I wonder if we can have a discussion of what should be done. I think a normal reopening of schools is silly. I also think a complete closure is silly.

I have a grandson who is senior to be (Des Moines)and a stepgrandaughter who is a sophomore to be(Atlanta). Both are going to be working from home (the girl at her own option). Both of these kids are good students and both have family/parental support. I expect they will do well, though probably not as well as they would have in normal times.

Both kids have fathers who work from home. Both kids have ambitions to fulfill. he in science, her in drama.


But lots of kids do not have this. many kids come from single parent homes, and the one parent is not well qualified to help teach or motivated to do so. I think a lot of kids are not well motivated. I think many will come up short. There are a lot of kids who will not do well lacking the structure of school and qualified parental help.

I understand the teachers' reluctance to put themselves in harm's way. I heard of an op-ed by a nurse that basically said - so what? I put myself in harm's way to do my job - are yours less essential? I think cops would say the same.

So what do you guys think is the best road to follow? Shut down in-person learning?

I am asking everybody, left and right. I want opinions, not political slogans.

I go away for a few hours and this has 51 views but zero responses?

What does that mean. maybe it means nobody has any idea how how to approach this problem. I doubt that, since everybody seems to know when government officials are doing it wrong.

Maybe nobody has any ideas that they want to put out there to be discussed and dissected. So I will start.

I think that some sort of hybrid model is probably the best answer. Maybe divide the student body into fifths, and have them attend in person one day a week to have interaction with teachers, while doing most of their work from home. The smaller groups would lend themselves to social distancing. Make masking mandatory.

one plan

Glad I am no longer on the school board.

How about some version of.... School from home if you can, school from school if you must?

If you have sufficient resources, support and discipline to school from home, you do that. If not, you go to school. You attend classes virtually at the same time they're being taught in person. In person learning now has a smaller number of students in each class... social distancing. Teachers can even teach remotely, or from behind a plexiglass barrier if they want.

10 minutes rather than 5 between classes to reduce concentrations of people... maybe even stagger schedules where one schedule block starts at 900 and ends at 950 while the other starts at 830 and ends at 920... gel in, gel out as in healthcare.

(08-12-2020 09:00 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  How about some version of.... School from home if you can, school from school if you must?

If you have sufficient resources, support and discipline to school from home, you do that. If not, you go to school. You attend classes virtually at the same time they're being taught in person. In person learning now has a smaller number of students in each class... social distancing. Teachers can even teach remotely, or from behind a plexiglass barrier if they want.

10 minutes rather than 5 between classes to reduce concentrations of people... maybe even stagger schedules where one schedule block starts at 900 and ends at 950 while the other starts at 830 and ends at 920... gel in, gel out as in healthcare.

Reasonable, IMO.

The only questions I have is who decides which student have sufficient resources and which do not, and on what grounds.

My grandkids certainly have what I call sufficient resources - a supportive family, a safe place to work, family working from home, up to date computers. But most of all, they have a will to learn and to graduate.

I have more concern for the kids with less resources - the ones with a single parent household in which the parent goes out to work, and who may be less self-motivating. Kids who would be at risk of dropping out even if there was no pandemic.

My grandson has a college grad at home to help him. Summa *** laude, no less. My stepgrandaughter has a college grad at home, too.

(08-12-2020 09:20 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  The only questions I have is who decides which student have sufficient resources and which do not, and on what grounds.

Maybe it's as simple as... If you're on the honor roll, you/your parents get to decide. If you're failing anything or have accommodations that can't be met at home, you need to be in class. For the low achievers, I guess we'd have to see what happens with their grades.

You can't make people come to school under these circumstances, as long as they're doing the work and passing.

I'm guessing there will be plenty of debates, but at least it would address potential truancy in that if kids aren't in school, they're supposed to be 'in school' at home from 8-3 or so

Yes, kids with no parent at home should be in school. Latchkey isn't good.