I’m pretty sure that I’ve got it, that I understand what our choices are concerning the resumption of school in a few weeks. Putting aside the fact that it seems like we only finished last year’s school session a few weeks ago, there has been a lot of confusion about what exactly our options were. Dozens of people were consulted, surveys were sent out and returned, a new superintendent was hired. It’s possible that I misunderstood last week’s plan for in-person schooling but it looks a lot different to me than this week’s.
I’m not trying to sound snarky, I don’t envy those that are trying to make these decisions and even more so don’t envy those that have to try and explain them or deal with the wrath of those that don’t agree with them. I live in a conservative part of a liberal state, a rural area that has been mostly left unscathed by the virus. My work at a hospital that saw some overflow from bigger cities closer to New York City has given me a different perspective from other townspeople not afraid to fill community Facebook groups and online opinion sections with their ideas about mask-wearing and secret government agendas.
There are also different plans for different schools in town, dependent on those surveys and how many kids are expected to be returning and how many are expected to continue learning from home. At my daughter’s school, enough people are choosing to send their children back that a hybrid model is being adapted. In order to keep the class sizes small enough and ensure proper cleaning half of the children will go to school Monday and Tuesday and the other half will go Thursday and Friday. The rest of the week will be the distance learning, the on-line model that we had when everything originally went to shit, and that some are choosing to just do full time.
It’s the same plan that many other schools seem to be following, the best way to get some of the kids back in the classroom and allow some parents to get back to work without bankrupting them with childcare costs while also acknowledging that it just isn’t safe to have all of these kids crowded together five days a week pretending that nothing is out of the ordinary.
Mike Tyson once had a really good quote about that. He said that “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
I’m not a religious person but I pray that doesn’t happen, that the return to school that seems to be most important to those also most willing to ignore science and educated individuals doesn’t lead to further escalation of a situation that in many places is already out of hand.
It’s a real easy decision to make from up here on this high horse. It’s not always financially convenient but my daughter’s mother and I arranged our work schedules so that we never needed day care, so that one of us was off pretty much all the time to be with her. It took away almost all of my free time but I’ll admit that both she and I enjoyed the extra time together that came when school was suspended in March. She missed her friends but we’ve been spending time with several other families that we trust to take the same steps that we are to continue to limit risk and contact with many people outside of our circle. We’ve discussed some form of potential learning pod so that they can continue to socialize while distance learning but whether or not that comes to fruition I’m hopeful that this fall is much less isolated than the spring turned out to be.
Many others don’t have these luxuries. Besides those sharing their infectious disease expertise and opinions on the effectiveness of masks, the school system’s Facebook forum is filled with cries from those that don’t know how to balance this limited school week with being able to work. For many being forced to try and help their children learn from home is simply not a viable option, for any number of reasons. People’s lives were arranged around the assumption that for ten months of the year our children were going to be somewhere being taught by professionals that were trained to do that.
I don’t know the answer, nobody does. There really isn’t one, a hard concept to accept. I saw a quote recently, attributed only to an unknown school superintendent stating that “in the end, it will be impossible to know if we overreacted or did too much, but it will be quite apparent if we under reacted or did too little.” It’s my opinion that too many in this country continue to under-react and do too little and I’m pessimistic about how long even this limited return to school is going to last.
This sucks guys, for everybody, and I wish you all luck no matter what you decide is best for your family. For the time being, we’re just going to stay right here.
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Previously Published on Thirsty Daddy
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