I just read your post up there. Giving you a virtual hug man because we went through chaos last year with my now-6 year old. When COVID first started she was in pre-K/Prep school and that got shut down so I had to divvy up my time working from home and spending time with her, teaching her math and reading. Then she started Kindergarten last fall with virtual setting first and it's even more chaotic. Thankfully they transitioned her to in-class learning and that proved to be a huge move. God bless the teachers though; the crap they have to put up with in virtual classrooms is next level. My question was also more tongue in cheek because some of the responses I've seen....it sounds like not everyone in this thread has school-age children or, if they do, has a nice set of blinders on. As a parent (especially a parent with kids older than 3-4), one of your responsibilities is to lead by example and teach your kids what is going on in the world. For my daughter my wife and I talked about COVID and what that was and how contagious it can be all throughout the pandemic and she understood the severity of the situation. She understood it moreso when both my wife and I were positive and had all of the symptoms and she had to be quarantined and missed school for 2 weeks. So wearing a mask for her is not just a proactive way to protect herself; it's also a form of security blanket for her to know that she's doing her part in not spreading germs. I'm not here to debate the effectiveness of a mask because I don't care about the extremes (e.g. "It is effective!" "It is not effective!"); I care about it being > 0 in terms of prevention vs NOT wearing a mask at all. As for putting the onus on the adults to be vaccinated in lieu of not having the kids wear masks....sure in an ideal world people would pull their head out of their asses and put aside whatever conspiracy/political/cockamamie bias they have against vaccination and just get it. Unfortunately that's not reality and I can't blindly trust another adult/parent to do the right thing, especially when my kid's health could be potentially compromised. After all, if you're a parent and you pick your kid up from school you should know damn well not all adults/parents have common sense just by observing the car pick-up lines.
Bingo. People who spend time arguing about whether or not a mask is 100% effective against COVID is missing the point: a mask is another preventative measure and not meant to be an end-all, be-all protection agent. If someone told me, "Hey there's a pandemic going around. If you wear a pair of tighty whities on your head it won't stop the virus 100% completely but it shouldn't stop it, maybe, 20-30%...maybe higher but let's just say the baseline is 20%" You bet your ass I'll have a nice clean pair on my head.
I have one leaving for college and one is a rising sophomore in HS. I feel terrible for those with kids in the preK and elementary school age. A parents first instinct is to protect our kids from harm and illness. I don’t know how you can do that while sending your kid to public school with large classes and no every kid wearing a mask, even if your kid wears a N95. I question whether you can do that at a nice private school that requires masks and has a higher percentage of parents who care. Remote learning for little kids simply does not work, and their growth and development is significantly compromised. my friends with young kids formed pods with other like minded parents with kids the same age. They created their own bubble, trusted each other to be careful re covid, and let their kids play and learn together remotely. They had the will, means and ability to do this, and it sure as hell wasn’t easy.
Congrats on your college-bound child. I am damn proud of my 18 year old that just graduated high school because some of his junior year and all of his senior year got completely turned upside down (probably like how your college-bound kid's was) but he pushed through like a champ with virtual learning. I thought that would have caused some increased laziness on his part but the kid enrolled himself in 3 summer courses at the local community college and made As. It was such a relief that he was able to kind of manage all that by himself while my wife and I stress over his sister's kindergarten experience. You are 1000% right in that virtual/remote learning for young kids don't work. Their attention is all over the place, expecting them to know how to work a tablet/computer at the age of 5/6, the intangible value being around their teacher and other kids.....it was a rough 6 weeks for sure.
Your son is a champ for doing what he did. Enrolling and excelling in summer classes autonomously is remarkable, and frankly you have to be incredibly proud and feel like that dude is going to handle what life brings. No better feeling as a parent. My college bound daughter likewise pushed through. We had the benefit of resources, private school, things that many do not, and it was still a huge, difficult challenge. She is tough as nails, has big goals, and got it done. I tell both of my kids that they have handled themselves with more maturity and grace than I would have been able to muster at their ages.
I'm very pessimistic. Every child in school will inevitably be exposed to Delta in an area with high transmission this Fall. Yes, kids have a small chance of serious complications. But a small % of a large # is still very bad. No one wants their kid to be in that small % group. With Hospital already full, the risks aren't just covid. Don't anyone break a leg. Yes, generally remote schooling is not good. Some kids do excel with remote schooling. Last school year was an ah-hoc remote schooling experiment, a learning experience for everyone. I know how to handle it better this time and I think teachers and students would too. I do not just assume that remote school the 2nd time around would be the same as the first time. I hope I'm very wrong about every child being exposed.
I think that's why this is so damn tricky. I agree with you that in person learning is way better for a child than virtual learning. How do you strike that balance between education and safety? The way I would tackle it personally, if my child is old enough to get vaxed, I vax them and I send them to school (without a mask). If they are too young for the vaccine, then I would prefer virtual learning, as much as it would pain me. But I just couldn't send my kid to a school unvaxed. Y'all know my stance on masking by now, but even the folks that support mask wearing in this thread and other threads have said that masks are not a 100% end all, be all. They help, but are not fool proof. Accordingly, I would not send an unvaxed child to school even if they had a mask policy. If the variant is not dangerous to children, that would be a different story.
I have a 11yo (6th grade) and 8yo (3rd grade) in Lewisville ISD in DFW, which started classes on the 11th. They're reporting numbers weekly this year, so we probably won't know how many new cases until this weekend or early next week. We did virtual for the first three quarters last year, but saw how much our kids struggled without the social interaction they needed. After seeing fairly low case numbers throughout the year, we sent them back and they loved their last quarter in-person. My wife and I want to protect them both physically and mentally and discussed at length the benefits of in-person versus non-LISD virtual this year. We agreed that in-person is probably the best thing for them, but I wish that LISD would just put into place the damn protections that were in place last year. Masks, desk shields, social distancing, quarantine for exposed kids...those kept the numbers low! If those were still in place this year I would still expect higher numbers than last year due to the nature of the Delta variant, plus there being more kids in the classroom because of the lack of virtual option. However, the numbers would more than likely stay significantly lower than what we're likely to be seeing in the next few weeks.
I agree that they did, which makes their lack of any sort of attempt to manage the situation this year all the more disappointing.
For sure. It's a shitty situation for all. I wish more adults would get vaccinated, but I realize we can't (and shouldn't) mandate it. I know there are some who will just never get it, but there are also plenty of people who are in "wait and see" mode. I think we all can do a better job of reaching those people. Having more polite and considerate conversations with these people - rather than calling them evil and/or stupid - would go a long way IMO. (Not saying that YOU are doing this of course, just saying I wish we could converse as humans who respect one another, in general.) Something I try to mention when talking about kids in schools is that there is a real cost to taking kids out of schools. The cost is different for each person/family since different variables are in play (local transmission rate, personal health, access to healthcare, etc.) but it's a difficult calculation all the same. I think this choice can be oversimplified by many but it's not easy - or at least, it's not easy for me. I believe I heard recently that depression among youth is at an all-time high. Again, it's just a shitty situation all around. Personally, I would like kids to be masked, in class, and the adults be vaccinated. That is what I want. But I'll have to look into it more before I decide what to do. Looks like they'll be masked per the latest from Hidalgo so that's good.
That's right, it's not 100%. N95 mask is also not 100%. Immunization is not 100%. These are all layers of prevention. The goal is to reduce the chances and reduce the risk. Vaccination is by far the best. Requiring vaccination would greatly help. Masking help. There are few other good preventions, except keeping your kids at home. Personally, I would have preferred school delayed a few weeks (and end later to make up for lost time). Indication out of Israel and UK is this Delta wave peak fast and fall fast. Let's wait it out a few weeks, and during that time, each school and parent can have some time to think through what's best to do.
I'm with you on all points stated. I think it's unfortunate that a percentage of Americans are being selfish during a pandemic. The selfish I'm talking about is not with vaccination; it's with putting your own needs/wants before the greater good--your family, your friends, your community, your city, etc. If you don't want to get vaccinated, hey, that's okay with me...but what preventative measures are you taking in lieu of the vaccine? If you think the vaccine is has nanobots that will help the government control you or you're skeptical about the long term effects (but apparently don't mind the long term effects of eating fast food, alcohol, smoking, etc.) that's all fine; believe what you want. At the end of the day, however, the virus has been proven to be very real so what are you doing to help stop the spread?
It's amazing that, on the whole, people get a lot more logical and less tribal when it comes to what's good for the kids. Or at least that's true on the BBS, so kudos. Also: Spoiler
This. So much this. What I see is a lot of people preoccupied with their freedoms and rights, and they twist their minds, ignore facts and data, so that their perceptions of reality enable them to focus on their freedoms while simultaneously not feeling like they are doing wrong by their community. And then there are people who openly say they don’t give a crap about other people and the government can’t make me.
My 10yr old niece got infected last month. She was joking she had her own "vaccination" so she is planning to attend school masked rather than going virtual. She had the symptoms for upwards a week, but I think everything is normal now. Everyone else in the family was vaccinated (even 16yr old niece). Main concern was the 1 yr old toddler getting infected. If anyone is weighing the pros and cons, the main thing is to have your whole family vaccinated to reduce the scarier possibilities.
As someone with an elementary-aged child and is also a teacher in an elementary school, I can equivocally say that masks, along with social distancing and hand washing, absolutely work. It's not fool proof, but nothing is. Yes, we had cases throughout the year, but the protocols we had in place, that schools around the nation used, prevented super-spreader events and massive outbreaks. Without them, I have no doubt we would have gone back to virtual several times throughout the year. And it really frustrates me that we're still having this debate. That I'm gonna have to start the school year again with our past safety protocols in place because others didn't take personal responsibility in helping to end this pandemic, that is infuriating. That I have to be concerned for my elementary kiddo, since he's the only one in our family not vaccinated, is saddening. And that some of our elected leaders still choose to politicize this issue and refuse to follow guidance from the experts, is maddening. And I sure hope I don't have to go back to virtual learning because of this damn surge. I can tell you, after 12-15 months of virtual and hybrid instruction last year, I was absolutely done. If we want to avoid that situation, let's be smart. I hate that it has to be this way, but students and teachers need to mask up again and need to practice social distancing. And we need to do that until the vaccine becomes available for our younger age groups and/or the curve flattens again.
