Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And that's fine. You don't have to send your kids back. But everyone else who wants to should be able to go.

No one said they shouldn't. Although in my child's case, 90% of her friends say they also aren't returning to in person this school year. So those who do return should face safer classrooms due to less density, but not as much social interaction.

How many children is your child around?

My child gets together regularly - outside, masked -- with 3 close friends in our neighborhood and 4 friends who live in another neighborhood. She also will play spring sports (outside, masked). She has a good online group she hangs out with -- they chat, watch movies together. i let her do a lot outside, but not get together with other households indoors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

Schools have an important social role in mixing children with other children who are not like them. Yes, there are schools where diversity is low along some dimension, but there is always some amount.

Relatedly, close ties with friends (who are often like you) are extremely valuable. But navigating weak ties (who are often different) is a more challenging and useful skill. Children who have been home during the pandemic have mostly only engaged with people with whom they have close ties. This is comfortable and easy for most of us. But it's the weak ties where kids need to work harder, and this is why even kids who are happy to be away from the "distracting kids" need to go back to school.

+1

-100

Social learning does not happen naturally, it needs to be taught and modeled. Just like throwing someone in the water won't teach them to swim, just mixing kids together won’t teach them social skills. Kids who need help with social skills usually are the first to “drown”. They need to be taught “in a shallow area of the pool”, being surrounded by the friendly peers and adults is a huge huge help.

Conflict resolution is skill that is also needs to be taught. Just like with everything else, some people are more talented in social domain than others and need less support.


I like this thread on bullying on Reddit. Read the first comment from the teacher. How many teachers like this do you know?

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/lnd42g/teens_who_bully_harass_or_victimize_peers_are/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be happy some folks are able to keep their kids at home What we are seeing is that schools are barely staffed for hybrid with a reduced number of students. If some folks were not willing and able to keep their kids home I don't think kids in N. Va would able to go back.

Most reasonable parents are making decisions for their families based on what works for them. I am sure they exist but I don't know anyone who supports DL as public school option forever.

Dude, look upthread. There apparently are a bunch of people with bullied kids who want to have a DL option forever. I'm not opposed to that if resources allow, I just think it should be a separate system (not hybrid or concurrent). Like there should be kids in-person and kids fully-DL, but not some half-ass mix.

Dude, you were just hurting upthread for all those kids who don’t have large parks nearby. But bullying, bulling is ok. Got it.

Dude, I'm not the same person. Also, I didn't say bullying was ok. I was saying that people who have bullied kids appear to want to keep their kids in DL forever. Which I support, if resources allow. I was responding to your statement (bolded).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

Schools have an important social role in mixing children with other children who are not like them. Yes, there are schools where diversity is low along some dimension, but there is always some amount.

Relatedly, close ties with friends (who are often like you) are extremely valuable. But navigating weak ties (who are often different) is a more challenging and useful skill. Children who have been home during the pandemic have mostly only engaged with people with whom they have close ties. This is comfortable and easy for most of us. But it's the weak ties where kids need to work harder, and this is why even kids who are happy to be away from the "distracting kids" need to go back to school.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

So absolutely true. My neighbor keeps her awkward son home - it's doing him NO favors as he's only becoming more "off" and will have a harder time fitting into the world than he would have a year ago.

EQ a bigger deal than IQ.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree completely. Also, if your kid is awkward socially, avoiding people forever isn't the solution.

A child does not have to be "awkward socially" to be bullied or have some other reason to prefer not being around classmates. Lots of very normal kids feel unsafe or unwelcome at school.

That doesn't mean school should be closed. I'm fine with in-person being the default and it is certainly better for my child. But being online has solved problems for kids and I hope it continues to be an option.

If this is true, how will they go to college? Work? Have adult relationships (romantic or otherwise)? I think this has been a buffer for parents of 'weird' kids to feel like they get a breather, but it's not helping their kids in the long run.

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

So absolutely true. My neighbor keeps her awkward son home - it's doing him NO favors as he's only becoming more "off" and will have a harder time fitting into the world than he would have a year ago.

EQ a bigger deal than IQ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be happy some folks are able to keep their kids at home What we are seeing is that schools are barely staffed for hybrid with a reduced number of students. If some folks were not willing and able to keep their kids home I don't think kids in N. Va would able to go back.

Most reasonable parents are making decisions for their families based on what works for them. I am sure they exist but I don't know anyone who supports DL as public school option forever.

Dude, look upthread. There apparently are a bunch of people with bullied kids who want to have a DL option forever. I'm not opposed to that if resources allow, I just think it should be a separate system (not hybrid or concurrent). Like there should be kids in-person and kids fully-DL, but not some half-ass mix.

Dude, you were just hurting upthread for all those kids who don’t have large parks nearby. But bullying, bulling is ok. Got it.

I don't think that was the same person. you do realize there are multiple people here right?

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

Schools have an important social role in mixing children with other children who are not like them. Yes, there are schools where diversity is low along some dimension, but there is always some amount.

Relatedly, close ties with friends (who are often like you) are extremely valuable. But navigating weak ties (who are often different) is a more challenging and useful skill. Children who have been home during the pandemic have mostly only engaged with people with whom they have close ties. This is comfortable and easy for most of us. But it's the weak ties where kids need to work harder, and this is why even kids who are happy to be away from the "distracting kids" need to go back to school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be happy some folks are able to keep their kids at home What we are seeing is that schools are barely staffed for hybrid with a reduced number of students. If some folks were not willing and able to keep their kids home I don't think kids in N. Va would able to go back.

Most reasonable parents are making decisions for their families based on what works for them. I am sure they exist but I don't know anyone who supports DL as public school option forever.

Dude, look upthread. There apparently are a bunch of people with bullied kids who want to have a DL option forever. I'm not opposed to that if resources allow, I just think it should be a separate system (not hybrid or concurrent). Like there should be kids in-person and kids fully-DL, but not some half-ass mix.

Dude, you were just hurting upthread for all those kids who don’t have large parks nearby. But bullying, bulling is ok. Got it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree completely. Also, if your kid is awkward socially, avoiding people forever isn't the solution.

A child does not have to be "awkward socially" to be bullied or have some other reason to prefer not being around classmates. Lots of very normal kids feel unsafe or unwelcome at school.

That doesn't mean school should be closed. I'm fine with in-person being the default and it is certainly better for my child. But being online has solved problems for kids and I hope it continues to be an option.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:Agree completely. Also, if your kid is awkward socially, avoiding people forever isn't the solution.

A child does not have to be "awkward socially" to be bullied or have some other reason to prefer not being around classmates. Lots of very normal kids feel unsafe or unwelcome at school.

That doesn't mean school should be closed. I'm fine with in-person being the default and it is certainly better for my child. But being online has solved problems for kids and I hope it continues to be an option.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should be happy some folks are able to keep their kids at home What we are seeing is that schools are barely staffed for hybrid with a reduced number of students. If some folks were not willing and able to keep their kids home I don't think kids in N. Va would able to go back.

Most reasonable parents are making decisions for their families based on what works for them. I am sure they exist but I don't know anyone who supports DL as public school option forever.

Dude, look upthread. There apparently are a bunch of people with bullied kids who want to have a DL option forever. I'm not opposed to that if resources allow, I just think it should be a separate system (not hybrid or concurrent). Like there should be kids in-person and kids fully-DL, but not some half-ass mix.

OP, you should be happy some folks are able to keep their kids at home What we are seeing is that schools are barely staffed for hybrid with a reduced number of students. If some folks were not willing and able to keep their kids home I don't think kids in N. Va would able to go back.

Most reasonable parents are making decisions for their families based on what works for them. I am sure they exist but I don't know anyone who supports DL as public school option forever.

Anonymous wrote:Parents who want to keep their kids home aren’t seeing the forest through the trees.

Guess what? Your kid will become socially awkward if he/she continues to stay home. Kids need to learn and socialize. If you’re an ADULT WHO CHOOSES to work from home, that’s fine. But a child (including teens) needs to be around other children to learn not just their abcs and math, but also how to interact and continue to interact with others. Knowing how to interact is a huge part of work success.

Some schools are horrible and the only socialization kids get it how and why to avoid other students. You don't know that all schools are great environments for kids.