Opening schools safely

[Deleted User 318]

I mean, it's BU policy, and appears to be sincere. It doesn't apply to only COVID, but since it was recently added to the policy, seems to be at least in part a response to COVID.

[twocoach]

Had driveway beers with 2 friends and one of them said there were 2 cases of COVID discovered in their school after the first day in kids who came to school and who then tested positive. The other friend said one of the elementary schools in his area had a teacher in the pre-k class test positive after teaching the first day.

Not a good start. I feel worse and worse about our decision to send our little one every day. So much stress.....

[Deleted User 310]

There is really no logical reason to think/feel it is "safe" to send kids to school for in person learning (with the rare exception of being in an extremely rural area with low case numbers and small school sizes...but even then...). The only real reasons i can see parents deciding it is a good enough reason to send kids to schools are because they either think the mental health/socialization aspect outweighs the covid risk or if they are of the belief that the risk of serious illness/death is low enough that it is "safe enough" and they are comfortable with taking the chance that their kid coule possibly spread it to others.

[NewtonHawk11]

Well and there's also a big factor not discussed much that parents can't afford to have their kids stay home another extended absence. Yes, a lot of people are working from home. But imagine having a kid get 6 hours worth of school work in per day, on top of your typical work. It's nearly impossible for the majority of the population.

[jfish26]

I live in a county that still has very low numbers. We will keep an eye on things, but anticipate sending the kids to school (until they inevitably get sent home, metro-wide).

[Deleted User 310]

Well and there's also a big factor not discussed much that parents can't afford to have their kids stay home another extended absence. Yes, a lot of people are working from home. But imagine having a kid get 6 hours worth of school work in per day, on top of your typical work. It's nearly impossible for the majority of the population.

Very true.

And i didnt mean my original comment to come across as judgemental. I know everyone has unique situations so some are willing or forced to take more health risk for their kids.


This is sort of snowballing off of your comment here....but a lot of parents do view school as their babysitter. I don't mean that in a negative way, but often times some parents choose (or are forced by work/financial situations) to send their kids to school when they know they are sick. That is why i had little faith in the "if your kid is sick or has possibly been exposed then keep them home" method that some schools were trying to deploy as a way to make schools "safe" to open. It will never happen. Too many selfish parents (or parents that simply aren't able to miss work). Whenever my kid is even the least bit sick where i am concerned she could get someone else sick we keep her home...but even family and friends will ask us to watch their kid(s) on weekends or something when they have a function to attend and too many times to count they drop them off and they are coughing/sniffling or have a fever or 2 days later we find out "oh she was puking a day ago, but was fine the day we sent her to you guys"....people are selfish. And half these kids have parents that are in the "this is fake crowd" or parents that after 2 weeks of half assed "lockdown" were so sick of dealing with their kids that they let that influence how they interpret science during a pandemic. It is so predictable.

Personally i have loved the extra time with my kids. I enjoy trying to be their teacher (and i do mean trying because there is no doubt it is challenging). I am looking forward to her start of the year doing remote learning and think it will actually be good for her little brother because we are going to have him do "school time" when she does with various activities.

This week we are growing butterflies from caterpillars and learning about butterflies and moths. There is a company we found that sends you kits and live caterpillars so it makes it easy. You basically just let nature do its' thing. So they have been excited to see transformation from tiny baby caterpillars into bigger ones...and eventually butterflies.



And back to more of the topic: i think employers should be the ones sacrificing and taking on some of the burden rather than the schools. This would be a great time for our society to "renegotiate our social contracts" in a way that makes it less impossible to care for (and simply spend time with) our kids.

[jfish26]

Well and there's also a big factor not discussed much that parents can't afford to have their kids stay home another extended absence. Yes, a lot of people are working from home. But imagine having a kid get 6 hours worth of school work in per day, on top of your typical work. It's nearly impossible for the majority of the population.

Very true.

And i didnt mean my original comment to come across as judgemental. I know everyone has unique situations so some are willing or forced to take more health risk for their kids.


This is sort of snowballing off of your comment here....but a lot of parents do view school as their babysitter. I don't mean that in a negative way, but often times some parents choose (or are forced by work/financial situations) to send their kids to school when they know they are sick. That is why i had little faith in the "if your kid is sick or has possibly been exposed then keep them home" method that some schools were trying to deploy as a way to make schools "safe" to open. It will never happen. Too many selfish parents (or parents that simply aren't able to miss work). Whenever my kid is even the least bit sick where i am concerned she could get someone else sick we keep her home...but even family and friends will ask us to watch their kid(s) on weekends or something when they have a function to attend and too many times to count they drop them off and they are coughing/sniffling or have a fever or 2 days later we find out "oh she was puking a day ago, but was fine the day we sent her to you guys"....people are selfish. And half these kids have parents that are in the "this is fake crowd" or parents that after 2 weeks of half assed "lockdown" were so sick of dealing with their kids that they let that influence how they interpret science during a pandemic. It is so predictable.

Personally i have loved the extra time with my kids. I enjoy trying to be their teacher (and i do mean trying because there is no doubt it is challenging). I am looking forward to her start of the year doing remote learning and think it will actually be good for her little brother because we are going to have him do "school time" when she does with various activities.

This week we are growing butterflies from caterpillars and learning about butterflies and moths. There is a company we found that sends you kits and live caterpillars so it makes it easy. You basically just let nature do its' thing. So they have been excited to see transformation from tiny baby caterpillars into bigger ones...and eventually butterflies.



And back to more of the topic: i think employers should be the ones sacrificing and taking on some of the burden rather than the schools. This would be a great time for our society to "renegotiate our social contracts" in a way that makes it less impossible to care for (and simply spend time with) our kids.

I can tell you that we would have leaned toward keeping the kids home if the district had offered a plan for online schooling to be much better now than it was in the spring (which, understandably, was entirely made up on the fly).

I don't mind playing help desk to a degree, but there just wasn't enough work/learning. A huge factor in choosing to send them back was how little they got done in the spring, and the district didn't do much to convince us the fall would be any different.

[NewtonHawk11]

My school is a bit opposite. They have a plan, but would require the kids to be in front on a computer screen for 6 hours a day. Just tough to do that for young kids.

We are doing a hybrid. Starts off as 2 days a week in school and 3 at home. One group would go Monday and Tuesday. They’d clean building Wednesday and then next group does Thursday and Friday.

I feel confident in my district’s abilities with this whole thing. Kind of nice compared to what we see on state and national levels.

[Deleted User 310]

My school is a bit opposite. They have a plan, but would require the kids to be in front on a computer screen for 6 hours a day. Just tough to do that for young kids.

We are doing a hybrid. Starts off as 2 days a week in school and 3 at home. One group would go Monday and Tuesday. They’d clean building Wednesday and then next group does Thursday and Friday.

I feel confident in my district’s abilities with this whole thing. Kind of nice compared to what we see on state and national levels.

Sounds similar to here...although cases in my county are on a steady climb with 50ish+ new cases daily....so they scrapped in person for 1st quarter in favor of fully remote (we had already chosen remote for 1st 2quarters anyway)....thankfully not many hospitalizations from all the new cases and deaths are also low other than when it gets into nursing homes.

Agree on the "in front of a computer" all day concern. My daughter is 1st grade so thankfully hers will only be an hour or 2 of live zoom or pre recorded class and then we will have activities or projects to work on with her the other portion of the day....and luckily i am capable of teacher her 1st grade type stuff. I would be fucked if we had a high schooler and had harder stuff to attempt to "teach" her.

[jfish26]

My school is a bit opposite. They have a plan, but would require the kids to be in front on a computer screen for 6 hours a day. Just tough to do that for young kids.

We are doing a hybrid. Starts off as 2 days a week in school and 3 at home. One group would go Monday and Tuesday. They’d clean building Wednesday and then next group does Thursday and Friday.

I feel confident in my district’s abilities with this whole thing. Kind of nice compared to what we see on state and national levels.

Sounds similar to here...although cases in my county are on a steady climb with 50ish+ new cases daily....so they scrapped in person for 1st quarter in favor of fully remote (we had already chosen remote for 1st 2quarters anyway)....thankfully not many hospitalizations from all the new cases and deaths are also low other than when it gets into nursing homes.

Agree on the "in front of a computer" all day concern. My daughter is 1st grade so thankfully hers will only be an hour or 2 of live zoom or pre recorded class and then we will have activities or projects to work on with her the other portion of the day....and luckily i am capable of teacher her 1st grade type stuff. I would be fucked if we had a high schooler and had harder stuff to attempt to "teach" her.

We have 7th and 4th, and the way they teach math now is completely foreign to us. We are of no help.

[NewtonHawk11]

We have 7th and 4th, and the way they teach math now is completely foreign to us. We are of no help.

My oldest was in second grade last year. Just plain subtraction was waaaay different. Definitely a challenge to try to figure out a common ground.

[MICHHAWK]

It will be devastating to the young people if they lose an entire year. Some of them will not recover. Those kids in 7-8-9 grade that were struggling before this thing started, will likely never recover if the have to stay home for another year.

[TDub]

My school is a bit opposite. They have a plan, but would require the kids to be in front on a computer screen for 6 hours a day. Just tough to do that for young kids.

We are doing a hybrid. Starts off as 2 days a week in school and 3 at home. One group would go Monday and Tuesday. They’d clean building Wednesday and then next group does Thursday and Friday.

I feel confident in my district’s abilities with this whole thing. Kind of nice compared to what we see on state and national levels.

Sounds similar to here...although cases in my county are on a steady climb with 50ish+ new cases daily....so they scrapped in person for 1st quarter in favor of fully remote (we had already chosen remote for 1st 2quarters anyway)....thankfully not many hospitalizations from all the new cases and deaths are also low other than when it gets into nursing homes.

Agree on the "in front of a computer" all day concern. My daughter is 1st grade so thankfully hers will only be an hour or 2 of live zoom or pre recorded class and then we will have activities or projects to work on with her the other portion of the day....and luckily i am capable of teacher her 1st grade type stuff. I would be fucked if we had a high schooler and had harder stuff to attempt to "teach" her.

We have 7th and 4th, and the way they teach math now is completely foreign to us. We are of no help.

I just sont understand this and I hear it all the time. When my kids get that age im gonna be very frustrated. Math is math, how can they teach it any different than what it is

[Deleted User 318]

We have 7th and 4th, and the way they teach math now is completely foreign to us. We are of no help.

My oldest was in second grade last year. Just plain subtraction was waaaay different. Definitely a challenge to try to figure out a common ground.

I'll brag because I peaked probably around fifth grade, but I used to rank in the top 3-5 in the the Kansas math competitions in grade school to early middle school. I've always been good at math and problem solving, and always in the top math classes growing up. I'm also about 11 years older than my two sisters. When I was like 25, and they were like 8th-9th grade, I told them I would help them with some of their homework when I was in town. It was basically undecipherable the way they were doing stuff. I couldn't even comprehend how they were learning math. Also, I'm fairly certain it changed the answers, as the order of operations I think changed.

My wife, who sucks at math (like cannot add two numbers in her head without fingers), somehow saw how they were doing math, and was like "OH, now I get it, that makes so much more sense than how we learned it."

I thought it was some sort of weird joke they were playing on me, but sure enough, I'm pretty sure math has changed, but I guess it helps some folks that has more issues.

[sdoyel]

My 4yo’s preschool program was just shut down. 3 weeks from the start of the year. Just great. Fuck this incompetent government administration!

[Deleted User 310]

My 4yo’s preschool program was just shut down. 3 weeks from the start of the year. Just great. Fuck this incompetent government administration!

I feel the government response definitely deserves their fair share of the blame.....but plenty of it is on "we the people" as a whole for our response and/or inability to stay steadfast and stop the spread because of our desire to just continue on with life as normal as much as possible for a significant portion of our population.

[Deleted User 89]

leaders are supposed to lead

be they mayors, governors, legislators or presidents

[Deleted User 310]

leaders are supposed to lead

be they mayors, governors, legislators or presidents

Agreed, but at the very least a relevant portion of our population had no desire to be led.

[ousdahl]

*leads horse to water*

YALL CANT MAKE ME DRINK!

Who needs hydration when I got mah rights?

[PhDhawk]

leaders are supposed to lead

be they mayors, governors, legislators or presidents

Agreed, but at the very least a relevant portion of our population had no desire to be led.

I know buncha mouth breathers thinking they NEED to go golfing.