The Back to School Dilemma
As a retired teacher, I can honestly say that people don’t care about anything more than their children. If you want to get parents fired up then just do something that jeopardizes their kids. In British Columbia, Canada schools are slated to reopen on Sept. 10th, which is two days late, allowing the staff a little organization time to set up safety routines. The collective social angst around back to school right now is palpable. It feels like a calm before the storm.
Last week I posted a question on Twitter asking for my followers’ predictions on how long school would stay in session before everything got shut down. I have never had so many responses so fast. There were 125 comments in one day. Most were from the states, where each governor decides what the protocol will be. Of course the Covid case numbers are much higher down there than in Canada, but the responses were fascinating. I have not researched the validity of the responses. I am just going to assume they are speaking the truth because they are actually living it at this moment. Also keep in mind that the American schools start earlier than we do, usually mid-late August.
In Georgia, after one and a half weeks, one third of the high school students already tested positive so they have already quarantined some schools and are going virtual at the end of Sept. This was the most dire response. One Tweep from North Carolina said that within one week, fourteen percent of the student body were testing positive so they shut it down, including UNC. In Nevada, four of the staff at one parent’s school had already tested positive so they were shutting it down and going remote. My Cali friend said they had already shut school where she lives. In Texas they were doing the first month online and then reassessing. In Philly, they were doing a hybrid opening starting later in November so the first semester would be virtual. Each part of the country seems to be moving rapidly from in-session to hybrid to online only.
Here in BC, parents can choose, but school is open for business in two weeks. My theory is that the province wants kids to come back for several reasons. First, they want children to establish a relationship with their teacher and peers so that any subsequent online learning will be more meaningful, especially for the yonder ones. Second, The floundering economy needs everyone back at work and parents are losing their minds trapped in the house all day with their kids for the past six months. Third, they want to put a good face on our education system and our current government for the upcoming provincial election. They want to be able to say, “Hey, at least we tried our best.”
Here’s hoping we have better outcomes than in the states, but I am only cautiously optimistic at this point. If high school students and twenty-somethings keep socializing in large groups and the current rate of infection keeps going up, then we may see more American-like numbers ahead, god forbid.
