School?

[Topperkenobi]

"We all have to judge our own risk tolerance. For us, we’re fine to abide by the rules, wear masks, limit gatherings etc. It’s a sacrifice, it’s not the fucking end of the world. My wife’s aunt/ uncle both died of covid. Some people think it’s a hoax - those people are morons."

This resumes it all. One of the best pieces of advice. Judge your own risk of tolerance. It's a sacrifice but it is not the end of the world. Be responsible and do what you feel comfortable doing. It is a real risk and not a hoax. But keep living your life however you feel comfortable. And respect other people if they want to be more careful. Also don't be an idiot and spread the disease.

 

[mgreenspan]

I’m a “branch covidian”.

I don’t think your description is branch covidian. Seems fairly normal to me. You guys go outside. Some people are scared of fresh air now.

 

[Tbaumer]

About schools - This whole thing feels very "1984" to me. If this on-line distance learning is put completely in place, many teachers will lose their jobs & school buildings closed. Why not? Think of the money saved & the ability to have a single source of control over the information presented. History is being rewritten at a record pace - Old time heroes are now villains. There are other examples of this. It's not new, offensive words get changed in reprints of printed classic books, but now the original information disappears almost as fast as you can read it. A few presses of the keyboard & the information is erased or changed. I just heard a report that said Covid19 did not come to America from China, it came from Europe. My kids are grown, so I shouldn't care either way, but some of us paid attention & were told it came out of Hubei/Wuhan, China. In the future, if all the available information says otherwise, then a generation from now, no one knows any different. Multiply this by any unpopular truth or facts that contradict the power structure & let the indoctrination of our youth continue on the large scale. In a world with more & more people who also need jobs, we need in person learning, with good teachers who have life experience & can think for themselves.

 

[mgreenspan]

Some of the first cases may be linked to travelers from Europe, but they got it from Communist China. Communist China is king when it comes to smoke screens and disinformation. Schools shutting down is no good in my book. They’re talking about more lockdowns in the UK, but schools will stay open. I think that’s the right choice.

 

[hillstrubl]

...As a family we have never been closer.

Yes, us too. We had a baby girl about 2 weeks before full lock down, so she has had a level of hands-on attention that she never would have normally.

We all have to judge our own risk tolerance. For us, we’re fine to abide by the rules, wear masks, limit gatherings etc. It’s a sacrifice, it’s not the fucking end of the world. My wife’s aunt/ uncle both died of covid. Some people think it’s a hoax - those people are morons.

Totally understand, but there are extremes here that can be incorrectly commingled together. I don't think anybody here has inferred that it's a hoax. I know those people exist and its sad that they'll endanger innocents around them due to their behavior. I live in the Philly 'burbs in a relatively populous area, but 20 min from me is RURAL. The difference between what's mandated/practiced in public on that 20 min drive is very significant.
If we need a positive out of this is that kids are generally resilient (to a point) and all the concerns about "will the kids wear masks?" pretty much dried up, the adults are the problem. I hope everybody stays safe on this board.

Fear makes you make mistakes.

Yep.

It think the media has created a lot of fear in the population and that makes it harder.

That plus inconsistency in mandates and recommendations is causing so much chaos

 

[FlyersFan76]

I have 2 kids in Middle/Elementary School and 1 in High School. The 2 went back fulltime at the beginning on the year and the high schooler went back hybrid in September. He is in 4-5 days now depending on class schedule. Depending what district or Private/Parochial school (where mine go) you are in in the Philadelphia suburbs determines what happens. The public district that I am in was all home until mid October when they went Hybrid.

Even the bordering school districts can be different from one another. One of the options I heard from a coworker on his kids hybrid schedule was half day till noon. Another person I know not in the same district was half day afternoons.

I am not sure how some of the parents who can't work from home have been able to manage their schedule. Hats off to them. My company is considered essential and my wife works from home so we were covered but some other co workers had crazy schedules to make it work.

 

[rlynch356]

My Daughter is a freshman in HS right now, 100% virtual for now, they may go back early next year but were not holding our breath. Everything works pretty good except Honors math which is tough virtually.

 

[hillstrubl]

I am not sure how some of the parents who can't work from home have been able to manage their schedule. Hats off to them. My company is considered essential and my wife works from home so we were covered but some other co workers had crazy schedules to make it work.

I know, I feel the same way. Both my wife and I are 100% remote so we take turns administering the remote learning side. We miss meetings sometimes, my boss is flexible. I really feel for the households that HAVE to leave to make a living. There are definitely minors being left home alone without another option. This can't go on forever.

 

[supertreeman]

I have 3 daughters in elementary school. They have been in person 5 days a week since the beginning of the school year. They wear a mask all day and are social distanced. There has been zero issues whatsoever.

Open the schools and let all businesses open! This cant go on forever.

 

[RBBailey]

We all have to judge our own risk tolerance. For us, we’re fine to abide by the rules, wear masks, limit gatherings etc. It’s a sacrifice, it’s not the fucking end of the world. My wife’s aunt/ uncle both died of covid. Some people think it’s a hoax - those people are morons.

This is exactly as I've approached it from the beginning. Take it seriously, but watch the facts and don't freak out. Sorry to hear about the loss in your family. I know several people who have had it, but no one has been hospitalized. I think our state has handled it fairly well, although maybe the lockdown was a bit much. I think a change of operations and habits could have replaced actually closing a lot of things down. In the mean time, people who are at risk really, really need to pay attention.... unfortunately, that's often the ones who don't pay attention, or who think it's a hoax.

As far as school is going here. We are 100% remote. And as a high school teacher, this is OK as far as actual class goes. If I treat it like an online course, and don't assume that I'm going to get to know my students, and do assume that they know when to ask questions, send emails, and how to follow through.... oh, never mind, this is high school.... So the mechanics of teaching, lecturing, showing cool presentations, videos, etc... it's all fine. But forget anything beyond that. That said, I'm busier than I've ever been in 17 years of teaching, including when I was teaching three new classes while doing a full load of graduate school classes on the side. The reason is the state and the administration have decided that this is a great time to a. make all the teachers document and record and debrief and revise in writing, and submitted via electronic forms, every single lesson we teach -- two-three, per class, four times per day. b. that it is a great time to completely revise the high school history/social studies plan. So every single history teacher in my district is teaching two to three new classes. c. I'm teaching four 100% new classes. d. They want us all to be 100% in lock-step from day to day. Which.... is stupid. Any materials I had that could move over to what I'm teaching now have to be rewritten, etc... so last week (I got curious and started logging my hours) I worked 13.4 hours per day for the week on average. 7.4 on average for Saturday and Sunday, and right now I have no way of even calculating how much work I have to do to catch up. Well, OK... but this sucks being in front of a computer 13 hours per day. I'd much rather do actual physical labor for 13 hours per day. At least I'd be able to sleep.... Really, I feel like I'm doing a crap job of teaching, and would quit if I was intelligent enough to do something else with my life. I know one teacher who has been having a terrible time over the past few years, was about to quit, but is suddenly really great -- because she doesn't have to manage any behavior issues or face students in person. For myself, I feel that this whole thing just highlights my weaknesses as a teacher.

My kids: My son is a freshman in college in the Los Angeles area. We had one week of warning to get him packed up and moved down there when school began because they got a last minute waiver for athletes to be able to live on campus. As odd as it is, we felt that it would be good for him to experience getting away from home and doing the online courses from his own dorm room. He gets to meet the people on his team, and he gets to bum rides from people to the beach and such, but he is living alone in a dorm 1000 miles from home. He's doing pretty well though. Proud of him.

My daughter is a sophomore at the high school where I teach, so we are home together all day long, on the computers. She happens to have a very easy first quarter schedule, so it's going OK. However (maybe some of your remember this happened to me a few years ago) she has developed a heart condition that we are now having to get tested and such. I'm confident that it is just the oddities of horomones, stress, 2020, home, etc... She's actually doing well, but when she came running over to us at 10pm with a heart rate of 220 bpm for over 15 minutes, and had to be transported to the hospital, it wasn't a good night........

It's good to read about all that you are dealing with, and interesting. We are hoping to start moving to a hybrid model for education sometime in the early months of the new year. But it may take a while for the high school aged kids to get there.

 

[hillstrubl]

---Take it seriously, but watch the facts and don't freak out. Sorry to hear about the loss in your family. I know several people who have had it, but no one has been hospitalized. I think our state has handled it fairly well, although maybe the lockdown was a bit much. I think a change of operations and habits could have replaced actually closing a lot of things down. ---

This especially when paired with flagrant behavior as mentioned AND inconsistent lockdown parameters due to an arbitrary subject difference. Case in point, only 1 parent can take my daughter to a doctor's appointment or drop her off at day care, but its perfectly legal to go out to dinner with those same people at a restaurant with that same daughter in attendance as well.

 

[FlyersFan76]

This especially when paired with flagrant behavior as mentioned AND inconsistent lockdown parameters due to an arbitrary subject difference. Case in point, only 1 parent can take my daughter to a doctor's appointment or drop her off at day care, but its perfectly legal to go out to dinner with those same people at a restaurant with that same daughter in attendance as well.

Potential travel restrictions while travelling between neighboring states was a another confusing matter. I do not think the decision makers thought everything through or they were just playing lip service. I have co workers that either live in 1 state and work in another or drive a company car that is registered in the state that they do not live in. How did those states think they were going to monitor those people?