Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[quandrea]

Home schooling now seems smart, or virtual classrooms, etc. But for parents that home schooled before Covid, what was the reason. Personally I loved school . It exposes you also to many different people, experiences, cultures, etc., etc. At least my school did. Why do people home school (not including Covid). Are their schools in a bad areas? Do they not want their kids to experience other things and control their world views? Do they think school is bad and what do they feel is bad about it? Just curious, not judging. Do you worry it is limiting or lonely for your children? Personally never knew anyone that was home schooled or home schooled their kids so that was why I ask.

We homeschool because our school district is poor. We tried the school when we moved here, but the pace moved too slowly for my daughter. We’d toyed with the idea of homeschooling prior to our move, so we pulled our daughter. That was nine years ago and now I’ve added our twins to the mix. So we do it for academic reasons. I do think the public education system has serious problems with curriculum delivery. They get a basically private school education without us having to pay private school tuition.

They are not socially isolated. I have, however, had to take initiative over the years (especially when they were little) to ensure they saw their friends. Now that they are 16, 11 and 11, they do that for themselves. They are active in competitive sports (although not now with Covid). I’m a teacher by profession and I prefer that socialising be kept out of school. My kids know that when we do school, they work. Socialising is for their off hours. My experience classroom teaching was that socialising Was often a barrier to learning.

My eldest daughter did go off to bricks and mortar high school. With Covid she has happily returned to homeschooling for her final year of high school. Her decision.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It's learning pods because the kids are broken up by ages and placed in the appropriate classroom. The age span of those who are accepted into the program are from 1-12.

They are not putting 1-year olds with 12-year olds.

Learning pods as they have been discussed in COVID-era lingo are in the context of schools most especially when going remote or for smaller in-person instruction. Your first comment was about providing daycare. Sure academics may be occurring there but it's functioning as a daycare primarily at least that's the way it sounded.

It appears that the primary reason your district is doing this is because the staff have kids who need supervision since they will be in-person; not trying to put words in your district's mouths but that appeared to be the context in which it was brought up. The staff/teachers are working away from home and unable to supervise their children. I guess it's one thing if all the staff and teachers would have chosen to send their 1-12 year olds to this early childhood development center and now basically are just not having to pay but I would imagine it's more like other areas where they would have been grappling with what to do with their own children just as parents are with theirs. Don't get me wrong though I think it's lovely they are doing this

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Looking at virus spread, I think, it’s more than equivalent. If you sit near someone in a theater for an extended period of time versus sit at a desk near someone for an extended period of time. How is this any different when talking about virus spread?

However like I said they are able to space you out. You aren't sitting next to someone unless it's within your group. That's at least in all the theaters I heard that are even open. AMC will be operating on a 30% theater capacity or less (depending on government requirements) and you are to leave at least a seat between you and the next group (unless with recliners that are wider seats to begin with).

Unfortunately like it or not schools cannot do such reduction in capacity. You wouldn't realistically be able to take a classroom that has 30 kids for instance and remove 20 of them leaving just 10 so they can be spaced out (that's using the 30% capacity AMC mentions) because where are those other 20 kids supposed to go? Especially if the school doesn't have enough room (which realistically many don't) A movie theater isn't an education system wherein you sell tickets and can just simply choose to limit how many you sell. So for schooling they would have to rely on a certain percentage of families choosing remote/virtual. It's why schools are trying all sorts of plans that look and sound wacky to most of us because they are trying to grapple with hundreds to potentially several thousands of kids all in one building.

A concession (no pun intended lol) with movie theaters we haven't had them open in enough markets to really get a handle on spread on them if they negatively contribute to them. So they could just be the worst of the worst though we've been wrong before on risk levels for activities. I think at this point it was the perception of indoor that did movie theaters in when reopening plans were being formulated that's why I said I think the ventilation system is where it comes more into play.

 

[RamblingMad]

However like I said they are able to space you out. You aren't sitting next to someone unless it's within your group. That's at least in all the theaters I heard that are even open. AMC will be operating on a 30% theater capacity or less (depending on government requirements) and you are to leave at least a seat between you and the next group (unless with recliners that are wider seats to begin with).

Unfortunately like it or not schools cannot do such reduction in capacity. You wouldn't realistically be able to take a classroom that has 30 kids for instance and remove 20 of them leaving just 10 so they can be spaced out (that's using the 30% capacity AMC mentions) because where are those other 20 kids supposed to go? Especially if the school doesn't have enough room (which realistically many don't) A movie theater isn't an education system wherein you sell tickets and can just simply choose to limit how many you sell. So for schooling they would have to rely on a certain percentage of families choosing remote/virtual. It's why schools are trying all sorts of plans that look and sound wacky to most of us because they are trying to grapple with hundreds to potentially several thousands of kids all in one building.

A concession (no pun intended lol) with movie theaters we haven't had them open in enough markets to really get a handle on spread on them if they negatively contribute to them. So they could just be the worst of the worst though we've been wrong before on risk levels for activities. I think at this point it was the perception of indoor that did movie theaters in when reopening plans were being formulated that's why I said I think the ventilation system is where it comes more into play.

Maybe school districts should rent out theaters to spread out their students.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe school districts should rent out theaters to spread out their students.

lol I'm sure you're joking but at this rate I don't think the movie theaters would pass up that opportunity for income

 

[DisneyOma]

People keep saying this, and it's really an unfair and unacceptable comparison. It is absolutely unrealistic to compare 2020 to the 1800's; there is just no comparison in all of life between today and back then.

Why not? Can't we learn from the past? Are we really stuck with commercialism and industrialization?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Why not? Can't we learn from the past? Are we really stuck with commercialism and industrialization?

The past was only wealthier white men had an education. Is that what you're asking us to go back to? I'm really confused. You asked what parents did before public education. That time period before mass public education was when we were not where we are today. We didn't have many minorities educated much less women, and children were seen as labor only really. Are you asking us to go back to that?

 

[JM23457]

The school aged-kids will be doing their remote lessons assigned by their classroom teachers in the "daycare" with a certified teacher from our district. The pre-k and younger will also be with certified staff so they can begin working on concepts that will help them when they get into school. The "daycare" is being run out of our early childhood development center...So it is logic because these kids will have structure.

They would also have structure in school. Here they are getting the risk of in-person exposure, but not the academic benefit of being taught in the classroom. Having one certified teacher at the daycare watching all the school-age kids at various grade levels is just like offering homework help at best- there still isn't classroom caliber instruction being given.

If they can be in-person at daycare, then they can be in-person at school, where they will get a much greater benefit in exchange for the risk.

 

[JM23457]

Where did kids get all of this before public schooling? All I hear in my area is that schools need to open because parents don't know what to do with their kids. I'm beginning to think maybe they shouldn't have had kids to begin with?

So people who need to work to provide for their kids shouldn't have them at all? Yuck.

Before public education, a significant percentage of the population was illiterate. Children worked on farms and in factories, and had much less opportunity for advancement in life.

 

[monsterkitty]

Learning pods as they have been discussed in COVID-era lingo are in the context of schools most especially when going remote or for smaller in-person instruction. Your first comment was about providing daycare. Sure academics may be occurring there but it's functioning as a daycare primarily at least that's the way it sounded.

It appears that the primary reason your district is doing this is because the staff have kids who need supervision since they will be in-person; not trying to put words in your district's mouths but that appeared to be the context in which it was brought up. The staff/teachers are working away from home and unable to supervise their children. I guess it's one thing if all the staff and teachers would have chosen to send their 1-12 year olds to this early childhood development center and now basically are just not having to pay but I would imagine it's more like other areas where they would have been grappling with what to do with their own children just as parents are with theirs. Don't get me wrong though I think it's lovely they are doing this

I was actually on my way out the door when I posted the first one and didn't have time to explain.

They would also have structure in school. Here they are getting the risk of in-person exposure, but not the academic benefit of being taught in the classroom. Having one certified teacher at the daycare watching all the school-age kids at various grade levels is just like offering homework help at best- there still isn't classroom caliber instruction being given.

If they can be in-person at daycare, then they can be in-person at school, where they will get a much greater benefit in exchange for the risk.

The district I taught in is a high poverty area with around 90% free and reduced in the best years. It's a food desert with not so great public transportation. They can't afford to not work or they can't pay rent or feed their kids. I doubt that any of the teachers in the district actually live in the boundaries.

The district is opening because that's what the parents wanted. Kids start on Thursday. Less than 10% of the parents choose the online academy but can still do so up until Wednesday at noon.

None of the other districts are going back 100% in-person. In the district I live the parents overwhelmingly voted to start remote. The district that is doing a hybrid choose that because that's what the parents wanted.

One school district had 300 teachers take a medical leave this year because of the health risks. The district was incredibly picky on what they accepted, even declining recommendations from some teachers' doctors, and they still had 300 teacher who cannot work.

And once again, there is not just one teacher in a room watching all of the school aged-children in my district. Each room is staffed by a certified teacher and they will help the kids with their work from their home schools. There was a limit on enrollment numbers that was based on how many teachers they had.

Each area is different and each school district has a reason for going back or not going back. One size does not fit all. The bashing of the schools that are not going back does nothing. Why would schools in hotspots even think about opening? If the positivity rate in an area is great than 5% then the schools should not open at all.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was actually on my way out the door when I posted the first one and didn't have time to explain.

Gotcha

 

[monsterkitty]

So people who need to work to provide for their kids shouldn't have them at all? Yuck.

Before public education, a significant percentage of the population was illiterate. Children worked on farms and in factories, and had very little opportunity for future advancement in life.

Pretty sure that is not what she meant. She meant the people like my SIL who thinks teachers should babysit during the summer because school's not in session. The SIL who was a stay at home mom but didn't want to watch or deal with her own kids.

 

[Colleen27]

What did we do as a society before public schools? Right now the majority of the population seems to think public schools are free babysitting, recreation providers, social centers, meal providers, and behavioral correctors, on top of academic instructors. Where did kids get all of this before public schooling? All I hear in my area is that schools need to open because parents don't know what to do with their kids. I'm beginning to think maybe they shouldn't have had kids to begin with?

Largely, they didn't get those things. The rise of public schooling coincided rather closely with the rise of child labor laws and the modern conception of childhood. When my grandfather was my 7th grader's age, he left school and went to work full time in a factory (and that was not before but rather during the transition to our current expectations), and he did so in part because his family was actually going hungry at home. My grandmother left school a year later to help raise her younger siblings, because her mother couldn't handle all the duties of childcare (for about 8 kids, at that point; she ultimately had 16) and keep up with her work on the family farm.

A lot of times people think of the past in these rosy, nostalgic terms when "parents took care of their own kids", but the reality was a lot darker than that. We're not even a century past kids actually starving, sometimes to death. Lifelong health problems related to malnutrition and hard labor at young ages were not uncommon. And of course parents didn't need childcare because one or both worked in the home/on the farm rather than in a workplace, and the kids were expected to work too. Judging modern parents for relying upon the expected structures of the modern world makes as much sense as arguing that people did just fine before electricity so needing a refrigerator and lights now is somehow irresponsible.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

We homeschool because our school district is poor. We tried the school when we moved here, but the pace moved too slowly for my daughter. We’d toyed with the idea of homeschooling prior to our move, so we pulled our daughter. That was nine years ago and now I’ve added our twins to the mix. So we do it for academic reasons. I do think the public education system has serious problems with curriculum delivery. They get a basically private school education without us having to pay private school tuition.

They are not socially isolated. I have, however, had to take initiative over the years (especially when they were little) to ensure they saw their friends. Now that they are 16, 11 and 11, they do that for themselves. They are active in competitive sports (although not now with Covid). I’m a teacher by profession and I prefer that socialising be kept out of school. My kids know that when we do school, they work. Socialising is for their off hours. My experience classroom teaching was that socialising Was often a barrier to learning.

My eldest daughter did go off to bricks and mortar high school. With Covid she has happily returned to homeschooling for her final year of high school. Her decision.

Interesting. How do you spell socializing? Have I been spelling it wrong? Those are the worries I have homeschooling. But I see you are a teacher. I think they spell it with an s in England? I worry about things like that if I were homeschooling. When I mentioned socializing, I also meant learning to work together, social skills and meeting and learning of all different cultures. It helps with many things. There are many good things about it. But if my kids were going to a school that had a lot of drugs, or violence, and I felt capable, then yes, I would consider homeschooling. If I thought my kids were not getting a good education or lagging behind, maybe I would also.

 

[quandrea]

Interesting. How do you spell socializing? Have I been spelling it wrong? Those are the worries I have homeschooling. But I see you are a teacher. I think they spell it with an s in England but in the US it is with a z unless I am wrong. I worry about things like that if I were homeschooling. When I mentioned socializing, I also meant learning to work together, social skills and meet and learn of all different cultures. It helps with many things. There are many good things about it. But if my kids were going to a school that had a lot of drugs, or violence, and I felt capable, then yes, I would seriously consider homeschooling. If I thought my kids were not getting a good education or lagging behind, maybe I would also.

No, you aren’t wrong. You spell it the American way, I spell it the British way. As far as working together, meeting different types of people, all that happens in competitive sport environments and with their friends. Don’t forget working as a team in the sibling group. It’s truly the best thing I’ve ever done. I’m so grateful for the time with my children and for getting to witness them learning and growing. It’s quite something to witness all those ah ha moments.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

My principal sent out an email last night. The diocese FINALLY got their head on straight and updated the mask policy to ALL students must wear masks AT ALL TIMES (even at recess) while at school.

This is the policy the teachers have been begging for, so we are relieved. Now we may actually have a chance at in person learning. We shall see.

 

[SmallWorld71]

My principal sent out an email last night. The diocese FINALLY got their head on straight and updated the mask policy to ALL students must wear masks AT ALL TIMES (even at recess) while at school.

This is the policy the teachers have been begging for, so we are relieved. Now we may actually have a chance at in person learning. We shall see.

Just curious what grades this applies to? In MA, the governor has said grade 2 and up (plus adults) must have mask and it is strongly encouraged for pre-k to 1.

 

[DisneyOma]

The past was only wealthier white men had an education. Is that what you're asking us to go back to? I'm really confused. You asked what parents did before public education. That time period before mass public education was when we were not where we are today. We didn't have many minorities educated much less women, and children were seen as labor only really. Are you asking us to go back to that?

No, that's true. But was there ever a time when people were actually held responsible for the children they produce? That's what I mean - there's been so much whining about "I have to go back to work who will watch my kids" - and they all expect the communal environment to take care of them. If you choose to have kids, you really should make sure you can handle one parent being home to take care of them. You never know what may happen in life, KWIM?

So people who need to work to provide for their kids shouldn't have them at all? Yuck.

Before public education, a significant percentage of the population was illiterate. Children worked on farms and in factories, and had very little opportunity for future advancement in life.

If both parents need to work, maybe make sure they live near family who can help, or yes, maybe not have kids. Not sure why we all think it's okay to reproduce but not be able to take care of the kids. If you cannot survive off of one income, you think it's okay to bring a child into the world that you cannot take care of? Yes, we should have a safety net for extenuating circumstances, but I just wish people would be more responsible with the most important decision one could make - creating another life.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Well it only took one week of the school being open to get an email from the principal about someone testing positive. The added people with construction going on could be a factor, I guess. Anyway, they are not going to close down.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Just curious what grades this applies to? In MA, the governor has said grade 2 and up (plus adults) must have mask and it is strongly encouraged for pre-k to 1.

We are a JK through 8 school. Now all must wear masks.