The reasons for returning to school might sound good, but those reasons always bump up against the enemy, the coronavirus.
Here are concerns that deserve attention, but they are the wrong reasons for schools to reopen.
1. President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos say SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!
Neither the President or Betsy DeVos consider details of how the virus could affect children and their families in states and school districts across the country. The President has turned the virus into a political dispute. Until the President, Congress, and scientists get their act together, it is irresponsible to put the nation’s students in the crossfire.
2. We must get back to normal.
Reopening schools with plexiglass barriers, social distancing, nonstop cleaning, and masks is hardly normal. Nor do we know if such safety precautions will be funded, or if they’ll work. Also, if state and local leaders can’t reopen beaches and indoor seating in restaurants safely, why do they think schools will be safe?
3. Parents must work.
Parents who must work need assistance finding or creating small, safely controlled groups for children, where contact tracing can occur if students get sick. If schools do reopen, it should only be for parents who must work.
4. Students will fall behind.
Students have missed some learning, but they were almost finished for summer when schools closed. A few more months at home will hardly destroy their progress, especially if teachers help from afar.
5. Online learning is terrible.
Teachers have struggled to reach students, and there are problems galore. But educators and parents need to work out learning challenges with or without online instruction.
6. Students will have their temperatures taken at school.
It’s possible to be infected with the coronavirus and have no fever, or a very low-grade one, especially in the first few days. Covid-19 might present few if any symptoms. Also, children might run a slight fever and not really be sick.
7. Children experience food insecurity.
Community food banks must continue to get nutritious meals to children and families who experience poverty. School officials and staff can help. Children should not have to return to unsafe schools to be fed.
9. If online learning continues, schools will never reopen.
Parents and educators worry that online instruction will become normalized. The reality is the longer students rely on tech, the more they miss school and their teachers! The virus has demonstrated that online instruction will never be an adequate replacement for face-to-face learning.
10. Students need testing to find academic losses.
Students have only missed some school. Education reformers are already assuming they have fallen behind. More testing is a ridiculous reason for students to go back to school.
11. We need to assess students for trauma surrounding the virus.
The best way to help children is for parents, caretakers, and teachers to listen to them talk about their concerns. Returning to school for trauma assessments is unnecessary.
12. Poor students don’t have access to online learning.
School administrators should ensure all students have access to broadband and a computer. If not, students should connect with their teacher by phone or other means of communication.
13. Children are being abused at home.
If parents or caretakers fear harming a child, there are abuse hotlines they can call to get help. School administrators, counselors, school nurses, social workers, and teachers need to check on children and families and identify high risk situations. Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453
14. Students face anxiety and depression at home.
Engage with children and teens to make sure they’re O.K. Hotlines exist for this too. Anxiety and depression can also occur if children go back to school and are afraid. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
15. Students with disabilities aren’t getting assistance.
Parents fear Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will end IDEA. School administrators and teachers must build trust with parents. Teachers and support staff, speech pathologists, audiologists, counselors, and psychologists are needed to help families remotely. Students with disabilities might be more vulnerable to illness. Ramp up services from afar. Don’t reduce or end them!
16. Teachers need to go back to work.
Teachers don’t need to be physically present in an unsafe school building to work. School administrators must trust teachers and support their efforts to reach students.
17. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it’s safe.
Doctors don’t understand the difficulties schools face reopening.
18. Other countries have done it.
Veteran educator and award-winning administrator Carol Burris makes a good argument for looking at school reopening plans around the world. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos should be doing this and isn’t. That’s the problem. America currently has poor leadership concerning this disease and schools.
19. We’re reopening schools based on up-to-date science.
Everyday there’s something new reported about this virus or its spread. Dr. Fauci just stated We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this.
20. Ask parents, teachers, and students if they think schools should reopen.
The virus doesn’t care what anyone thinks! Good science should rule.
21. Schools will be flexible.
Changing schedules to have fewer students is difficult to do with consistency, nor will it mean there will be adequate social distancing or that students will wear masks judiciously.
22. The economy will be ruined if schools don’t reopen soon.
Quit blaming the problems with this virus and the economy on children, schools, and teachers. Don’t put children’s lives in danger for the sake of the economy.
23. Let’s do hybrid.
A part-time hybrid schedule might lower class sizes, but the coronavirus isn’t going to hide part-time. Which teachers get to work online, and who risks their lives to work in person?
24. Teachers are courageous.
Teachers shouldn’t be put in the position of having to put their lives on the line for their jobs.
_______
Too many uncertainties exist about this virus. Its connection between schools and communities is complex.
Let go of the time-consuming and expensive debate about returning to school in the fall.
Concentrate on small group instruction for working parents and better solutions to help teachers reach students at home.
Focus on reopening schools in January. Reassess what’s happening at that time.
The country should work together to do what’s right for children from afar until there’s a safe solution for students to return to America’s schools.
References
Jesse McKinley and Luis Ferré-Sadurní. N.Y. Officials Halt Indoor Dining, Alarmed by Virus Rise in Other States. The New York Times. July 1, 2020.
Deb Perelman. In the Covid-19 Economy, You Can Have a Kid or a Job. You Can’t Have Both. The New York Times. July 2, 2020
Valerie Strauss. Why schools must find a safe way to reopen for the most vulnerable students — by a veteran educator. The Washington Post. July 6, 2020.
It’s always easy to find the negatives. Will you be providing good reasons to re-open? Or perhaps you think schools shouldn’t re-open.
The research is quite clear that the students who have the most to lose from not going to school are the ones who are already struggling. What are your comments about these students? It’s important to find positive solutions to this problem
I am saying they should not reopen in the fall. Please read the section about students with disabilities. It isn’t about what I think. It’s about the virus. The virus doesn’t care what either of us think.
Yes the virus is the virus. I did read the section about students with disabilities (please be respectful and assume that I would have read your points carefully).
OK So your comment is that schools should not open in the fall. What would you suggest that the conditions be for schools to re-open? Should there be a partial re-opening under some conditions? Should there be no re-opening until there is a vaccine?
I am hoping you can suggest some positive way forward. It seems important at this time, that educational leaders offer discussion toward solutions.
As a parent, I’ll tell you what my conditions for reopening are.
When we are ready to do what Taiwan has done, a country that has managed to keep schools open and keep their numbers low, then I’d be willing to send my child back. However, this is the US, a place where people are stubbornly refusing to wear masks. With that in mind, I have little faith in our ability to get our act together in a way where we can safely get back to school before we have some serious medical breakthroughs.
It’s not worth the risk. I’ll let my kids have another 6 months of sub-optimal learning to preserve their health and reassess where we are at that point.
As I stated in the post, Marilyn, not to imply that you didn’t already read it, is that it might be safer to reopen schools in January.
What I will add here, is that by then we will know whether we have a new President, we will have more information about the virus, whether there’s a vaccine in the horizon, and educators will have more time to work out plans and beg for money to make schools safe.
Yes the virus is the virus. Yes we may know more about the virus by January. Yes we may know if the vaccine is on the horizon. I don’t see that, having the current president remain or a different one has anything to do with the issue. Drawing this into the political realm only complicates the conversation, in my opinion. But I am not American. Maybe I don’t understand. Maybe it isn’t possible to have a discussion in the U.S. without it being politicized. I would be interested to know if people think it is possible to have the discussion without any reference to politics.
The President here has already politicized this issue. He has turned the virus and school reopening into a political issue.
Absolutely brilliant, Nancy.
I’ve been accused of stirring up trouble for saying many of the same things.
All the plans I have seen look a lot like an experiment in reopening schools, not a prove method for safely educating kids.
Thanks, Dave. I appreciate it. Lots of concern about all this.
Nothing surprising about this article. It’s all political. Liberals/Democrats want us to mask up and stay in our bunkers and hope to be taken care of by the government and conservatives/Republicans want to get back to work. Everything is political. You pick the subject and if it’s bad for the country, Liberals are for it. Rioters and looters = the good guys. Police = bad guys. The school system’s purpose is to teach kids, not to provide a comfortable job for teachers. They’re not the only ones who have to work with the public. The entire medical community is also at risk but you don’t hear them whining about it.
The medical community deals with life and death situations.
Staying home from school for a few more months is also about the safety of the students and their parents not only teachers.
I am neither Rupublican or Democrat or Libertarian. I don’t go cheering for any political team, I prefer to look at one issue at a time and use my brain vs sticking people and issues into buckets and labeling them. I am however a mom and the health of my kids comes before all else, This isn’t politics, this is me protecting my biggest interests– my kids. Don’t want to mask up? You’re part of the reason why I am keeping my kids home.
Thanks! Good reply!
I am neither Rupublican or Democrat or Libertarian. I don’t go cheering for any political team, I prefer to look at one issue at a time and use my brain vs sticking people and issues into buckets and labeling them. I am however a mom and the health of my kids comes before all else, This isn’t politics, this is me protecting my biggest interests– my kids. Don’t want to mask up? You’re part of the reason why I am keeping my kids home.
Bellvue Mom, I appreciate that you are firm about not politicizing this issue. Putting people and ‘solutions’ into political camps only complicates everything, and makes hopes for realistic solutions almost out of reach.
I agree that the infection rate is an important factor. I am from British Columbia, and our COVID infections are probably the envy of the world. Thankfully, we have been saved from the politicization of the issue, and our health care system is an advantage for us.
Even with the low rates, there is discussion about how to move forward with education. We will see what the system offers for the fall, but parents will definitely have the option to work with their children at home. The system here has offered this from April through June. I have observed that there are now many parents who are confident that they can do a good job at home, while keeping their children and families safe.
My concern is for the parents who are not able, for many reasons, to provide this to their children. I know for sure that those children are falling behind, and I am concerned for their mental and physical health as well. They are being saved from the virus, but the setbacks to their mental health and educational progress could have lifelong consequences. Whatever system solutions are provided needs to address this issue. Thankfully it is unlikely your children face these issues, which is because of you. Kudos to parents like you.
Hopefully, school administrators, teachers, staff and even parent volunteers will help those children who don’t have decent learning environments at home. Thank you, Marilyn.
Yes. I do hope that school staffs widen the scope of their programming/support to address the needs of the parents, as well as the students. In school, where the child is in the environment of the school for 5 hours, the focus is on the school’s goals and routines. With children at home for that time, the parent needs as much (or more) support to make the home environment positive for learning. Just sending worksheets home is not the answer (as if it was ever the answer)
In the circumstances I know of now with home learning, parents are not being helped with learning their new role. They are just being told to make sure the child does the work. That is very simplistic and hot helpful. Plus it misses so many opportunities to make learning fun and practical. The goals of the curriculum need to be re-thought to fit the new learning environment. Math and measuring can be applied to cooking and jumping and swinging. Literacy learning can be applied to writing instructions and journals about fun activities that typically happen at home. This would make the learning fun for parents and kids, and help kids realize that learning is fun every waking hour.
I do hope that this ‘new normal’ is seen as an opportunity to refresh education, and that teachers embrace the creativity that’s possible
Teachers I know in this country, have worked hard to try to maintain some order remotely. It has been difficult. But they care deeply about their students. It is difficult to address what’s needed concerning the virus in schools. It will take funding and a concerted effort on the part of educators and parents.
As always, this administration is driven by false economic outcomes, not student learning. If we were willing to spend appropriate funds on public education, there might be a vision to see how we students back to school. So far, there has been little effort on the part of our Federal Government to propose funding to cover state and localities who are tasked to implement CDC recommendations that are not only unrealistic, but unreasonable. Trump and Devos only care about financial appearances that would allow them four more years in office. They don’t give a damn about students or those who work in the school house.
I agree wholeheartedly with a lot of these, but you dismiss others way too easily.
5. Online “learning” (sic) is way worse than terrible. It’s barely learning at all (other than learning how miserable school can be).. Anyone who’s ever taken an online class knows it doesn’t come anywhere close to in-person classes. And that’s even with teachers who are trying. My older daughter’s teacher tried to make online classes as much like in-person learning as possible, being a constant presence and support for the kids and facilitating group and individual discussions (she’s my hero). It’s a good group of kids, yet still the kids really struggled. My younger daughter’s teacher basically just posted a bunch of worksheets and it was nearly impossible to get a hold of her personally. My daughter gave up and refused to do anything except sometimes I got her to do a book group which she had with a different teacher. If schools re-open exclusively on-line this fall, she’ll give up completely. At many schools, online “learning” is only worksheets or computer-generated “learning” modules with little teacher contact. Or worksheets sent home by school bus for those districts where many families don’t have internet.
9. Don’t underestimate that. Once voracious rephormsters get their foot in the door, it’s nearly impossible to get them back out. There has already been an avalanche of “new and improved’ “state of the art” online “learning tools” that vendors are desperately churning out. Once schools buy into this stuff, they’re going to want to make use of it. Plenty of politicians are more than happy to assist. Once a few hours a day of “online learning” becomes the norm, it’s going to get harder and harder to justify in-person school, especially since it may never be “safe” to return to in-person schools.
12. It’s not just poor students, it’s rural students as well, and that might be a bigger problem. It’s not just a matter of providing hardware and connection, it’s a matter of there *is* no connection. I just went camping with my daughters in rural Indiana and we covered a whole lot of territory with no internet connection at all. And Indiana is not Wyoming where there may be no internet infrastructure at all in entire counties. And returning to poor students, it’s not just a matter of lack of internet access, it’s a matter of lack of space. When multiple siblings share a small room and maybe Mom and/or Dad are working in the kitchen/living room, there’s simply no space and no peace and quiet for kids to work. Schools have literally lost contact with hundreds of thousands of students during the pandemic.
13. That was your glibbest dismissal. It’s a simple fact that schools account for an overwhelming percentage of the reporting of child abuse. It’s not that “parents or caretakers fear harming a child”, it’s that they *are* harming children and they have no intention of reporting themselves. The vast majority of abuse happens in the home, and if kids are isolated with their abusers 24/7, how are they supposed to come to the attention of authorities and get any intervention?
14. Again, you really minimized this. Children are naturally social creatures. They need each other and they need to play in groups almost like they need oxygen. Parents are no substitute for this, much less some hotline. Children are also depressed because they are suffering from whatever their family is suffering from – if the parents are unemployed, for instance and worried about money/homelessness, or if the parents are stressed trying to work from home while caring for the children, or if Mom and Dad fight or abuse each other (or, as mentioned in #13, abuse the children). Children are the silent victims of this pandemic and their mental health is really suffering. I fear for their future in this bleak, touchless, distanced world.
Frankly, I have very mixed feelings about returning to school, but I lean toward re-0pening. Yes, there are risks, but there are risks to everything in life, including *not* re-opening schools. Children are at minimal risk from the disease – out of 73 million American children, a few hundred have been hospitalized and fewer than 30 have dies (almost all of whom had underlying conditions). They are actually at more risk from the car ride to school (there are, after all, about 6 million car crashes per year, yet we have never considered closing the streets and highways). Yes, teachers, especially older ones, are at more risk and of course there are particularly vulnerable individuals who have underlying conditions. I certainly favor taking reasonable precautions and making accommodations for those most worried for their safety. I think that will look different for each different district and school and individual and I hope that decisions would be made on as local a level as possible. But I think the default should be working toward re-opening schools, not because of Wall Street or Trump or anything like that, but because kids need to be with people outside their families – especially other kids – to learn and play and grow and be healthy together.
I agree with much of what you’re saying. That’s why I said these are good reasons, but I think the virus is a big concern. I lean on not having schools reopen until January or earlier if there’s a miracle, or they really determine that children won’t get sick or transmit the disease to their parents, teachers or grandma and grandpa.
My second choice would be to reopen where the virus is contained if that occurs by the fall. I live in Virginia and cases are steady here. But most states are not.
I don’t think I was glib about the abuse concern. I recognize this is serious.
I said
“School administrators, counselors, school nurses, social workers, and teachers need to check on children and families and identify high risk situations.”
I understand children and teens might be lonely and depressed too. They need support from afar or small groups determined by parents as safe.
As far as online, I have written against the online push to replace teachers and schools repeatedly. I have also written previously about how parents don’t like it.
I don’t think online learning is becoming normalized. You wrote a whole paragraph about how you hate it. Most parents I talk to hate it like you!
Why is it that those who want virtual learning (DeVos) are calling for schools to reopen? I don’t know, But it makes me wonder..
I have thought a lot about this virus and took a long time to write about schools and whether they should or should not reopen. While I agree with all that you say about the way it affects children, you never mention how schools are going to look.
I wrote previous blog about the changes in schools. Social distancing isn’t going to make for great play at recess. Is it better than being at home? Probably. But children might get exposed to the virus. It also might be scary to the early learners.
I error on the side of caution. I am uncomfortable with what they don’t seem to know and the confusion surrounding the protocol that is in place for one part of society and not the other.
Thank you for putting your thoughts in such a long comment.