As a retired teacher (U.K.) I just want to say that missing school for most pupils will not hinder their life chances.
1. I have taught many pupils who arrived with no English and within 6-12 months have equal, or in a surprising number of cases, surpassed their classmates in knowledge and understanding.
2. Sadly I have also taught children with long term illnesses, such as cancer, which has meant them having a year or more out of school and again within 6 months, as long as they have remained healthy, they have achieved the levels expected of them pre diagnosis.
3. In rural Australia, even pre computer, long distance learning was the normal, primarily through radio like CB sets enabling pupils and teachers to communicate.
I do however agree that the social aspect of school is vital. Playtimes were always my favourite part of the day and probably the time when my imagination ran riot, strangely Maths was probably my second favourite. It is also necessary for parents to be able to do their jobs, whether from home or at work and for this younger children need to be cared for, fed and educated.
Essential workers have had no choice but to send their children to school (in the U.K. schools have remained open, even during holidays, for these workers) and teachers have had to work in school, though not every day and prepare online lessons and undertake zoom and such like lessons. This is a very arduous regime! Teachers are scared for their health and that of their families, a proportion of them have some form of risk, obesity, diabetes, race, high blood pressure etc. and are torn between the duty they owe to themselves, their families and their pupils. Opening schools in a non staggered way will only add to that anxiety. Just as people on this forum feel that opening up states too quickly has caused problems, teachers feel the same about schools. Have a % of pupils for a week at a time then swap over, whilst allowing essential workers to continue to send their children, try this for 6 weeks and if there has been little or no infection and the trends in the area remain acceptable then increase the %. Classrooms are small and there are not enough spare rooms or spare teachers to allow the smaller classes that would be safer. So time in and out would be safer for the pupils and their families and for the teachers as they would still be interacting with all pupils but from a safer distance! Face shield and masks should be provided for all! Normality should be achieved eventually if everyone just stays patient a bit longer and then WDW here we come!
Apologies if this is off topic or political but I am replying to an education discussion a couple of pages ago.
www.nytimes.com
