Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[siren0119]

It also really annoys me that all kids aren't being temp checked. Imo every child should be temp checked by the bus driver before they can get on the bus, & non-busers should be checked at school arrival. Then classroom teachers would check all students right before lunch, to suss out the ones who got in that morning via Tylenol.

I've been touchless temp-checked a zillion times this summer & it's super quick & idiot proof. Every school should be doing it. Making midday temp checks a universal routine would be a very good deterrent for the Tylenol cr@p- parents would know they'd have to come get their kids midday, anyway, so why bother?

The thing about temp checks is that it's really safety theater now that we know you can spread the virus with no symptoms. If you temp check daily and one day a kid or teacher has a high temp....well they've already been shedding the virus with no symptoms for 4-7 days. So you're closing the barn door after the horse got out. It's mostly in place still because people FEEL like it's a layer of safety precaution...but it isn't.

 

[JM23457]

The thing about temp checks is that it's really safety theater now that we know you can spread the virus with no symptoms. If you temp check daily and one day a kid or teacher has a high temp....well they've already been shedding the virus with no symptoms for 4-7 days. So you're closing the barn door after the horse got out. It's mostly in place still because people FEEL like it's a layer of safety precaution...but it isn't.

It is important to check for fevers in schools because fevers are even more common with the flu than with Covid, and we really don't want the flu spreading right now, because its symptoms are similar to Covid, and Covid/flu symptoms will lead to required isolation & therefore missing school for an extended time.

Plus, fever is one symptom of Covid, so it's problematic for that reason, too. Masks & distancing help protect from asymptomatic cases. Temp checks help protect from symptomatic cases. It's all important.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

My Grandchildren start school Monday in Northern Texas. Texas-which I've read is rapidly becoming a real hot spot for the corona virus. They're in elementary school and supposed to wear masks all day as well as social distance. Boy, am I glad I retired-I'd hate to be the teacher who has to enforce those rules as well as try to teach.

Wow. Hard on kids that young to wear a mask all day. My husband does it all day at his job, tho it's hot in his job, and he literally looks so bad when he gets home. It is important but it's hard.

 

[LiteBrite]

While I agree about temp checks not filtering out asymptomatic spreaders, I do think it is one piece of the puzzle, and we need all the puzzle pieces we can get our hands on. A vaccine, when we get one, won't be enough by itself, either.

None of the mitigation efforts we have available to us will be enough on their own, but together they can make a huge difference. We need temp checks + masks + hand washing + social distancing + a vaccine + avoiding large gatherings when we can + keeping high risk individuals as safe as possible. It's all important.

 

[kymom99]

The school districts around me are requiring teachers to teach virtually from school. They also are not allowed to bring their kids to school. Kind of a case of be careful what you wish for

 

[JM23457]

The school districts around me are requiring teachers to teach virtually from school. They also are not allowed to bring their kids to school. Kind of a case of be careful what you wish for

Well, I don't know anyone wishing for that.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

That is what my daughter decided to do. She also realized campus life would no longer resemble a normal campus life. On the plus side, we are saving a lot of money as a result of no room and board. Though I do wish she could have gone back to a normal year.

Yeah, my son talked with his university. It was very painless, honestly. They saw his schedule was all zoom and let him cancel his housing just for the fall. He filled out a form online and got an email back confirming his room was still his in the spring. It was all very painless and only took a few minutes. I was surprised, honestly.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The school districts around me are requiring teachers to teach virtually from school. They also are not allowed to bring their kids to school. Kind of a case of be careful what you wish for

Some of our districts are doing a hybrid approach where half the kids are at home and half are in school each day. A lot of parents are just signing up for all at home, because what's the point, really?

 

[kymom99]

Well, I don't know anyone wishing for that.

They were wishing to teach virtually. Didn’t work out like they hoped. Got the record I’m a retired teacher. I worked a half day job last year that ended virtually.

 

[kymom99]

Some of our districts are doing a hybrid approach where half the kids are at home and half are in school each day. A lot of parents are just signing up for all at home, because what's the point, really?

It’s a mess

 

[monsterkitty]

The school districts around me are requiring teachers to teach virtually from school. They also are not allowed to bring their kids to school. Kind of a case of be careful what you wish for

My old district is actually providing daycare for the children of all staff members ages 1-12 free of charge. They are going 100% in-person while all other districts are starting with remote until the end of September. There is one district doing a hybrid but everyone else is remote for now.

 

[JM23457]

My old district is actually providing daycare for the children of all staff members ages 1-12 free of charge.

Daycare for school-age kids, because they aren't allowed to go to in-person school? Logic, I miss you.

 

[mcurran]

We had the option to do virtual or face to face (f2f) and we elected f2f. We are rural area with little amount of cases. It’s been 22 long weeks of both parents working from home with 3 kids going into k,2,5th grade. They need socialization. Straw man poll among other parents we talk to and ~1/3 electing virtual.

 

[HeatherC]

Yeah, my son talked with his university. It was very painless, honestly. They saw his schedule was all zoom and let him cancel his housing just for the fall. He filled out a form online and got an email back confirming his room was still his in the spring. It was all very painless and only took a few minutes. I was surprised, honestly.

Same here. At first they didn’t want to let her out of the housing contract. When all her classes went virtual they didn’t even give her an argument. Filled in the form and approved it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Daycare for school-age kids, because they aren't allowed to go to in-person school? Logic, I miss you.

I must admit that is a bit ironic. I know I know there are risks associated with schools that may not all be present at a daycare situation but it's not being done for those who would normally be too young to go to school (by most standards) it's being done even for those who would be school-aged who presumably would be enrolled in school. It's quite nice for it to be free and would alleviate that part for the teachers but I do see the irony there.

 

[Heather07438]

It also really annoys me that all kids aren't being temp checked. Imo every child should be temp checked by the bus driver before they can get on the bus, & non-busers should be checked at school arrival. Then classroom teachers would check all students right before lunch, to suss out the ones who got in that morning via Tylenol.

DS is college freshman. The school is supplying thermometers to all the students.

The college, his old high school, and the local hospital I visited all have the same daily screening procedure. They record temp and run thru quick questions like if you've had any symptoms or have been in contact with anybody positive or who has come down with symptoms in the last 14 days. Guess this has become standard procedure for public institutions in Passaic Co, NJ. At the schools I think students (or minor's parents) can complete these online daily before attending, and schools will follow up with temp checks at the doors too. Staggered admittance as well to keep people spaced. It's actually a very quick process once everybody 'knows the drill'.

 

[Simba's Mom]

The only problem I find with the argument (and I hear it often) that kids need to have in person school for the socialization is-I know a bunch of kids who are home schooled, and yet they seem perfectly well-adjusted, social, get along with others fine. What am I missing? What is the difference between these home schooled kids and kids being virtually taught?

 

[RamblingMad]

The only problem I find with the argument (and I hear it often) that kids need to have in person school for the socialization is-I know a bunch of kids who are home schooled, and yet they seem perfectly well-adjusted, social, get along with others fine. What am I missing? What is the difference between these home schooled kids and kids being virtually taught?

A lot of people do stuff based on gut feel, not science. I know home school kids that turned out fine. I only have to look at Facebook posts to see how ridiculously dumb people are regardless of their level of education.

 

[JM23457]

The only problem I find with the argument (and I hear it often) that kids need to have in person school for the socialization is-I know a bunch of kids who are home schooled, and yet they seem perfectly well-adjusted, social, get along with others fine. What am I missing? What is the difference between these home schooled kids and kids being virtually taught?

As a teacher I can tell you the most critical issue with virtual isn't socialization, it's academics. A large percentage of students cannot learn the same content & skills at home.

Schools have to reach & teach all kids, not just the ones with no disabilities & involved parents & good Internet access.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The only problem I find with the argument (and I hear it often) that kids need to have in person school for the socialization is-I know a bunch of kids who are home schooled, and yet they seem perfectly well-adjusted, social, get along with others fine. What am I missing? What is the difference between these home schooled kids and kids being virtually taught?

It probably depends greatly on how the home school is done. Maybe even when home school was introduced for a particular person.

I knew a few, not many though, home school kids when I got to college. They were wonderful people but had a harder time with the vast variance in students, the physical act of going from building to building and quickly, the pressures/approaches, etc different professors had and one told me they didn't have the opportunity to work with others much so they were really stressed out when that time came for group interaction. Now that can be the same for someone in traditional school but it seem magnified for them. And it's not that these people didn't have friends in their daily lives, but that their schooling was quite different than what was now being expected of them.

One thing I really appreciated when I was in school is in my 6th grade (my elementary school was prek-6th) we had math and english subjects taught between 2 teachers. By that I meant the two classes of 6th graders you were randomly selected for math and english to be taught by one teacher or the other. If your subject was taught by the other teacher you had a set time where you got up, collected your trapper keeper lol, and went to the classroom down the hall and those students did the same and then went back to your original classroom when that subject was over. It was designed to help for middle school (which at that time was 7th-8th) where you stopped having the same teacher for all subjects and instead had your math teacher, your english teacher, your social studies teacher, and so on AND that you would be switching classrooms for that AND that each class would/could have different students in it.

I think the impression many people have is that home schooled are socially isolated. I think that can be the case but it's not the be it all. But on the flip side I don't think that many home school students are taught with a lot of different students by nature. There's programs and whatnot so there are variances, there's retreats/field trips for those in home school programs but these rely on the parents to hook up with that.