07-11-2020, 07:07 PM
bfd wrote:
It's not likely that much of the online teaching you see this fall will look any different than it did in the spring - schools and teachers just haven't had enough time to relearn the dance and practice it yet. That's why the big push for back in school is so strong. No need to relearn anything if everything's face-to-face. But unless there are significant safeguards, any teacher who goes back into a classroom right now is - seriously – putting their life on the line. In some cases, for about $125 a day. How many of them are going to decide that "the kids" just aren't worth that risk? Probably not that many, but for every one of them that does, it'll mean a less qualified person in their place - and that's a real problem.
The REAL problem is that we are forced to choose between bringing kids back into the schools or continuing on with at-home “learning” that has been shown to be anything but. Think COVID infection rates are climbing now? Wait until kids are back in school — infection rates will SKYROCKET far beyond anything we’ve seen so far. Death rates will closely follow.
But subjecting kids to another year of at-home learning will serious stunt their educational progress. At least here in Los Angeles, at-home learning produced results far below those hoped for. bfd is right: K-12 educators simply haven’t had enough time to learn how to do this well. And that’s only one of many factors that affect the effectiveness of at-home learning, many of which are 100% out of the administration’s control.
This is a true no-win situation.