So, how do you reopen schools? (Preschool to High School & even College)

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[mistertim]

2 hours ago, visionary said:

 

 

Right, there's no connection between a bunch of people in small, closed in areas (like a locker room) and the rapid spread of an extremely contagious virus. 

[PleaseBlitz]

 

He added, "if you are 0-5 against Ohio State, sit all the way down."

Edited July 9, 2020 by PleaseBlitz

[Die Hard]

So what’s actually been making it worse Jim? Since you seem to know what isn’t making it worse.
 

 

[tshile]

Trying to decide if starting kindergarten with this bull**** is better/worse than holding off one more year. 
 

Ugh. 

[mistertim]

39 minutes ago, tshile said:

Trying to decide if starting kindergarten with this bull**** is better/worse than holding off one more year. 
 

Ugh. 

 

I'm not a parent, but I can imagine that's gotta be a tough decision. Probably depends on your state and county and how they're planing on handling safety.

[PleaseBlitz]

1 hour ago, tshile said:

Trying to decide if starting kindergarten with this bull**** is better/worse than holding off one more year. 
 

Ugh. 

 

It's a tough one for sure.  As I noted earlier, we decided to keep our daughter (who turned 5 yesterday) in Pre-K for another year rather than sending her to public school because (1) the Pre-K school provides a  good education, so she won't be falling behind, (2) they have much better Covid prevention measures than it is possible for a public school to have, particularly much smaller class size, and (3) we were already thinking about redshirting her, just so she is on the older side of her class and therefore she'll have some developmental advantages later in life when things get competitive.  The big downside is paying for another year of private school, which is freaking expensive, but it's not like I can spend money at bars or on Nats tix these days.  

[dfitzo53]

Apparently Baltimore's plan is for the district itself to provide virtual instruction, since the classroom teachers would be in the building for the families who chose physical schooling.

 

They are currently on the "families can choose 2 days on 2 days off or entirely virtual" train like lots of other places.

 

Not exactly sure how all that will pan out.

[Elessar78]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

It's a tough one for sure.  As I noted earlier, we decided to keep our daughter (who turned 5 yesterday) in Pre-K for another year rather than sending her to public school because (1) the Pre-K school provides a  good education, so she won't be falling behind, (2) they have much better Covid prevention measures than it is possible for a public school to have, particularly much smaller class size, and (3) we were already thinking about redshirting her, just so she is on the older side of her class and therefore she'll have some developmental advantages later in life when things get competitive.  The big downside is paying for another year of private school, which is freaking expensive, but it's not like I can spend money at bars or on Nats tix these days.  

So bougie with your pre-K "gap year". Give her a year to find herself and experience the world.

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, tshile said:

Trying to decide if starting kindergarten with this bull**** is better/worse than holding off one more year. 
 

Ugh. 

No question. If you can afford it financially, hold off another year. Finland has some of the best schools in the world and they don't start until age 7. Your little one will be just fine educationally.

 

I worry about my 2nd and fifth grader. They need to be in a social environment—I think that's more stunting than anything.

[tshile]

@mistertim @PleaseBlitz @Elessar78

 

its just so complicated. Here’s just a spew of thoughts I have about it all

 

- if everyone starts redshirting then my kid winds up competing for college against a lot more people. I realize that may get a chuckle from people but it’s definitely a factor whether you think large or not. Also it warps classroom sizes. You’re going to put a huge load on the 2021 admissions that was not in the county’s plan

 

- if he doesn’t go to school then he’s going to daycare (because otherwise I have to resign my job). He’ll be there with other kids who are on their “home day” and they all attend other schools on the district. So, he’s exposed one way or the other...

 

- honestly due to my wife’s job we, generally speaking, are more worried about infecting other people than getting infected 

 

- the data on the kids is that theyre way low risk. I realize that way of looking at it is very much lacking in nuance and we’re discussing a complicated issue. 

- kindergarteners are not high schoolers. You can’t just say learn virtually and be done with it. My child literally doesn’t know how to be a student yet (despite just graduating preschool yay! He even did a goofy face for his pic. That little dude is 100% me)

 

- it’s hard to have any real opinion on this because district has nothing close to a plan. They’re just sending out surveys and weekly emails that basically say “we’ve read the guidance, it’s got a lot going on, we’re still evaluating”. So how the hell do you make a plan based on that? 
 

- I greatly respect the AAP and they’ve been very strong about the whole virtual learning and going back to school thing - https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/29/884638999/u-s-pediatricians-call-for-in-person-school-this-fall

 

- on top of everything making the “wrong decision” could lead to the death of my child or anyone in our family. Meanwhile we’re comparing that against the long term best interests of my child’s development 

 

in a country where a good portion of the population weren’t stupid, where a good portion didn’t view correct precautions or not as some sort of political statement, this would be easier to navigate

 

but that’s not us. And now they’re threatening to take away funding for political reasons, so now everyone’s judgement on this becomes suspect. You just cannot put anything past school boards when funding threats come down the pipe. And I live in an area that is heavily trump supporters

 

were even looking at private school and in-home teaching but the reality is that **** is expensive and beyond our means without serious long term ramifications (like selling our house or something)

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by tshile

[Springfield]

Our kid turns 6 on October 1. If we redshirt him from Kindergarten this year then he will be a 19 year old high school senior and in the same grade of his younger brother who is 21 months younger than him. His enormous and incredibly more advanced than his younger brother.

 

Redshirting isn’t gonna work for us this year.

[PleaseBlitz]

@tshile

 

I started responding to each of your individual thoughts, but it comes down to just the fact that you have all of these issues rattling around is pretty strong evidence that you (probably with most of the credit going to Mrs. Tshile) have a solid decisionmaking structure, which is the critical thing.  

 

It is a shame that our country decided to not control this thing.  

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by PleaseBlitz

[RVAskins]

My wife is scared to death sending my son back to school in the fall. He's going into the 8th grade. She's looking into online education and I think a lot of people will be doing the same thing. I'm glad we have the technology for that but I don't know if he'll get the same education. It's a hard decision for sure.

[dfitzo53]

The AAP statement (thanks for the link @tshile) calls for opening schools "whenever and wherever they can do so safely".

 

I just don't have any confidence that we have good information about that right now.

 

It looks like my decision is likely to be made for me though. If I have to work in the school building my kids will have to go to school physically as well. There's no other way for it to work.

[PleaseBlitz]

@techboy  You should see if your wife could open up an online school just for ES offspring.

[Renegade7]

 

[The Evil Genius]

I have a lot of teacher friends.

 

[tshile]

8 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

 

The AAP statement (thanks for the link @tshile) calls for opening schools "whenever and wherever they can do so safely

 

Yes but they also go out of their way to talk about the real risk for the younger age groups. I read it as a warning to not conflate school children with adults in a bar/club, or adults going into an office environment when they don’t need to be there to do their job, or high risk environments like nursing homes. 
 

furthermore majority of these kids where I live will spend their off day in some sort of daycare setting. With kids that are also on their off day and attend other grades/schools. How is that less risky than putting my kid in the same class 5 days a week with the same kids? I’d argue it seems less risky to just go to school 5 days a week in terms of community spread. 

[Xameil]

We already put our youngest in Daycare, my oldest has started field hockey. 

The daycare and field hockey camp are going above and beyond for safety. I imagine the school will too. It helps that my area is already at low risk.

[tshile]

4 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

I have a lot of teacher friends.

 

That’s cute but we’re not talking about recovering the economy or babysitting or getting us back to normal. We’re talking about educating children. Which is what they signed up for. And we pay their salary. So if they don’t want to do it fine, we’ll find more teachers. They can switch jobs. 
 

from a job perspective they’re not in any other boat than the same one we’re in. They can switch careers or quit just like the rest of us. 
 

we’re talking about the lowest risk environment and this can be done safely. And all of us (the reasonable and responsible ones) are trying to figure out how to safely navigate this will all factors in mind. So they can shove their whining up their ass. If they want to be thoughtful about it I’m all ears. Otherwise piss off with the nonsense. 

[The Evil Genius]

Somehow I figured you'd use the entitled "I pay your salary" argument. 😁

 

Guess what..they pay their own salaries too. 

Edited July 9, 2020 by The Evil Genius

[tshile]

4 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

Somehow I figured you'd use the entitled "I pay your salary" argument. 😁

 

Guess what..they pay their own salaries too. 

Not if they don’t work as teachers. 
 

again - all ears for thoughtful ideas. The “we’re not responsible for recoverying the economy” and babysitting and guilt tripping stuff is nonsense. 
 

the implication that everyone just wants free babysitters so they can go back to normal is incredibly dumb. 
 

notice they didn’t say a god damned thing about what’s best for the kids. Very unsurprising. Who’s being selfish? I’m sure you believe it’s the straw men they’ve created 

Edited July 9, 2020 by tshile

[tshile]

Also I think advocating for any one size fits solutions is incredibly stupid. 
 

for instance I wouldn’t dare weigh in on what high schools should do. I have no skin in that game. No one in my family is a high school teacher and we have no children in highschool. Improsing my thoughts on them would be uncalled for. They have different options than me. Those kids are more capable that mine. The material being taught is completely different.  
 

so I’m focused on kindergarten and the realities of that. Which from what I can tell that age group is essentially and afterthought around here. The first few surveys didn’t even have “entering kindergardten” and an option. 1st grade was the lowest. 
 

I also think it should be heavily tied to the realities of geographical. Where I live is not the same as New York City. And We don’t have the same problems - like inner cities where children depend on school for a variety of things like just eating decent food. 

Edited July 9, 2020 by tshile

[tshile]

Also struggling to figure out the intelligence in an argument that says I don’t care about the well-being and health of a person that would be in the same room as my child all day, every day, majority of the year. 
 

derp