Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

Status
Not open for further replies.

Chi84

Premium Member
Not really disagreeing with any of this, but it's also not _just_ that. There's also a huge economic problem here too. Too many families are disadvantaged and don't have computers or even home internet (although they might have smart phones). I'm not sure how to solve that without a lot of money. Ideally, every school would go all-in on home learning and create a full plan including both the virtual environment as well as working out how to provide every student with internet and devices.
One thing I've been wondering about is how home learning is working in families where both parents have jobs that require them to work outside the home during the day. If a family is so disadvantaged that it doesn't have computers or internet, is it likely there is a parent home to supervise home learning? Maybe the answer is that so many people have arranged to work from home that it's not that much of a problem.

I know these boards skew older and wealthier than the general public, and I'm not really interested in judgmental statements about using teachers as babysitters or not caring about spreading the virus or how many people die, etc. But many families depend on two incomes to survive, and I'm curious as to how they're weathering the impact of home learning now. Maybe the answer is that there is no good answer - but the economic impact of home learning has to be hitting some families harder than others.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
One thing I've been wondering about is how home learning is working in families where both parents have jobs that require them to work outside the home during the day. If a family is so disadvantaged that it doesn't have computers or internet, is it likely there is a parent home to supervise home learning? Maybe the answer is that so many people have arranged to work from home that it's not that much of a problem.

I know these boards skew older and wealthier than the general public, and I'm not really interested in judgmental statements about using teachers as babysitters or not caring about spreading the virus or how many people die, etc. But many families depend on two incomes to survive, and I'm curious as to how they're weathering the impact of home learning now. Maybe the answer is that there is no good answer - but the economic impact of home learning has to be hitting some families harder than others.
I think the answer is there is no good answer. I know that my kid’s district gave this as a reason they made the call to go all virtual at the end of July instead of waiting. They wanted to at least give people the opportunity to come up with a plan rather than springing it on them last minute.

From the people I know of in this situation some are arranging groups with other kids. Several families I know setup study groups with 3 or 4 kids doing the remote learning together. They are rotating locations but several of the families involved have shift workers who aren’t always working Mon-Fri. The kids are still exposed to each other, but better than being on a bus, in a lunch room or school yard and in class with so many more kids.

I also know a few families that are using a grandparent who is retired to be around for learning during the day. Obviously there’s some risk there for an elderly person, but if the kids are all remote learning there’s much less risk than if they were in physical school. I know these same families were not comfortable using the grandparents as the backup should physical school open and the kids have to stay home sick and/or quarantine. Then the risk is much higher since the kids would be at school with lots of other kids and home because they were either sick themselves or in direct contact with a sick person. In my area the YMCA was also opening for remote learning groups. Originally it was only open to first responders and healthcare workers but they have expanded that now. Not the ideal situation for virus spread, but if you don’t have an alternative its better than nothing.
 

MrHorse

Active Member
One thing I've been wondering about is how home learning is working in families where both parents have jobs that require them to work outside the home during the day.

A lot of my friends are in this boat. Admittedly schools are just now opening up, but not much has changed since the end of the prior year.
  • For about 1/3 of them, one or both parents are working from home which helps. (Though try actually getting a day of work done while simultaneously taking care of a child...)
  • Some are leaning on grandparents and other family.
  • Some are juggling schedules, putting one parent on night-shift, etc, trying to make it work.
  • In a couple of cases, one parent had to quit or take a leave of absence. (Who knows if their job will actually be there when this blows over...)
  • Some have one child that is old enough to watch the others during the day.
  • The single parents with young children are a mess.
 

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
One thing I've been wondering about is how home learning is working in families where both parents have jobs that require them to work outside the home during the day. If a family is so disadvantaged that it doesn't have computers or internet, is it likely there is a parent home to supervise home learning? Maybe the answer is that so many people have arranged to work from home that it's not that much of a problem.

I know these boards skew older and wealthier than the general public, and I'm not really interested in judgmental statements about using teachers as babysitters or not caring about spreading the virus or how many people die, etc. But many families depend on two incomes to survive, and I'm curious as to how they're weathering the impact of home learning now. Maybe the answer is that there is no good answer - but the economic impact of home learning has to be hitting some families harder than others.
We're seeing EXACTLY why it was so foolish to allow the cost of living to reach a point where any acceptable quality of life for a family often requires two working adults.
 

ABQ

Well-Known Member
We lost our team here in Atlanta a few years ago and I was quite depressed. I'm going to hop on the Kraken bandwagon now and get in on the ground level haha
You had two chances and blew them both.

1597245142237.png
 

Andrew C

You know what's funny?
any acceptable quality of life for a family often requires two working adults.
Two working parents have been pushed by society for decades now. Cost of living followed. Obviously, bringing more women into the workforce is a net positive. But there are also downfalls to having both parents work, which has been ignored by most as to not offend.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Two working parents have been pushed by society for decades now. Cost of living followed. Obviously, bringing more women into the workforce is a net positive. But there are also downfalls to having both parents work, which has been ignored by most as to not offend.
As a society we have also lost our sense of community. When I was very young my mom didn’t work and my dad did shift work as a firefighter. We always had neighbor kids over (especially in the summer) if/when one or both parents had to work during the week. It was fun as a kid always having other kids around, but my mom admits today that part of the reason she went back to work was she got sick of always watching other people’s kids all the time. She never took a dime from anyone for it. Things were different back then.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
I think the answer is there is no good answer. I know that my kid’s district gave this as a reason they made the call to go all virtual at the end of July instead of waiting. They wanted to at least give people the opportunity to come up with a plan rather than springing it on them last minute.

From the people I know of in this situation some are arranging groups with other kids. Several families I know setup study groups with 3 or 4 kids doing the remote learning together. They are rotating locations but several of the families involved have shift workers who aren’t always working Mon-Fri. The kids are still exposed to each other, but better than being on a bus, in a lunch room or school yard and in class with so many more kids.

I also know a few families that are using a grandparent who is retired to be around for learning during the day. Obviously there’s some risk there for an elderly person, but if the kids are all remote learning there’s much less risk than if they were in physical school. I know these same families were not comfortable using the grandparents as the backup should physical school open and the kids have to stay home sick and/or quarantine. Then the risk is much higher since the kids would be at school with lots of other kids and home because they were either sick themselves or in direct contact with a sick person. In my area the YMCA was also opening for remote learning groups. Originally it was only open to first responders and healthcare workers but they have expanded that now. Not the ideal situation for virus spread, but if you don’t have an alternative its better than nothing.
Thanks for giving a thoughtful answer based on reality and not wishful thinking lol. The virus that is forcing people to isolate is bringing some together in ways we didn't imagine would happen.

I was thinking in terms of disadvantaged families, but whether one likes it or not, there are many two-career families these days. I think it would be difficult for anyone to take time out from his or her career to stay home with the kids and supervise home learning. Hopefully, this won't last too much longer and families be able to weather the storm with a limited amount of damage.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
A lot of my friends are in this boat. Admittedly schools are just now opening up, but not much has changed since the end of the prior year.
  • For about 1/3 of them, one or both parents are working from home which helps. (Though try actually getting a day of work done while simultaneously taking care of a child...)
  • Some are leaning on grandparents and other family.
  • Some are juggling schedules, putting one parent on night-shift, etc, trying to make it work.
  • In a couple of cases, one parent had to quit or take a leave of absence. (Who knows if their job will actually be there when this blows over...)
  • Some have one child that is old enough to watch the others during the day.
  • The single parents with young children are a mess.
Thanks for the reply. My daughter and son-in-law are struggling with this, although their situation involves daycare being closed rather than a home schooling issue. He's a nurse; she is trying to work from home, but as you noted, it's not easy to get anything done. I can't imagine how my husband and I would have managed when we were both working. Hopefully, employers, along with everyone else, will try to bend as much as possible to accommodate this unprecedented problem.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Thanks for giving a thoughtful answer based on reality and not wishful thinking lol. The virus that is forcing people to isolate is bringing some together in ways we didn't imagine would happen.

I was thinking in terms of disadvantaged families, but whether one likes it or not, there are many two-career families these days. I think it would be difficult for anyone to take time out from his or her career to stay home with the kids and supervise home learning. Hopefully, this won't last too much longer and families be able to weather the storm with a limited amount of damage.
There are definitely no easy answers. I think the CARE act did have some need based funds available for people who had to miss work due to childcare but not sure if that expired with the unemployment benefit. In some cases if it’s possible people may be flexing their work schedules. I have a few people working for me who are pretty much unavailable from 9-3 while school will be going on so they just work later into the night. I know it’s not possible if you work retail or healthcare in a lot of cases. People just need to be as flexible as possible, both workers and employers. Hopefully it’s not the whole school year.
 

Mark52479

Well-Known Member
Take todays numbers with a HUGE grain of salt.

There was a Massive data dump in Dade county today from a lab. One single lab reported over 14,000 tests in one day.

ALL counties in Florida were pretty much the same or less cases than the previous day. Broward and Palm Beach counties way down in positivity rate.
Dade county had the massive dump which is why we see todays numbers so high
 

Attachments

  • Capture.JPG
    Capture.JPG
    31.1 KB · Views: 64

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Take todays numbers with a HUGE grain of salt.

There was a Massive data dump in Dade county today from a lab. One single lab reported over 14,000 tests in one day.

ALL counties in Florida were pretty much the same or less cases than the previous day. Broward and Palm Beach counties way down in positivity rate.
Dade county had the massive dump which is why we see todays numbers so high
Makes sense. That’s probably why the numbers were down the last few days. That’s a good reason to look at weekly averages instead of daily numbers.
 

Andrew C

You know what's funny?
This following is becoming my opinion more and more each day. The virus isn’t going anywhere. Either need a vaccine soon or just get used to living with it until it burns through the population. Europe seems to bought themselves some time. Maybe now that time is running out. If a vaccine doesn’t come...

 
Last edited:

phi2134

Well-Known Member
This is becoming my opinion more and more each day. The virus isn’t going anywhere. Either need a vaccine soon or just get used to living with it until it burns through the population. Europe seems to bought themselves some time. Maybe now that time is running out. If a vaccine doesn’t come...

As much as I hate to admit it, this I think is where we are at. We had a chance to contain it somewhat, but that window came and went extremely fast. Hopefully it will be a huge wake up call to the government and people in general that we can't contain an infectious disease unless we work together and take it seriously.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom