools is divisive, angry, reactionary. This is so stressful for kids. And yes, I am aware there are conservative jerks who drive a lot of this. But I live in a very blue area where there is basically no resistance among school families to things like masking and testing. People get frustrated with the way certain things are implemented, but there is no meaningful opposition to Covid precautions.

Rather, where I live, most of the combative, disruptive behavior is coming from people on the left (I'm on the left! I really disagree with how these people are handling things). And their behavior is really harmful to kids. It's really awful to be telling kids "If you get Covid, you die." When it's not even true! Kids and vaccinated + boosted adults have lower or equal risk from Covid than the flu or, in some cases, car accidents and other threats to safety. Think how damaging it is for kids to communicate this message to them. We should instead be emphasizing the effectiveness of vaccines, showing them how great it is that our society came together to develop these vaccines so quickly. Talk about how kids are at lower risk of Covid so they don't have be stressed or live in fear of the virus, and how that's such a relief to adults to know that kids are less vulnerable to this virus.

I just think a lot of people have become so addicted to doom, and are constantly fighting an imaginary war with Trump or anti-maskers or anti-vaxers


(whether they are in your community or not, which, they are not in my community) that they have lost sight of how their behavior is negatively impacting kids. It's like parents who have become so caught up in the conflict with one another during a contentious divorce that they are fighting over custody without every recognizing that the best possible thing they could do for their kids is chill the heck out.

So true.

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I most appreciated about this document is the idea that we need to think critically about how both Covid precautions and, importantly, the way we implement them, impacts kids mental health and ability to learn and function.

So much of the conversation around Covid precautions in schools is divisive, angry, reactionary. This is so stressful for kids. And yes, I am aware there are conservative jerks who drive a lot of this. But I live in a very blue area where there is basically no resistance among school families to things like masking and testing. People get frustrated with the way certain things are implemented, but there is no meaningful opposition to Covid precautions.

Rather, where I live, most of the combative, disruptive behavior is coming from people on the left (I'm on the left! I really disagree with how these people are handling things). And their behavior is really harmful to kids. It's really awful to be telling kids "If you get Covid, you die." When it's not even true! Kids and vaccinated + boosted adults have lower or equal risk from Covid than the flu or, in some cases, car accidents and other threats to safety. Think how damaging it is for kids to communicate this message to them. We should instead be emphasizing the effectiveness of vaccines, showing them how great it is that our society came together to develop these vaccines so quickly. Talk about how kids are at lower risk of Covid so they don't have be stressed or live in fear of the virus, and how that's such a relief to adults to know that kids are less vulnerable to this virus.

I just think a lot of people have become so addicted to doom, and are constantly fighting an imaginary war with Trump or anti-maskers or anti-vaxers


(whether they are in your community or not, which, they are not in my community) that they have lost sight of how their behavior is negatively impacting kids. It's like parents who have become so caught up in the conflict with one another during a contentious divorce that they are fighting over custody without every recognizing that the best possible thing they could do for their kids is chill the heck out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’d really appreciate folks who disagree that in-person education for kids is a priority providing substantive evidence to support that position. So far, I’ve seen none. If I’m missing it, I want to see.

Who is saying that?

Like people already said, schools are open. Sure, there have been some temporary switches to virtual for outbreaks but there's seemingly no threat of all-virtual all the time.

I read through this packet yesterday and it didn't seem to offer anything new.

If we're talking about what we'd like to see discussed - where's the support for masks being harmful? That's what I expected to see in this toolkit because a lot of people seem to be making that claim. But the toolkit authors simply say, "Potential harms from long-term masking are poorly understood, and reports on mask removal have noted social and emotional benefits for students."

That's very similar to the language used to evaluate masks effectiveness, which is more or less a big shrug.

So, again, what's new here?

Go to the MCPS forum. While it's died down in the last week or so, there were a LOT of people calling for virtual earlier in January, because "Omicron," with zero consideration for the trade-offs of doing so. Zero consideration that MoCo is very highly vaccinated. Even short-term virtual has consequences, but the people claiming it doesn't provide no evidence for that claim, just a lot of hyperbole.

As for masks being harmful, how about for kids learning to read? Learning a second language? Learning to recognize and process emotions? With speech delays? Part of the issue is that people don't even want to consider the possibility that indefinitely masking children might not be ideal, when I just came up with multiple scenarios in which it could be problematic, without a lot of effort.

I was the PP. Regarding masks, what I was looking for is evidence. Anyone can come up with whatabouts, including me. I wonder about those things, too, but I don't use the random questions I come up as support in an argument. I see that someone else posted some studies so I'll have to check those out.

There are many studies of masking listed here on slides 18-20 of the previously-linked power point: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61e5afd7a33d334ec9f84595/t/61f1468d2b827306c0bea391/1643202191267/Urgency+of+Normal+Toolkit.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’d really appreciate folks who disagree that in-person education for kids is a priority providing substantive evidence to support that position. So far, I’ve seen none. If I’m missing it, I want to see.

Who is saying that?

Like people already said, schools are open. Sure, there have been some temporary switches to virtual for outbreaks but there's seemingly no threat of all-virtual all the time.

I read through this packet yesterday and it didn't seem to offer anything new.

If we're talking about what we'd like to see discussed - where's the support for masks being harmful? That's what I expected to see in this toolkit because a lot of people seem to be making that claim. But the toolkit authors simply say, "Potential harms from long-term masking are poorly understood, and reports on mask removal have noted social and emotional benefits for students."

That's very similar to the language used to evaluate masks effectiveness, which is more or less a big shrug.

So, again, what's new here?

Go to the MCPS forum. While it's died down in the last week or so, there were a LOT of people calling for virtual earlier in January, because "Omicron," with zero consideration for the trade-offs of doing so. Zero consideration that MoCo is very highly vaccinated. Even short-term virtual has consequences, but the people claiming it doesn't provide no evidence for that claim, just a lot of hyperbole.

As for masks being harmful, how about for kids learning to read? Learning a second language? Learning to recognize and process emotions? With speech delays? Part of the issue is that people don't even want to consider the possibility that indefinitely masking children might not be ideal, when I just came up with multiple scenarios in which it could be problematic, without a lot of effort.

I was the PP. Regarding masks, what I was looking for is evidence. Anyone can come up with whatabouts, including me. I wonder about those things, too, but I don't use the random questions I come up as support in an argument. I see that someone else posted some studies so I'll have to check those out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’d really appreciate folks who disagree that in-person education for kids is a priority providing substantive evidence to support that position. So far, I’ve seen none. If I’m missing it, I want to see.

Who is saying that?

Like people already said, schools are open. Sure, there have been some temporary switches to virtual for outbreaks but there's seemingly no threat of all-virtual all the time.

I read through this packet yesterday and it didn't seem to offer anything new.

If we're talking about what we'd like to see discussed - where's the support for masks being harmful? That's what I expected to see in this toolkit because a lot of people seem to be making that claim. But the toolkit authors simply say, "Potential harms from long-term masking are poorly understood, and reports on mask removal have noted social and emotional benefits for students."

That's very similar to the language used to evaluate masks effectiveness, which is more or less a big shrug.

So, again, what's new here?

Go to the MCPS forum. While it's died down in the last week or so, there were a LOT of people calling for virtual earlier in January, because "Omicron," with zero consideration for the trade-offs of doing so. Zero consideration that MoCo is very highly vaccinated. Even short-term virtual has consequences, but the people claiming it doesn't provide no evidence for that claim, just a lot of hyperbole.

As for masks being harmful, how about for kids learning to read? Learning a second language? Learning to recognize and process emotions? With speech delays? Part of the issue is that people don't even want to consider the possibility that indefinitely masking children might not be ideal, when I just came up with multiple scenarios in which it could be problematic, without a lot of effort.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’d really appreciate folks who disagree that in-person education for kids is a priority providing substantive evidence to support that position. So far, I’ve seen none. If I’m missing it, I want to see.

Who is saying that?

Like people already said, schools are open. Sure, there have been some temporary switches to virtual for outbreaks but there's seemingly no threat of all-virtual all the time.

I read through this packet yesterday and it didn't seem to offer anything new.

If we're talking about what we'd like to see discussed - where's the support for masks being harmful? That's what I expected to see in this toolkit because a lot of people seem to be making that claim. But the toolkit authors simply say, "Potential harms from long-term masking are poorly understood, and reports on mask removal have noted social and emotional benefits for students."

That's very similar to the language used to evaluate masks effectiveness, which is more or less a big shrug.

So, again, what's new here?