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[Stouffers]

Our county goes back to school August 5 and is offering both in-person and digital learning. For elementary, you’re allowed to jump every 9 weeks between the two, but middle/high school have to commit to a full semester.

We have a child in elementary and one in middle school. If you go digital for elementary, they provide a county teacher for “support,” but it’s up to the parents to spend 3-4 hours with the kid as their “teaching coach.”

For the middle schooler, we have to use a state provided platform with no dedicated county teacher resource. Also, our child is in advanced classes, but the platform only provides basic Grade-level education. This means she’ll be behind if she were to rejoin the pack next semester.

My wife is on immuno-suppressive meds, I’m high risk because of my fat ass BUT I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of our kids’ education.

This sucks ass.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

We're already scouting out homeschool curriculum. We send them to private school but if they're only going to be going to class a few times per week it's not worth the money. I'll put the money toward homeschool + online tutoring and (from what we're seeing so far) this choice may end up being cheaper too. Schools are making a mistake by pushing stuff online, for the reasons you identified.

 

[Richard Packer]

I do not live in America. So yes, they will go back to school. They need their education and normal life back. My country has handled this well, and I have faith that the people will continue to conduct themselves in a proper manner.

 

[bucyou]

Floridaman here, im satisfied with the measures the private school my children attend are taking

 

[TaySan]

My parents won't send my little sister to school this year until this is all sorted out. Last i heard her school is still closed for the year until further notice?

 

[Later Alligator]

my daughter is 3.5, her pre-school has laid out their plans for re-opening in Nov and as of now, we plan on letting her go back

i'm also in a state where things aren't too crazy, and we live outside of the city

 

[zeioIIDX]

My daughter is 11 and, unfortunately, I've decided to allow her to attend class. I really don't want to and I wouldn't mind letting her stay home to attend classes remotely...but I know that would take a toll on her developmentally and emotionally. To tell the truth, I'm just hoping after a week, they just ended up sending kids home again for remote classes anyway...or maybe they change their minds and never open them to begin with. But this is Mississippi so who am I kidding? She's developed good habits as far as cleaning her hands and wearing a mask along with distancing herself physically from people...I just hope the school follows through with their claims of taking precautions because if I find out from my daughter that they aren't, I'm raising hell.

 

[Stouffers]

My daughter is 11 and, unfortunately, I've decided to allow her to attend class. I really don't want to and I wouldn't mind letting her stay home to attend classes remotely...but I know that would take a toll on her developmentally and emotionally. To tell the truth, I'm just hoping after a week, they just ended up sending kids home again for remote classes anyway...or maybe they change their minds and never open them to begin with. But this is Mississippi so who am I kidding? She's developed good habits as far as cleaning her hands and wearing a mask along with distancing herself physically from people...I just hope the school follows through with their claims of taking precautions because if I find out from my daughter that they aren't, I'm raising hell.

I hear you. I’m in a rural county of GA and masks will not be mandatory. MS isnt doing too bad if you stay out of Columbus, Starkville, Jackson and Tupelo.

 

[Newly Vacant]

I'm homeschooling my kids this school year. My wife and I have been mulling it over for a few years now, but COVID pushed us over the edge. I can't imagine kids are going to get a quality education from remote or hybrid learning.

It's a crappy situation for everyone, but I think kids are getting it worse.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I'm going to try to get them into in-person education if at all possible. If online learning is mandated for the whole year, I'm definitely going to be rethinking my entire lifestyle and possibly moving countries or looking into a way to do homeschooling while still making money.

 

[DeepBreath87]

My son is going to school unless that place is closed... and then I'll try to find a private school that is open.

The argument for keeping schools closed is garbage. People under 20 are no more at risk from COVID then they are from the flu. That only applies to young people, but the data bears it out. And I don't really give a damn about teachers complaining. Its their job to educate. We can and need to provide them with protective equipment. Provide older teachers the option to take a sabbatical until after Christmas break if you must. But teaching is an essential job. If you're unwilling to do it, we need to find someone else who will. I go to my job every day with actual COVID patients and I don't get sick. Teachers can do it too.

COVID is not a death sentence or anything approaching it for the vast majority of the population, and its statistically insignificant in children. If they want to do half days at first to feel things out, fine. But schools need to be open.

 

[poppabk]

Still up in the air. I think we would be ok with sending them back if the school was doing temp checks at the start of the day, but they have decided not to do this. The distance learning has been mediocre and my kids are definitely missing the social aspects so we really want to send them back, but in a household with two immunocompromised people, one who is over 65 the other who has asthma it is a big concern.

 

[TheSpecialOne]

My son is going to school unless that place is closed... and then I'll try to find a private school that is open.

The argument for keeping schools closed is garbage. People under 20 are no more at risk from COVID then they are from the flu. That only applies to young people, but the data bears it out. And I don't really give a damn about teachers complaining. Its their job to educate. We can and need to provide them with protective equipment. Provide older teachers the option to take a sabbatical until after Christmas break if you must. But teaching is an essential job. If you're unwilling to do it, we need to find someone else who will. I go to my job every day with actual COVID patients and I don't get sick. Teachers can do it too.

COVID is not a death sentence or anything approaching it for the vast majority of the population, and its statistically insignificant in children. If they want to do half days at first to feel things out, fine. But schools need to be open.

Written by our resident Covid "expert". Some learn through second hand experience, others prefer to win Darwin awards.

 

[triplestation]

just get a whiteboard and crank polynomials all day for a fuckin month no 2 fuckin months of that shit

and then after 2 months show them the absolute utter beauty of THE UNIT CIRCLE and do THAT for like 4 months

within a year you will create a physicist

 

[DeepBreath87]

Written by our resident Covid "expert". Some learn through second hand experience, others prefer to win Darwin awards.

Oh feel free to refute anything I said there. Or don't. Either way.

 

[Skyfox]

Childcare opened here a week or two ago and so far its working well. They've completely modified their operation but our kid finishes up in a month and then into school.

I'm actually more worried for the teachers to be honest. I think my kid will be fine. We've met her teacher and she's young and healthy which is good but the principal of the school is the reason we chose that school and her health is not ideal (and she's been in public a lot already not wearing a mask).

They really need to push multilayer machine washable face masks and basic face shields for teachers.

Many of these educators appear willing to martyr themselves unnecessarily.

I've felt for a while that homeschooling may be more attractive if society continues towards extremism but I don't have the energy to work a full time job while teaching, cooking, washing, cleaning and doing the admin that modern life has dumped onto average folk.

 

[bigsnack]

My and my family all almost certainly had COVID in early February. I absolutely want my kids in school, although the district is almost certainly going the full distant learning route. My son's interest in schoolwork absolutely plummeted when we had to go to remote learning. I really wish we had an option to send them, but we are at the mercy of a vaccine or basically a non-existent new case count (Los Angeles) before we go back.

 

[MrMephistoX]

We’re in California so I think it’s permanent online. LAUSD just declared it so our Santa Clara County probably will follow suit. Thankfully my work is also WFH till at least the end of the year. I’m not sending her back or showing up at the office till a vaccine is proven to work...I’m also debating whether or not moving to a cheaper but still good school district is worth it since it doesn’t matter where I am work wise.

 

[Super Mario]

What I am most interested to know, is how Liberals figure out how to indoctrinate homeschool kids

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

We just had extended school holidays and 2+ months of home schooling restrictions in Victoria, Australia. Kids went back to school for 2 weeks and then holidays again and now back to another 4+ weeks of homeschooling. We have a study setup, whiteboard schedule and online schedule and computer/laptops for the kids but it's very hands on for my wife and I; if you care about your kids education and put in the 100%/+ effort as well. Honestly our plan is to try and not yell, remain calm and just focus on our kids strengths and weaknesses. Oh and taking some days off this time around.

After chatting with teachers/friends/parents/kids from the last go around we went overboard with keeping our kids up and in front of everything. We're going to be more relaxed this time around, perhaps 80% so to speak.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

We're already scouting out homeschool curriculum. We send them to private school but if they're only going to be going to class a few times per week it's not worth the money. I'll put the money toward homeschool + online tutoring and (from what we're seeing so far) this choice may end up being cheaper too. Schools are making a mistake by pushing stuff online, for the reasons you identified.

We use the Charlotte Mason method. Our 2nd grader is a year ahead in math and 2 years ahead in reading. This style is about quality over quantity and can make for some amazing results. It's not multiple choice questions and matching problems on a worksheet, but requires a much higher level of thinking and recall through oral and written narration. Here's more about it and one of the curriculum options that uses Charlotte Mason, although there are other CM curriculums out there. https://simplycharlottemason.com/what-is-the-charlotte-mason-method/

We are even starting a local CM Co-op to help with parents who want to start this journey or even just continue it with a bit of socialization every week.

If anyone has any questions btw, feel free to ask. We've been homeschooling/private schooling all our lives.

 

[Elcid]

Wife is stay at home. Gonna have the kids do virtual school with the wife as a learning coach. COVID is the perfect excuse cause I wasn’t planning on putting them into the public school system.

 

[TheSpecialOne]

Oh feel free to refute anything I said there. Or don't. Either way.

There's no need for me to tbh. Your post has already demonstrated a high level of ignorance, self centeredness, and the lack of common reasoning. You clearly don't understand the data nor the virus you're referencing and are simply parroting talking points force fed to you. It is your right to be ignorant and hopefully, the consequences of your ignorance are localized to you and you alone. That is all.

 

[DeepBreath87]

There's no need for me to tbh. Your post has already demonstrated a high level of ignorance, self centeredness, and the lack of common reasoning. You clearly don't understand the data nor the virus you're referencing and are simply parroting talking points force fed to you. It is your right to be ignorant and hopefully, the consequences of your ignorance are localized to you and you alone. That is all.

Oh wow. Ok. Well since you can’t even point to what you disagree with specifically, I’m left to assume all that talk of being ignorant is just projection.

 

[lock2k]

I don't know when my daughter will get back to school. No one said a word until now.

 

[EverydayBeast]

At least get them to school for what that's worth.

 

[BoingBus]

Just send them to school. Trump says its safe so it means its safe; Fauci is just spewing nonsense to scare all the cucks into not attending. Basically in a few years all the people who trusted Trump will have smarter kids than the idiots who trusted the liberal agenda and got lower quality "digital education" and will be permanently behind in terms of opportunities and success. Those people will also be showing their kids how to be a wiener beta who always lives in fear.

 

[Tesseract]

just get a whiteboard and crank polynomials all day for a fuckin month no 2 fuckin months of that shit

and then after 2 months show them the absolute utter beauty of THE UNIT CIRCLE and do THAT for like 4 months

within a year you will create a physicist

prolly

 

[AmuroChan]

My local schools are offering either hybrid or full digital. I'm going to go with full digital for now and see how the hybrid group does. If everything goes well and there aren't any major issues, then I'll let my kids do the hybrid model for the second half of the school year.

 

[Hotty Botty]

Local schools are offering in person or distance learning. We'll probably go distance learning for now until things settle down. Fortunately, we are both very educated and have a lot we can teach. Placing emphasis on math and science.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Found out school would be "phase 4" in my area, which means 6ft social distance, no touching, kids and teachers wearing masks, etc. Phases 1 and 2 are basically back to doing school from home, and phase 3 would be a half-step.

I have no confidence that Gretchen Whitmer will take us out of these phases anytime soon, which means I have no confidence my kids will actually be going to their school building all year long.

The masks bother me enough on their own, but really the mask crackdown is just a tertiary concern. Why should I bother sending them to school at all if they will probably just come home in two months to partake in mediocre remote learning? I'm already paying for private school. Might as well fully transition into homeschooling + online tutoring.

Thankfully Michigan has some of the best homeschooling laws in the country. It'll be very easy to transition over, but it's a shame that our gov't is doing it.

 

[TheMan]

Online until the vaccine is out if I can help it.

 

[Guileless]

Our parochial school is allowing parents to choose online or in person. My kids are going in person. Theoretically they have to wear masks all day.

I think some administrators are literally closing schools to spite Trump and Devos after they came out forcefully for school openings. Not that that's the only reason, but it clinched it for them. I knew it would happen when I saw Trump's tweet a few weeks ago out of the blue that said something like "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN".

 

[and 3 others]

Schooled my nephew once. Schooled him with fade-aways, and jumpers. Don't get me started with me dunking him like a chicken nuggie!

 

[Texas Pride]

My 17 yr old wants remote learning and my 18 yr old wants in school instruction. It's a fucking mess. No hard decision either way now but there's people with health concerns in my home so I'm leaning remote.

 

[Liljagare]

Our parochial school is allowing parents to choose online or in person. My kids are going in person. Theoretically they have to wear masks all day.

I think some administrators are literally closing schools to spite Trump and Devos after they came out forcefully for school openings. Not that that's the only reason, but it clinched it for them. I knew it would happen when I saw Trump's tweet a few weeks ago out of the blue that said something like "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN".

I don't think administrators really want to close schools out of spite. They are closing them because Trump and Devos haven't presented a plan that details how to safely reopen schools. This shouldn't be an "every school for the self" kind of deal. Teachers, school staff, kids don't need to be martyrs.

Personally, I think remote teaching is the best way to go right now. It is not like kids will be able to socialise at school. The only purpose of sending them to school right now is to have a place to put them. If it is about the fact parents think they will be so behind, honestly, everyone is in the same boat right now. I think that we should invest more in online education. We have a chance to change how kids are educated and creating global online schools. Kids will learn, at the very least, how one has to take responsibility in regards to attending online classes/turning in work.

 

[Guileless]

In the US, it's every school district for itself because that's how the system is organized, regardless of what Trump says. The federal government has no control over whether local school districts open.

If I told you a year ago that Los Angeles and San Francisco would close schools for months and then not reopen the next semester due to a virus that has literally killed 0 children in California, you would think the world had gone crazy.

 

[DeepBreath87]

I don't think administrators really want to close schools out of spite. They are closing them because Trump and Devos haven't presented a plan that details how to safely reopen schools. This shouldn't be an "every school for the self" kind of deal. Teachers, school staff, kids don't need to be martyrs.

Personally, I think remote teaching is the best way to go right now. It is not like kids will be able to socialise at school. The only purpose of sending them to school right now is to have a place to put them. If it is about the fact parents think they will be so behind, honestly, everyone is in the same boat right now. I think that we should invest more in online education. We have a chance to change how kids are educated and creating global online schools. Kids will learn, at the very least, how one has to take responsibility in regards to attending online classes/turning in work.

Ok, and how does that going to work for 5 year olds? What about 8 year olds? And which parent quits their job so they can do 50% of the teacher’s job? Do we get to stop paying the teachers since parents are doing most of their job? A lot of the work they do is related to the classroom itself. If their job is now to provide YouTube videos for kids to watch, I think we can get rid of like 80% of them.

The argument isn’t that they’ll be martyrs. Certainly not the kids. The number of children under 15 who has died from COVID according to the CDC is 23. The number goes up noticeably in the age next age group, which goes up to about 150 in the 15-24 age group. In a given year the flu kills 150-200 pediatric (under 18) people a year. We don’t shut schools in those circumstances.

However, teachers are another matter. They do need to be protected, in the same way hospital staff are protected. It’s possible to work and be protected given proper PPE. There need to be strategies for in person learning. Especially for young children for whom online learning is insufficient and for under privileged or single parent households.

 

[Havoc2049]

Our school district is offering both online and in-person classes this fall. I want my eight year old daughter to go to school and my wife wants her stay at home to learn. Negotiations are still ongoing in my household.

 

[Liljagare]

Ok, and how does that going to work for 5 year olds? What about 8 year olds? And which parent quits their job so they can do 50% of the teacher’s job? Do we get to stop paying the teachers since parents are doing most of their job? A lot of the work they do is related to the classroom itself. If their job is now to provide YouTube videos for kids to watch, I think we can get rid of like 80% of them.

The argument isn’t that they’ll be martyrs. Certainly not the kids. The number of children under 15 who has died from COVID according to the CDC is 23. The number goes up noticeably in the age next age group, which goes up to about 150 in the 15-24 age group. In a given year the flu kills 150-200 pediatric (under 18) people a year. We don’t shut schools in those circumstances.

However, teachers are another matter. They do need to be protected, in the same way hospital staff are protected. It’s possible to work and be protected given proper PPE. There need to be strategies for in person learning. Especially for young children for whom online learning is insufficient and for under privileged or single parent households.

Teachers have already shown they can do their job remotely. The system is not perfect, so why not invest in building a remote system that does work. Five year olds and Eight year olds can work in remote settings, some even better than they can in classroom settings. Maybe they can start focusing more on interest driven /goal based education (such as you find in Montessori settings) rather than standards with set dates. And yes, this would affect families in terms of work. But if the goal is to educate children and not to simply have the state raise the children, then shouldnt continuing with developing an online education system be a worthy goal? Teaching today in many schools worldwide consists of way too much focus on administration/behavior management and way too little teaching as it is. But, by having an effective online school, teachers could actually teach.

I am so tired of the flu being compared to Covid 19. Per CDC, the flu kills about 20000 annually while COVID 19 has killed over 125800 in just six months And yes, I am grouping in the kids because schools consists of teachers, kids, cleaning staff, nurses, lunchladies, etc. All coming into contact with each other. If schools had been going since March, you might have seen more instances or deaths with younger children in the US. But that group has been more isolated in that schools haven't been open. Schools are like a huge petri dish. The reason the flu spreads so quickly in them is that kids go to schools sick or, worse yet, are sent to school by their parents who send them in knowingly but can't take care of them.

I don't agree with your statement about you doing a teachers job. You are working with your own children from a prepared lesson I assume? Teachers work with 20, 30 plus children who may or may not listen with curriculums that may or may not be relevant having to create IEPs, meet with parents, grade, create lesson plans, create structure, train, clean, do paperwork, train peers, etc. Are you doing all this? Or are you helping your child to learn /do their homework which is a part of parenting?

Yes, I do agree that teachers need PVE equipment. And not just elementary/junior high/high school teachers but also preschool teachers. But there is no push from the current US administration to do this on a nationwide basis that I have heard of.

 

[DeepBreath87]

Teachers have already shown they can do their job remotely. The system is not perfect, so why not invest in building a remote system that does work. Five year olds and Eight year olds can work in remote settings, some even better than they can in classroom settings. Maybe they can start focusing more on interest driven /goal based education (such as you find in Montessori settings) rather than standards with set dates. And yes, this would affect families in terms of work. But if the goal is to educate children and not to simply have the state raise the children, then shouldnt continuing with developing an online education system be a worthy goal? Teaching today in many schools worldwide consists of way too much focus on administration/behavior management and way too little teaching as it is. But, by having an effective online school, teachers could actually teach.

I am so tired of the flu being compared to Covid 19. Per CDC, the flu kills about 20000 annually while COVID 19 has killed over 125800 in just six months And yes, I am grouping in the kids because schools consists of teachers, kids, cleaning staff, nurses, lunchladies, etc. All coming into contact with each other. If schools had been going since March, you might have seen more instances or deaths with younger children in the US. But that group has been more isolated in that schools haven't been open. Schools are like a huge petri dish. The reason the flu spreads so quickly in them is that kids go to schools sick or, worse yet, are sent to school by their parents who send them in knowingly but can't take care of them.

I don't agree with your statement about you doing a teachers job. You are working with your own children from a prepared lesson I assume? Teachers work with 20, 30 plus children who may or may not listen with curriculums that may or may not be relevant having to create IEPs, meet with parents, grade, create lesson plans, create structure, train, clean, do paperwork, train peers, etc. Are you doing all this? Or are you helping your child to learn /do their homework which is a part of parenting?

Yes, I do agree that teachers need PVE equipment. And not just elementary/junior high/high school teachers but also preschool teachers. But there is no push from the current US administration to do this on a nationwide basis that I have heard of.

We don’t pay teachers their salary plus very generous benefits to make lesson plans to give parents at home. We are paying them to be professional instructors because we have other jobs, many of which are just as important as teachers. The idea that teachers should continue to be paid to do a small percentage of their job is entitlement to the highest degree.

Online learning essentially requires the parents to do almost all of the individual instruction. There are going to be many, many families who cannot accommodate that. My family will be able to make it work, but to pretend there won’t be absolutely catastrophic consequences in lower income areas is absolute ignorance. You think the education was bad when the kids were at the school? Imagine what it will be when they never go.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

We don’t pay teachers their salary plus very generous benefits to make lesson plans to give parents at home. We are paying them to be professional instructors because we have other jobs, many of which are just as important as teachers. The idea that teachers should continue to be paid to do a small percentage of their job is entitlement to the highest degree.

Yep, this is where my wife and I landed. I'm paying for the teachers and also for the school facilities. If I have to teach my own children at home, then I'm going to hire a professional / purchase a curicculum that is geared specifically to learning remotely. I'm not going to pay teachers + school to come up with a lesson plan for me to teach them at home, and a 1-hour zoom meeting every few days isn't a sufficient compromise.

I feel bad for people who counted on their tax dollars to provide away-from-home schooling. Now they're stuck by a work situation or family situation that compromises the quality of the education.

Online learning essentially requires the parents to do almost all of the individual instruction. There are going to be many, many families who cannot accommodate that. My family will be able to make it work, but to pretend there won’t be absolutely catastrophic consequences in lower income areas is absolute ignorance. You think the education was bad when the kids were at the school? Imagine what it will be when they never go.

The quantity/difficulty of the schoolwork flatlined in March/April when our kids were sent home from school. The larger assignments were given out on Monday or Tuesday and expected by the end of the week. The kids usually finished them by the end of the day they were given, but we saw the teachers complaining about how parents were still not getting homework turned in. This isn't meant as a humblebrag but to show that even when the workload was reduced, parents still struggled to keep their kids focused on it.

Keeping a student focused is the hard part anyway. If the school expects me to do that part, then homeschooling it is.

 

[Liljagare]

We don’t pay teachers their salary plus very generous benefits to make lesson plans to give parents at home. We are paying them to be professional instructors because we have other jobs, many of which are just as important as teachers. The idea that teachers should continue to be paid to do a small percentage of their job is entitlement to the highest degree.

Online learning essentially requires the parents to do almost all of the individual instruction. There are going to be many, many families who cannot accommodate that. My family will be able to make it work, but to pretend there won’t be absolutely catastrophic consequences in lower income areas is absolute ignorance. You think the education was bad when the kids were at the school? Imagine what it will be when they never go.

Online learning doesn't require parents to do all of the instruction. The only difference is that the teacher is not physically in front of the student. Your taxes contribute to teachers salaries just as they do to anyone who works for the govetnment/district/etc. But if they just want safe environments to work in, then push for safe environments if you really want teachers to return to the classroom. Why put them in an unsafe situation? Their contracts make have no pandemics clause. They aren't being lazy by teaching from home. They are protecting themselves and their families. Maybe the US

If you do not like the education system, push for change. It is an outdated system geared towards creating factory workers. Online education can be more benificial for children in terms of education benifits/interest orientated and individual learning. Right now, schools can't promise safe environment because they don't have proper support. So, champion for it.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Online learning doesn't require parents to do all of the instruction. The only difference is that the teacher is not physically in front of the student. Your taxes contribute to teachers salaries just as they do to anyone who works for the govetnment/district/etc. But if they just want safe environments to work in, then push for safe environments if you really want teachers to return to the classroom. Why put them in an unsafe situation? Their contracts make have no pandemics clause. They aren't being lazy by teaching from home. They are protecting themselves and their families. Maybe the US

If you do not like the education system, push for change. It is an outdated system geared towards creating factory workers. Online education can be more benificial for children in terms of education benifits/interest orientated and individual learning. Right now, schools can't promise safe environment because they don't have proper support. So, champion for it.

Some people are doing exactly that by leaving behind public schooling and doing their own thing.

Should we keep forking over the taxes while public school teachers provide an inferior learning experience to their students? That's not even unique to the current COVID situation. This has been a valid question for decades.

C'mon, let's not pretend that 10s of thousands of teachers across the world are suddenly adept at teaching and gauging reception from behind a webcam. The limitations of remote communication are already well-known and I have no confidence that teachers will suddenly become good at it. Since parents are forced to spend time and/or money teaching their kids anyway, it is only natural to ask what exactly the state is providing in exchange for those public schooling taxes. Keeping a critical eye on a child's schooling is what good parents do. Keeping a critical eye on finances during uncertain times is what good parents do.

 

[DeepBreath87]

Online learning doesn't require parents to do all of the instruction. The only difference is that the teacher is not physically in front of the student. Your taxes contribute to teachers salaries just as they do to anyone who works for the govetnment/district/etc. But if they just want safe environments to work in, then push for safe environments if you really want teachers to return to the classroom. Why put them in an unsafe situation? Their contracts make have no pandemics clause. They aren't being lazy by teaching from home. They are protecting themselves and their families. Maybe the US

If you do not like the education system, push for change. It is an outdated system geared towards creating factory workers. Online education can be more benificial for children in terms of education benifits/interest orientated and individual learning. Right now, schools can't promise safe environment because they don't have proper support. So, champion for it.

Teachers who want a safe learning environment are going to have to say what exactly that looks like for them. Saying “no Coronavirus cases” isn’t realistic and if that’s what they want, they should be replaced with people who are realistic. I am pushing for a safe return to schools. Teacher should be wearing quality masks and doing what they can to maintain a certain distance. But I know for a fact people can work directly around this virus and remain safe because I do it.

The idea that online learning may someday supplant in person education is not what we are discussing. The discussion is about the here and now. And right now, teachers aren’t trained or prepared to adequately educate children via zoom or Skype. Google classroom is a tool, not a replacement.

And teachers’ contracts are negotiated under the assumption they’ll be doing the job we pay them to do. When they refuse to do it or even stipulate the specific conditions under which they will beyond vague statements about feeling safe, they are not fulfilling their end of the contract.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

But remote learning pretty much require at leats one of the parent at home at all time, no?

 

[Liljagare]

Some people are doing exactly that by leaving behind public schooling and doing their own thing.

Should we keep forking over the taxes while public school teachers provide an inferior learning experience to their students? That's not even unique to the current COVID situation. This has been a valid question for decades.

C'mon, let's not pretend that 10s of thousands of teachers across the world are suddenly adept at teaching and gauging reception from behind a webcam. The limitations of remote communication are already well-known and I have no confidence that teachers will suddenly become good at it. Since parents are forced to spend time and/or money teaching their kids anyway, it is only natural to ask what exactly the state is providing in exchange for those public schooling taxes. Keeping a critical eye on a child's schooling is what good parents do. Keeping a critical eye on finances during uncertain times is what good parents do.

I get that you don't like remote learning and want to send yourchild to school. But, in order to do this, you can't force the teachers, staff, etc. to go back to school if the environment is not safe. I think remote learning has many advantages. You do not (I assume from your text). Fine. So start petitioning your school district to provide gear for the teachers /students/staff. But don't make it sound that teachers have to provide in-person teaching in an environment that is not safe. They did not sign up for this or even get the hazard pay grocery store workers got (of which 11,500 so far have died due to CV). If you don't want your child in public schools (for which you seem to have many complaints about), do something about it.

 

[Liljagare]

But remote learning pretty much require at leats one of the parent at home at all time, no?

Depends on the child.

 

[Liljagare]

Teachers who want a safe learning environment are going to have to say what exactly that looks like for them. Saying “no Coronavirus cases” isn’t realistic and if that’s what they want, they should be replaced with people who are realistic. I am pushing for a safe return to schools. Teacher should be wearing quality masks and doing what they can to maintain a certain distance. But I know for a fact people can work directly around this virus and remain safe because I do it.

The idea that online learning may someday supplant in person education is not what we are discussing. The discussion is about the here and now. And right now, teachers aren’t trained or prepared to adequately educate children via zoom or Skype. Google classroom is a tool, not a replacement.

And teachers’ contracts are negotiated under the assumption they’ll be doing the job we pay them to do. When they refuse to do it or even stipulate the specific conditions under which they will beyond vague statements about feeling safe, they are not fulfilling their end of the contract.

I don't think teachers expect no coronavirus cases. They just want to teach in environments that are safe (for example not overcrowded, possessing individual protective gear, well ventilated, clean). But many are not getting these assurances or these environments. The solution is quite simple. Just give them the type of environment that the AFT asks for in order to reopen the schools

AFT’s reports on safely reopening schools for in-person teaching and learning

In-person schooling has always been foundational. It’s what makes great public schools central to every community. Educators know that, to thrive, children need in-person learning, and that’s why the AFT has been working hard—since April 2020, when we issued our first road map to safely reopen...

www.aft.org

I don't think teachers are not trying to not fulfill their contracts by teaching online atm. They are still teaching and probably did not have a pandemic in mind when they signed up.

 

[Ornlu]

Depends on the child.

As in "If they are over (insert legal age here based on state) years old, you can legally leave them home alone"? Sure.

Hey parents with a kid under 11 in Michigan who both work, get fucked. Sure hope you are wealthy enough to have a nanny or some shit.