Here in Minnesota, we waited over a month for the governor’s decision on school openings, promised for July 31. Schools all over the state have been hemming and hawing about plans for the fall semester. Parents have waited anxiously for clarity.
Finally the date came and the governor punted.
A completely wishy-washy statement that left the decision up to local districts following state guidance. So school districts are all over the map on this. Minneapolis and St. Paul are opting for all-virtual. Some districts are taking a hybrid approach that satisfies a grand total of zero people. At least one district has opted for schizophrenia, opening elementary schools but doing online for secondary schools.
What are parents supposed to do? How can they plan? Even if a district chooses option X, parents have no assurances that option Y or Z won’t be implemented a few weeks later if conditions change. This is hard enough on wealthier families but how disruptive must it be for poorer families?
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While I am still very much skeptical about the overall dangers - especially for the young - this might not be too bad, as older kids can handle the online approach without supervision - whereas younger would still need parental support. However, it makes a mockery of the "risk" argument :)
The younger kids can still be carriers and infect their grandparents but,yeah,older kids especially the motivated ones will probably do okay with virtual schooling. But a quite a few of the school districts here were clearly waiting for the governor to make a clear decision. He opted not to.
!ENGAGE25
Hence the mockery :)
Now, the next thing to consider is the relevance of school as it now stands and how this move is essentially priming for virtual schooling, which will be far cheaper and further degrade results for those who are unable to afford direct contact. Luckily, most of the young kids today won't have the possibility to work anyway....
🎼 Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life
ENGAGEtokens.I like the idea of districts deciding for themselves. If the parents and board in a district want to open their schools, let them. Joy and freedom matter. A lot. We seem to have forgotten those here in the USA.
Go out, sing some songs, hug some friends, make out in public. This virus is over. If we keep going along with these totalitarian measures to the point of harming a global generation of children, there will be no end to "deadly" viruses.
Hydroxychloriquine could save thousands upon thousands of lives. Let us have it, open the schools and businesses all the way, and see if we don't have better results than the dismal ones we have had locking down the world and denying many of us access to a known effective treatment.
There’s a lot to be said for the power of magical thinking.
There's also a lot to be said for the stats that show it's over. Deaths and hospitalizations from covid are very low now. Deaths from all causes is down to normal for this time of year, and have been for over a month now. We fear this virus to the point of harming ourselves far more than the virus ever could. Time to open everything and stop letting a virus ruin everything we have worked for or gives our lives meaning. This is absurd,
Your stats versus the stats from the scientists seem to be much different.
For every scientist there is an opposite but equal scientist
That would explain why so many mathematicians understand that 2+2=5.
It can be done, easily. Depends on how you define "+". So right now things depend on how you define "health", and "trust" and "truth" and such things. The definition, imo, that we all need desperately to have some discussion of is that of "freedom". Cuz this here is not freedom. It's totalitarianism through medical tyranny. It's a nifty trick they got us on this time.
And while I am at it, the magical thinking that is going on here involves putting all of our trust in a medical industry that still, after more than seven months of this, has not found one single thing they can do to give us hope of survival. Not only do they not have anything, they are blocking us from using a very effective and inexpensive treatment. Why are we letting the medical industry deprive us of our freedom?