I am confused by the people who keep saying children are less affected. Less is not none and while so far it seems like they do not easily spread the virus, they still can. You are then putting susceptible adults in an enclosed room with 30-40 kids for 6 or 7 hours a day. Do that every day for 7-8 months and you don’t think that even with the low odds they are gong to start infecting the teachers and school staff? What do you do with them then? Tell the teachers to suck it up? How many are you going to find that are willing to come into that situation as you lose the ones that quit out of concern for their own safety or actually get sick?
I am also confused by the people who seem to equate delayed in person schooling to some kind of life long death sentence. Kids are resilient and will recover. They will still get their education. They can still learn. Even if we had to close all schools for a year (no I am not suggesting we do this) they could start at that same grade level next year and continue on. Children get held back for various reasons all the time and still turn out okay.
Better yet, why can’t we try something creative. We have colleges reopening so use them. You have tons of collage age kids who are also lower on the risk scale who are seeking a degree in education. They could staff at risk teachers’ rooms using rotating internships while the teacher themselves remote in and monitor and do most of the actual teaching. That way you have someone to physically be there with the kids allowing parents to do what they need to do while the trained professional (teacher) is still providing the planning and lesson structure. By doing so we continue the education of the young and give invaluable experience to upcoming educators while also minimize risk across the board.
I am sure there are tons of holes in that idea but why not try something? Why just back to normal when things are anything but right now?
