Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

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lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Don't shoot the messenger here and don't throw shade at my cool dad. He mentioned an interesting idea someone had about children returning to the classroom with someone who might be willing to physically watch the kids while teachers who wish to teach remotely can? The classroom supervisor could play video lessons from the teacher at a safe distance, etc. Like maybe a college student internship type program. I have two young teacher friends who want to go back so not every teacher is going to opt out. Anything is better than a full disruption on educating kids who need it in a brick and mortar setting. I don't flipping know 😜😂
Education students already do in-classroom work.

How is teachers missing weeks not a full disruption?

Back to school or not is only debatable because no one in authority has said this is when/how you should or this is when/how you shouldn’t return to schools.
On the topic of Disney, I can say with confidence, it would be great if my school system was as buttoned up and prepared as wdw seems to be.
The CDC and AAP have both released guidelines. Community spread is going to be different for each place.
 

Jedijax719

Well-Known Member
Honestly asking..., are positive rates for other infectious diseases under 1%? Seriously, I'm honestly asking. I could Google it, but I know that you already know or at least will figure it out. But if the rate of positive is under 1% for other infections, that would definitely make your post more valid , in my own opinion of course...which isnt much in the larger scheme of life.
Yes. Absolutely. In almost all other infectious diseases, you show symptoms VERY quickly. For the flu, it's within hours. COVID-19 can stay dormant and thus is very "invisible". That is just one of many things that sucks about this disease. Sucks, sucks, sucks. I can respect and fully understand both sides of the argument about keeping kids home and having no choice but to send them to school. For many, it is an EXTREMELY stressful situation and decision and for many they don't even have a choice.

But for all the difficulty in whether to send them or keep them home or the distress of having no choice either way, I cannot accept the argument that "COVID-19 just doesn't affect kids". The numbers support less effect on kids, but that's not anything to go by when deciding for an entire society. The decisions come down to, as they painfully should, what is best for that particular family. I would hate to think that someone would send their child to school and not be at least somewhat nervous for their child. I know we will be.
 

Jwink

Well-Known Member
Dr. doofenshmirtz is somewhere smiling right now....not even Phineas and Ferb can save Christmas this time ;););)

I think she meant Christmas parties at the parks not Christmas in general...at least I hope. So far the North Pole has no confirmed cases of Covid, but they have a travel ban on FL, TX, AZ and Brazil so Santa has to quarantine for 14 days when he gets back from delivering the gifts.
My son asked me if we have to wipe the presents Santa will bring or is Santa magic enough to not have Coronavirus 😂😂😂
 

Dizneykid

Active Member
It’s not an easy call. The biggest question is what do you do when kids get sick? Unless you want the plan to be just let everyone keep going to school even if they are sick there has to be some kind of other plan. When a kid gets sick that kid must quarantine but do you quarantine all the kids in that class too? Do you get them all tested before they can come back? That seems to be the plan most places. That can be pretty disruptive to education too especially when test results take days or weeks to come back. If your kid has multiple kids in their class test positive in different weeks how many times do you want to have to take them to be tested? It’s disruptive and frightening for the kids too. Being in physical school for a week, then at home in quarantine for a week or 2 then back to physical school for a few weeks then someone else gets sick and you are back home on another quarantine. Pretty soon that becomes more disruptive than having full time distance learning. It’s especially going to be a problem in places where community spread is widespread and rampant because the chances of kids and staff coming in infected is much higher.

Interesting points and ultimately there are no flawless ideas. It really depends heavily on how many kids are expected to spread it at all. There is research to suggest that they aren't often transmitting it and some studies say that no teacher has ever even been infected by a student. I know of two families that will have to quit a job they love to accomodate distance learning. Someone is disrupted either way. Education is essential. Does the data support bubble wrapping kids and teachers? And for how long? I don't think the virus is going anywhere. In fact, a local hospital has 8 infected employees from one patient. They have the most protective gear and there's still no perfect safeguard.

Teachers are not babysitters. Nobody said that either. That's why the suggestion was for someone else to oversee the classroom physically and the teachers who wish to would provide an online curriculum for those in-class students. Never said it was the best idea but it's something 😂 Many teachers want to go back to work. My friend is 25 and loved her job. She's been restless waiting to go back.

If teachers don't go back, I assume they would need to devote full time work-from-home days to video curriculums. What will they do with their own school age children?

More questions than answers and it's almost August.
 
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GoofGoof

Premium Member
Interesting points and ultimately there are no flawless ideas. It really depends heavily on how many kids are expected to spread it at all. There is research to suggest that they aren't often transmitting it and some studies say that no teacher has ever even been infected by a student. I know of two families that will have to quit a job they love to accomodate distance learning. Someone is disrupted either way. Education is essential. Does the data support bubble wrapping kids and teachers? And for how long? I don't think the virus is going anywhere. In fact, a local hospital has 8 infected employees from one patient. They have the most protective gear and there's still no perfect safeguard.

Teachers are not babysitters. Nobody said that either. That's why the suggestion was for someone else to oversee the classroom physically and the teachers who wish to would provide an online curriculum for those in-class students. Never said it was the best idea but it's something 😂 Many teachers want to go back to work. My friend is 25 and loved her job. She's been restless waiting to go back.

If teachers don't go back, I assume they would need to devote full time work-from-home days to video curriculums. What will they do with their own school age children?

More questions than answers and it's almost August.
In an academic debate I think it’s fine to take the position that “it doesn’t spread amongst kids”, but in practical real life we just don’t know that that is true. So if the plan is open schools and assume kids won’t spread the virus then what happens if that doesn’t turn out to be true. We are right back to last March where there is no solid plan for distance learning. Schools need to make plans assuming distance learning will be the reality. Distance learning was a train wreck last spring because there was no time to prepare and get resources lined up to do it better. Colleges did much better because so many already had the infrastructure to do remote classes. It’s harder the younger the kids are, but there are much better ways that it can be done.

On the point of parents needing to miss work for distance learning, what did they do with their kids from March until the end of the school year and all summer? A lot of daycare and camps and stuff were either delayed or never opened. Also, won’t the same problem pop up if/when their kids have to stay home for 14 day periods while quarantining? They will still miss a lot of work. I think employers need to be flexible...like they were last March. Nothing has really changed.

On this issue with teachers not wanting to go back, it’s a straw man argument for the most part. There are some teachers who don’t want to go back to work just like there were some CMs at WDW and grocery store workers and bus drivers who didn’t want to go back. I haven’t heard of a single school district that said they were doing all virtual learning because of the teachers. It’s a political talking point to call people selfish and throw in the buzz word about not being afraid of a virus. There are real issues with education that need to be addressed that have nothing to do with politics and the answer can’t be just go back and hope it all goes well. We need to do better than that.
 

Dizneykid

Active Member
In an academic debate I think it’s fine to take the position that “it doesn’t spread amongst kids”, but in practical real life we just don’t know that that is true. So if the plan is open schools and assume kids won’t spread the virus then what happens if that doesn’t turn out to be true. We are right back to last March where there is no solid plan for distance learning. Schools need to make plans assuming distance learning will be the reality. Distance learning was a train wreck last spring because there was no time to prepare and get resources lined up to do it better. Colleges did much better because so many already had the infrastructure to do remote classes. It’s harder the younger the kids are, but there are much better ways that it can be done.

On the point of parents needing to miss work for distance learning, what did they do with their kids from March until the end of the school year and all summer? A lot of daycare and camps and stuff were either delayed or never opened. Also, won’t the same problem pop up if/when their kids have to stay home for 14 day periods while quarantining? They will still miss a lot of work. I think employers need to be flexible...like they were last March. Nothing has really changed.

On this issue with teachers not wanting to go back, it’s a straw man argument for the most part. There are some teachers who don’t want to go back to work just like there were some CMs at WDW and grocery store workers and bus drivers who didn’t want to go back. I haven’t heard of a single school district that said they were doing all virtual learning because of the teachers. It’s a political talking point to call people selfish and throw in the buzz word about not being afraid of a virus. There are real issues with education that need to be addressed that have nothing to do with politics and the answer can’t be just go back and hope it all goes well. We need to do better than that.

I didn't call anyone selfish. I hope that wasn't your insinuation.

Like I said, teachers will be expected to do a lot of work with distance learning curriculums. Who will watch their own kids and how will they be educated? Falling behind pretty much happened with every kid this year. I never thought it would ever be extended into this school year too.

To answer your question, our friend has relied on her sister to watch her kid since March. It's been tough. They can't afford daycare or whatever the alternative even was for working parents with school age kids. She also was not planning to ask her sister to babysit beyond this summer and is in a bad spot right now. Full panic.
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
Numbers are out -

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GoofGoof

Premium Member
I didn't call anyone selfish. I hope that wasn't your insinuation.

Like I said, teachers will be expected to do a lot of work with distance learning curriculums. Who will watch their own kids and how will they be educated? Falling behind pretty much happened with every kid this year. I never thought it would ever be extended into this school year too.

To answer your question, our friend has relied on her sister to watch her kid since March. It's been tough. They can't afford daycare or whatever the alternative even was for working parents with school age kids. She also was not planning to ask her sister to babysit beyond this summer and is in a bad spot right now. Full panic.
No, not you on the selfish thing. That’s just a general comment I’ve seen a lot from the ”school must go back” crowd.

I think the reality is that there’s little hope of school just going back to normal. It’s going to be a tough situation for a while longer no matter what. What we should have been doing is focusing on being flexible and beefing up the virtual option for if/when it’s needed. There are better ways to do things virtually and I don’t blame teachers for being unprepared in the spring when this happened. We probably also should have prioritized school over things like bars and even theme parks. If the community spread wasn’t so out of control in a lot of places a return to physical school would have a better shot of being successful and much less disruptive.

Teachers have a tough job right now. When a teacher‘s own kids either test positive or have to quarantine because a classmate did what do they do? They may need to miss 2 weeks of school to stay home with their own kids. I know my school district is scrambling to expand their substitute teacher pool. None of it is easy to figure out.
 

seabreezept813

Well-Known Member
I didn't call anyone selfish. I hope that wasn't your insinuation.

Like I said, teachers will be expected to do a lot of work with distance learning curriculums. Who will watch their own kids and how will they be educated? Falling behind pretty much happened with every kid this year. I never thought it would ever be extended into this school year too.

To answer your question, our friend has relied on her sister to watch her kid since March. It's been tough. They can't afford daycare or whatever the alternative even was for working parents with school age kids. She also was not planning to ask her sister to babysit beyond this summer and is in a bad spot right now. Full panic.

Distance learning is a lot of work. I managed to teach my full curriculum last year despite the shutdown with my 2 year old and 16 year old stepdaughter home. It wasn’t easy but I would still choose that until we know kids and staff will be safe. I think distance learning should be continued until we are on the other end of the second wave or a vaccine, whichever comes first. Numbers might be down in some places now, but history keeps telling us we will have another intense bout of this virus. We expect a tough fall, so if we prepare in advance we can keep students on track with the right resources and then get them back in the buildings in a more comfortable way.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
In an academic debate I think it’s fine to take the position that “it doesn’t spread amongst kids”, but in practical real life we just don’t know that that is true. So if the plan is open schools and assume kids won’t spread the virus then what happens if that doesn’t turn out to be true. We are right back to last March where there is no solid plan for distance learning. Schools need to make plans assuming distance learning will be the reality. Distance learning was a train wreck last spring because there was no time to prepare and get resources lined up to do it better. Colleges did much better because so many already had the infrastructure to do remote classes. It’s harder the younger the kids are, but there are much better ways that it can be done.

On the point of parents needing to miss work for distance learning, what did they do with their kids from March until the end of the school year and all summer? A lot of daycare and camps and stuff were either delayed or never opened. Also, won’t the same problem pop up if/when their kids have to stay home for 14 day periods while quarantining? They will still miss a lot of work. I think employers need to be flexible...like they were last March. Nothing has really changed.

On this issue with teachers not wanting to go back, it’s a straw man argument for the most part. There are some teachers who don’t want to go back to work just like there were some CMs at WDW and grocery store workers and bus drivers who didn’t want to go back. I haven’t heard of a single school district that said they were doing all virtual learning because of the teachers. It’s a political talking point to call people selfish and throw in the buzz word about not being afraid of a virus. There are real issues with education that need to be addressed that have nothing to do with politics and the answer can’t be just go back and hope it all goes well. We need to do better than that.
It’s worth repeating that it doesn’t seem to be true that kids can’t spread the virus, or at least there is very significant doubt surrounding the issue. The article I posted above describes research showing that kids over 10 spread the virus as readily as anyone else. I’m not sure where the absolute conviction that kids can’t spread covid comes from, other then wishful thinking.
 

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
No, not you on the selfish thing. That’s just a general comment I’ve seen a lot from the ”school must go back” crowd.

I think the reality is that there’s little hope of school just going back to normal. It’s going to be a tough situation for a while longer no matter what. What we should have been doing is focusing on being flexible and beefing up the virtual option for if/when it’s needed. There are better ways to do things virtually and I don’t blame teachers for being unprepared in the spring when this happened. We probably also should have prioritized school over things like bars and even theme parks. If the community spread wasn’t so out of control in a lot of places a return to physical school would have a better shot of being successful and much less disruptive.
Have a feeling priority was weighed because of when in the school year this became more prevalent. Maybe it was looked at from a financial point of view: address getting people back to work and income taxes rolling in before spending more to get students back in a classroom and state unemployment funds being drained.
Tracing may have been easier keeping kids in school because at least there it is a somewhat controlled environment vs different patrons at bars, theme parks, ect.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Distance learning is a lot of work. I managed to teach my full curriculum last year despite the shutdown with my 2 year old and 16 year old stepdaughter home. It wasn’t easy but I would still choose that until we know kids and staff will be safe. I think distance learning should be continued until we are on the other end of the second wave or a vaccine, whichever comes first. Numbers might be down in some places now, but history keeps telling us we will have another intense bout of this virus. We expect a tough fall, so if we prepare in advance we can keep students on track with the right resources and then get them back in the buildings in a more comfortable way.
My district is planning to open physical schools in the fall, but I think most people feel it probably won’t last. They put a lot of time and effort into the virtual option as well which is supposed to be scalable so if/when all students have to go back to virtual it will be more seamless a transition than the spring was. I think it’s going to be so hard to keep things going once the cold and flu season starts up. The symptoms are so similar to Covid so there‘s going to be so many kids out sick that eventually the virtual option may be less disruptive. I’m hoping we get to Nov 1 at this point. This is also all based on the assumption that our local situation stays good and the case load stays low between now and Sept when schools open. If there’s a spike before then I am pretty sure they won’t ever get to the physical opening.
 

mellyf

Active Member
Well, kids are going to have a lot of substitutes for a lot longer if we aren't careful. More than a third of teachers are vulnerable to covid, so they may be out of the teaching pool to begin with. We will start to see outbreaks among the teachers who do start the year in-person. As that happens, other teachers will begin to balk in greater and greater numbers. The demand for substitutes, many of whom will themselves be unwilling to work due to comorbidities, will outpace supply. Schools will close due to these factors or due to uncontrolled outbreaks.

Schools do need to be open as soon as possible. But that requires planning many regions aren't willing to do, and that we aren't doing on a nation-wide level. It also probably required us to make some sacrifices - like opening up more cautiously, wearing masks more uniformly, and not opening theme parks - we weren't willing to make. You can't just yell, "OK, Schools open now."

We already have parents in our district who have started a petition against the mask requirement for all students and school staff. (although that requirement can be over-ridden by a dr's note). Because apparently what they see as their right to not wear a mask, or have their child wear a mask should over-ride the health of other students (and their families) and school staff (and their families).
 

Dizneykid

Active Member
Distance learning is a lot of work. I managed to teach my full curriculum last year despite the shutdown with my 2 year old and 16 year old stepdaughter home. It wasn’t easy but I would still choose that until we know kids and staff will be safe. I think distance learning should be continued until we are on the other end of the second wave or a vaccine, whichever comes first. Numbers might be down in some places now, but history keeps telling us we will have another intense bout of this virus. We expect a tough fall, so if we prepare in advance we can keep students on track with the right resources and then get them back in the buildings in a more comfortable way.

My guess is that your 16 year old was helping watch your 2 year old when you were busy? What about other parents? I understand your point of view, I sincerely do, but some teachers won't even have the ability to step away from their young child at home while they do work. Do they enroll a school age child into some daycare for 6 year olds that they can't afford? This is not one size fits all. I'm so confused by how this will work for every family.
 

xdan0920

Think for yourselfer
On this issue with teachers not wanting to go back, it’s a straw man argument for the most part. There are some teachers who don’t want to go back to work just like there were some CMs at WDW and grocery store workers and bus drivers who didn’t want to go back. I haven’t heard of a single school district that said they were doing all virtual learning because of the teachers. It’s a political talking point to call people selfish and throw in the buzz word about not being afraid of a virus. There are real issues with education that need to be addressed that have nothing to do with politics and the answer can’t be just go back and hope it all goes well. We need to do better than that.
You’re wrong about this. Go look to any statement put out by a teachers union.

 

seabreezept813

Well-Known Member
My guess is that your 16 year old was helping watch your 2 year old when you were busy? What about other parents? I understand your point of view, I sincerely do, but some teachers won't even have the ability to step away from their young child at home while they do work. Do they enroll a school age child into some daycare for 6 year olds that they can't afford? This is not one size fits all. I'm so confused by how this will work for every family.

Actually my husband worked overtime during the shutdown because he’s a truck driver. So during school hours he wasn’t home and when he was home he had to sleep so he could function at his job. My stepdaughter could only help minimally because she had 6 classes of her own including AP classes to keep up with and stayed with her mom every other week. Like I said it wasn’t easy I worked late nights prepping after my daughter went to bed and during class time set up stations near my work station with puzzles, coloring, toys etc. I attended most meetings that I wasn’t running with a mute option so as not to disturb the meetings.
I agree that childcare isn’t easy and thibk part of the solution is that community could come together to help.. parents, neighbors, etc could do rotations.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
You’re wrong about this. Go look to any statement put out by a teachers union.

So you are saying there are districts in NJ who are planing to go to all virtual because of the union? Which ones? It says right in the article you posted that the governor still favors a return to physical schools and I know from a bunch of co-workers that the districts their kids are in are mostly doing a hybrid approach with physical school and a virtual option. The union represents the teachers so of course they are going to be in favor of whatever is most safe for their members. Just like the union for some of the workers at WDW was opposed to re-opening the parks. Unlike the Disney situation teacher’s unions don’t have to worry about their members going unpaid if physical school is cancelled so there’s not much of a downside for them.
 

seabreezept813

Well-Known Member
Actually my husband worked overtime during the shutdown because he’s a truck driver. So during school hours he wasn’t home and when he was home he had to sleep so he could function at his job. My stepdaughter could only help minimally because she had 6 classes of her own including AP classes to keep up with and stayed with her mom every other week. Like I said it wasn’t easy I worked late nights prepping after my daughter went to bed and during class time set up stations near my work station with puzzles, coloring, toys etc. I attended most meetings that I wasn’t running with a mute option so as not to disturb the meetings.
I agree that childcare isn’t easy and thibk part of the solution is that community could come together to help.. parents, neighbors, etc could do rotations.
But the can’t send a kid to daycare or pay childcare argument is flawed because any kid under 5 requires daycare. So how did they get taken care of then? Schools really are supposed to be about education and teaching , not childcare centers. What I think would work for teachers if distance learning is continued is to allow them optional access to their classrooms 1-2 days a week where they could prep, access resources, record lessons distraction free.
 
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