Chicago teachers are being forced to return to the classroom. I hope things go well. If they lose one teacher, or student, it will be one too many. Apparently there are those who think this is an acceptable risk. Would it be, though? A small price to pay? And for what cause?
Why isn’t virtual learning working? Is it partly because hardly any kids have an attention span longer than 5 seconds anymore? I can see that there are built-in challenges, that in-person learning of course is preferable. I understand why parents who might prefer working and generating income must stay home instead and play a role in their children remaining on task.
I obviously don’t have a complete understanding of the situation. No “skin in the game” anymore. Mine is more a reaction, reflective of less patience with parents who are too quick to fly off the handle and just yell. They aren’t the ones being asked to expose themselves and their loved ones to kids coming from all sorts of situations. And it appears there is still no standard, effective protocol for keeping teachers and students safe.
Nobody trained for life in a pandemic, to some extent probably not even doctors and nurses and other related fields. But of course life can’t come to a standstill– we still need to eat, still need to have access to medicine and medical care, still need to work. Even though, ideally, we’d want to minimize activity and exposure, shut down as much as possible in order to starve the virus and limit its tendency to mutate. We didn’t do that when we had the chance, so now we pay– for what looks like two years or longer, when all is said and done.
I hope folks have been taking notes. They’ll come in handy when the next pandemic arrives. Trusting the science– and not a self-interested, delusional dictator wannabe and the inept sycophants and coattail riders with whom he surrounded himself– will be a huge step in the right direction.
3 Cents' 