Tuesday, July 28, 2020

School Dazed


By the way:

And honestly, it's not just the parents and students at risk here:

I can see schools resuming anytime this year, and by the end of the week keeping all the students masked and "socially distanced" from each other, will simply be a pipe dream.  Once they start taking off their masks, what do you do?  Mass punishment by making them stay after school?  Inside?  With everybody else?

I was in high school when a fight broke out and the school administration lost control of about half the students on campus.  They ended up sending everyone home early.  It was all they could do.  We're gonna see less belligerent replays of that this fall.  Teachers can't force kids to wear masks or keep their distance if the kids decide they're tired of it; and they will.  And we'll see another spike in cases.

So schools will stay open....

1 comment:

  1. There is an interesting phenomena taking place locally and I have seen mentioned elsewhere, parents are switching their children to some form of private school. In upstate NY it's a sudden surge for the Catholic schools. Up to now they have been in steep decline with annual shrinking enrollments. This year they are committing to opening and now they have waiting lists. What I haven't been able to discern is the parental reasoning. It seems unlikely it's the poorer parents who have jobs where they must be at work, the tuition costs mean you need a decent income and you need to be able to transport you children to and from school each day. Is it conservative parents that think the whole pandemic is fake news or overblown? That seems more likely. While our school has yet to release its plan, other local schools are looking at hybrid models with an option of all remote for parents that do not want to send their children into the buildings. If you are want all in-person, then private is your only option. (A neighboring school system cited as one of their reasons to not have full in person is a lack of sufficient busses and drivers with having to socially distance students on transportation. I wonder where I heard that before).

    I suspect there is also a bit of privilege bias. It is true a private school has more student control, there is little barrier to expelling uncooperative students. But I also think there may be a mentality that a better class of people is less likely to get coronavirus. I've seen this before when there are school shootings, postings and comments on friends social media that have veiled references (or sometimes quite explicit references) that private schools don't have shootings, that is a public school problem they can afford to avoid. Somehow, I don't think a virus is going to be discerning of one's family income level.

    Given the resources of MLB, and the relatively small number of players and coaches, the fact that even they can't find a workable solution should be a clanging warning that schools, any schools, are unlikely to be able to make this work for a whole academic year.

    This post made be go find a quote from a MLB player, "Sports are like the reward of a functional society" - Sean Doolittle of the Nationals on playing during the pandemic.

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