My mom was bedridden most of a year due to a complication of rheumatic fever. She missed an entire grade. No tv. No internet. AAs were not allowed to borrow books from the public library. Her uncle brought her his old college science textbooks. The month she was finally allowed to leave bed, polio broke out and pretty much everything shut down. She began a rock collection, drawing on the back of discarded laundry slips from the laundry where my widowed grandmother worked.

My mom went on to skip two grades the next year and earn a master’s degree in science. Despite huge health, political, social, and economic barriers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

Kids today are getting some instruction. You may not like the way the instruction is delivered (I don't really either), but they are getting some instruction. Most counties are trying hard to provide meals/food for people who are hurting.

They are not living in a warzone. Some of you are really off your rocker. What is going on now in no way is comparable to a warzone.

Exactly, for 90% of Northern VA (including all counties), we are just simply inconvenienced. This is not a war zone.

Anonymous wrote:I expect more of our society than what the Jews had to live under Nazi rule. If you don’t, I am concerned about your mental health.

And Anne Frank died in a concentration camp.

Your point?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't upset because this is the worst thing that could possibly happen. Of course it's not. For many of us (myself included), the pandemic and isolation and school closures are not even close to the worst thing that has happened to me in my lifetime.

People are upset because there is absolutely no reason it has to be this way. We are keeping kids home from school while people gather in bars and restaurants and crowd into private parties and go on vacation. It is nonsensical. That's where the anger and frustration comes from -- the knowledge that we are asking children and working parents to shoulder the burden of this pandemic while refusing to ask almost anything of young professionals, the wealthy, or large businesses. It's a question of values. The appropriate comparison is not Nazi Germany (hi, this is almost never the appropriate comparison), but something more like Stalinist Russia where ordinary people suffered while those closest to the levers of power did not, all in the name of "shared sacrifice."

Bars and restaurants are open b/c we don’t have federal aid. Shutting them down will cause mass poetry and likely riots.

Just because some people are acting foolish and doing private parties and vacations doesn’t mean you double down on stupid and crowd kids back to school.

PP here.

Yes, thank you for explaining what I already understand. The point is that it should not be this way. I know that bars and restaurants "have" to stay open because our country refuses to provide the necessary social supports. I also know that we absolutely can afford those social supports -- we're the richest country on earth. We just choose not to, because we value capitalism more than people's lives or even common sense.

Similarly, I know that many countries have prioritized school, especially for very young children, because they value education and families and they know that there are many negative effects to just closing schools indefinitely. I also know those countries have not experienced significant upticks in Covid as a result of keeping schools open, and that they have even chosen to continue to do so through the recent hard shut downs.

So yeah, I understand all the issues at play here, and am still angry because the choices we are making in this country reflect what I consider to b a messed up value system. I'm not saying "think of the children" or "open schools now" because I'm some selfish asshole who doesn't care about people. I'm saying both because I genuinely do not understand why we are not thinking of the children, like most other countries on earth, and the whole situation makes absolutely no sense to me.

But please explain to me how we have no choice but to keep bars open, but can't send kids to some half-day school with windows open. Again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

NP - kids aren’t missing school. They’re getting schooled in a new environment with new circumstances. Our country and technology allow for that.

If you were right, I would agree. Since you are wrong that technology makes it possible, I do not.

We have to adapt in a pandemic. We are fortunate to have technology. Don’t like it, homeschool.

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

War zone is not comparable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

Kids today are getting some instruction. You may not like the way the instruction is delivered (I don't really either), but they are getting some instruction. Most counties are trying hard to provide meals/food for people who are hurting.

They are not living in a warzone. Some of you are really off your rocker. What is going on now in no way is comparable to a warzone.

Me: my friends and family who grew up in a war zone think this is harmful
You: this is not literally a warzone

Wow very responsive

I'm the potus posting on here. Do you see how that works?

I grew up poor, in this country. I could tell you horrible things I went through as a child, but even so, it was a lot better than growing up in a warzone. By no means is DL as bad as living in a warzone. That's insulting to people who lived through it.

My parents lived through a warzone as tween/teen. Escaped communists, became refugees, etc..They have told me some real horror stories, and not even all of what they went through. My one parent saw a head on a spike when my parent was ES aged. By no means is DL in any way shape or form, comparable to what they went through.

Is that a better response?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

Kids today are getting some instruction. You may not like the way the instruction is delivered (I don't really either), but they are getting some instruction. Most counties are trying hard to provide meals/food for people who are hurting.

They are not living in a warzone. Some of you are really off your rocker. What is going on now in no way is comparable to a warzone.

Me: my friends and family who grew up in a war zone think this is harmful
You: this is not literally a warzone

Wow very responsive

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

NP - kids aren’t missing school. They’re getting schooled in a new environment with new circumstances. Our country and technology allow for that.

If you were right, I would agree. Since you are wrong that technology makes it possible, I do not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And you know why we all heard of Anne Frank??? Because it was so unbelievable that it happened.
You cannot make the comparison between what is happening now and what was so awful about that time that we have all heard about it so many years later.

Well, some people seem to think school closures are unbelievable.

ITA though, what happened back then is nothing to what is going on now. And yet, so many kids survive worse things than what our kids are going through.

Oh boo hoo.. my kids can't go to the movie theater. ffs .. some of you. Unlike Anne Frank and other countries, our kids can still take a walk outside. Go throw a ball around. My DC just went to the park to meet up with a friend. They wore their masks. The DL sucks, and my kids can't wait to go back to school, but they will be ok.

I work with some people in India, and their kids couldn't even go outside.

Some of your kids need to learn some resilience.

School of hard knocks qualifies you for resilience in immeasurable ways. You play the hand you are dealt, when all of the cards are drawn. Change the game later if it was so unfair.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

Kids today are getting some instruction. You may not like the way the instruction is delivered (I don't really either), but they are getting some instruction. Most counties are trying hard to provide meals/food for people who are hurting.

They are not living in a warzone. Some of you are really off your rocker. What is going on now in no way is comparable to a warzone.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

NP - kids aren’t missing school. They’re getting schooled in a new environment with new circumstances. Our country and technology allow for that.

Anonymous wrote:Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.

Kids today are getting some instruction. You may not like the way the instruction is delivered (I don't really either), but they are getting some instruction. Most counties are trying hard to provide meals/food for people who are hurting.

They are not living in a warzone. Some of you are really off your rocker. What is going on now in no way is comparable to a warzone.

Anonymous wrote:And you know why we all heard of Anne Frank??? Because it was so unbelievable that it happened.
You cannot make the comparison between what is happening now and what was so awful about that time that we have all heard about it so many years later.

Well, some people seem to think school closures are unbelievable.

ITA though, what happened back then is nothing to what is going on now. And yet, so many kids survive worse things than what our kids are going through.

Oh boo hoo.. my kids can't go to the movie theater. ffs .. some of you. Unlike Anne Frank and other countries, our kids can still take a walk outside. Go throw a ball around. My DC just went to the park to meet up with a friend. They wore their masks. The DL sucks, and my kids can't wait to go back to school, but they will be ok.

I work with some people in India, and their kids couldn't even go outside.

Some of your kids need to learn some resilience.

Friends and family of mine missed school growing up in a war zone. They agree kids need to get back to school ASAP, because they know firsthand the harm.