New Video: “Kids in CRISIS as liberals shutter schools again”

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

1 minute ago, HuffsAhoy said:

Math and reading proficiency has been plummeting in the US for decades, thanks in part to REPUBLICANS cutting education funds. If anything, this pandemic has shown us the ugly underpinning of our education system. Cuts here and cuts there for the last decade have finally exploded into a  fiasco that could have been avoided had our governments been properly funding schools all along. 

I agree, and definitely realize they didn't just magically start falling due to Covid. But it certainly did exacerbate it and didn't help matters, and I don't think dismissing that because they've been declining addresses the reality that shutting schools down has had a detrimental impact on childrens' development, learning, and mental health.

[SharkmanthaC 115,045]

3 minutes ago, POP2 said:

Well, he works for an inner city school. Unfortunately when your school is majority black, the red state doesn’t care much about them. Sending kids back to school disproportionately affects black and brown students… but lefties aren’t ready for that conversation. Again, this is not an anomaly. Inner city schools around the country maybe struggled endlessly with virtual learning. 

This is a conversation we should be having with Covid and everything. Those discrepancies don’t go away in a pandemic, they’re just magnified. With districts receiving so much ESSER funds, they should be able to address some of those issues. That was federal funds, not state funding. 

[Chromatography 10,186]

25 minutes ago, HuffsAhoy said:

As a high school teacher who taught virtually from March 2020-May 2021, I can say without a doubt that virtual learning is a legitimate way to educate children. I had nothing but positive experiences getting students engaged, tracking their progress with the material, and I feel confident that my students did not "fall behind" in their learning. We met daily for one hour and I offered tutoring for 90 minutes after our lunch hour. This right wing fan-fiction that remote learning is a vacation for educators is nothing but a insulting lie used to spread propaganda.

My colleagues and I worked our asses off planning and teaching lessons to keep our kids from sinking into the abyss. Do some students benefit more virtually? Absolutely. Do some struggle virtually? Also absolutely. While I will agree that some social-emotional learning has been impacted by virtual learning the last two years, it's nothing that cannot be overcome and worked through. At the end of the day, it all falls onto the parents. If your school is moving to remote learning for a period of time, it's YOUR job to ensure your children are logging in and participating daily. I can only do so much as a teacher. 

you must live in an affluent area then. not everyone has access to resources necessary for online school.

[SharkmanthaC 115,045]

5 minutes ago, POP2 said:

Again, you must come from a fairly privileged district. My brother works for an inner city school in a red state. No funding. 

I work (and always have) in a Title 1 school. While it isn’t an inner city school, it’s still a poor school. One reason I think this should be more of a local issue for schools to close as needed based on local Covid cases. The need to stay closed for extended times probably isn’t necessary since we now know more about Covid and have vaccines. Closing temporarily to limit the spread so much seems reasonable. 

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

5 minutes ago, SamanthaC said:

I’m sorry but these new variants have really hit kids hard. The flu is not worse. I don’t know how those places kept it at bay but we have had many students catch Covid. We had a teacher die in our district as well. 

Omicron is PROVEN to be milder than previous variants and have much less severe symptoms, for both children and adults. And yes, actually the flu is worse at least when it comes to children. Go to the CDC or any other credible source and see for yourself.

Something like 0.1% of Covid cases in children results in death, significantly lower than the flu and other illnesses.

[PartySick 172,533]

1 minute ago, HuffsAhoy said:

Funny, since online learning has literally been a thing for just about the last two decades. 

That's how I took driver's ed

It's also how I caught up in high school. I spent my freshman, sophomore, and junior years entirely too depressed to function. Like, I wasn't failing classes 'cause I didn't know the material, I just had ZERO motivation to do any of the work  then in my senior year, with a combination of regular classes and FLVS (FL virtual school), I snapped out of it and did all four years worth of credits in one

Virtual learning is a blessing when it's properly utilized 

7 minutes ago, HuffsAhoy said:

All of this verbal abuse and questioning of my intelligence/experience for $38,000 a year  

I couldn't do it, that's for sure. I hate kids and I'd hate their parents even more

[HuffsAhoy 7,433]

Just now, Gagaloo911 said:

the reality that shutting schools down has had a detrimental impact on childrens' development, learning, and mental health.

I'm not disagreeing with this fact. A lot of children have not had the Social Emotional Learning that is crucial for development into young adults. I teach 9th grade and behaviorally they're still in elementary mode. The 2021-2022 school year is the first full year of school these kids have had since 5th grade. In 6th grade (2018-2019), the devastating Hurricane Florence kept them out of school for up to three months. Then, at the end of 7th grade (2019-2020), covid hit and they finished the year virtually. And, 8th grade (2020-2021) was a mix of either hybrid learning or full virtual. I've had to teach 14/15 year olds how to behave around people their own age, in addition to teaching the content. I get it, I agree, but what I'm not going to tolerate is this cut and dry argument that virtual school is evil. 

[SharkmanthaC 115,045]

Just now, Gagaloo911 said:

Omicron is PROVEN to be milder than previous variants and have much less severe symptoms, for both children and adults. And yes, actually the flu is worse at least when it comes to children. Go to the CDC or any other credible source and see for yourself.

Something like 0.1% of Covid cases in children results in death, significantly lower than the flu and other illnesses.

So what do you suggest for those immunocompromised children do? Have remote learning? What about a child with asthma? We are still seeing cases from delta, And while kids may not be dying from it, there are long term effects from having Covid that we don’t even know about yet. 

[HuffsAhoy 7,433]

12 minutes ago, Chromatography said:

you must live in an affluent area then. not everyone has access to resources necessary for online school.

Please read the rest of the thread before making ignorant statements like this

Edit to add: Even the poorest and lowest performing school district in North Carolina has funds and resources for virtual learning. There are zero excuses. 

[PartySick 172,533]

2 minutes ago, Gagaloo911 said:

Omicron is PROVEN to be milder than previous variants and have much less severe symptoms, for both children and adults. And yes, actually the flu is worse at least when it comes to children. Go to the CDC or any other credible source and see for yourself.

Something like 0.1% of Covid cases in children results in death, significantly lower than the flu and other illnesses.

It's more mild but more contagious.

And that 0.1% of kids dying is great and all (it's not, but let's say it is), what happens when all the teachers and school staff get it? You bring in the subs while they recover at home then oops...now the subs have it. More subs? Oh, there are none? Because they all quit? I wonder why

But in all seriousness, there are more things to consider than just how an individual kid deals with a covid infection.

Do I have the answer? I sure don't. But I know the answer isn't just "open the flood gates and let those kids mingle".

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

2 minutes ago, SamanthaC said:

So what do you suggest for those immunocompromised children do? Have remote learning? What about a child with asthma? We are still seeing cases from delta, And while kids may not be dying from it, there are long term effects from having Covid that we don’t even know about yet. 

That's up to their parents to decide, whether they should move to remote learning, stay out of school for awhile, or otherwise. In times where cases are high like now, it's probably wiser for those with underlying conditions to stay home because of the risk.

But that doesn't mean we shut schools down and prevent every student from going, especially when it's much less impacting on children.

And I don't have the answers to everything here. I just think after basically 2 years of schools being shut and opened then shut again, we should be thinking long and hard about the risks and consequences of doing so again, especially when we know COVID does not affect children as severely as it does adults.

[SharkmanthaC 115,045]

Everyone that thinks schools need to stay completely open despite kids and teachers getting Covid, please call your local school district and sign up to be a substitute teacher. I guarantee your local school district is hiring substitutes and as long as you can pass a background check, they will most likely hire you. 

[PartySick 172,533]

1 minute ago, SamanthaC said:

Everyone that thinks schools need to stay completely open despite kids and teachers getting Covid, please call your local school district and sign up to be a substitute teacher. I guarantee your local school district is hiring substitutes and as long as you can pass a background check, they will most likely hire you. 

Do you think we could demand a six figure salary? Asking for a friend

[HuffsAhoy 7,433]

2 minutes ago, SamanthaC said:

Everyone that thinks schools need to stay completely open despite kids and teachers getting Covid, please call your local school district and sign up to be a substitute teacher. I guarantee your local school district is hiring substitutes and as long as you can pass a background check, they will most likely hire you. 

Subs, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, etc. etc. Sadly, none of the people complaining here would dare to ever set foot in a school or even in those so-called "lesser" jobs because they feel they're above such grueling work

[SharkmanthaC 115,045]

1 minute ago, Gagaloo911 said:

That's up to their parents to decide, whether they should move to remote learning, stay out of school for awhile, or otherwise. In times where cases are high like now, it's probably wiser for those with underlying conditions to stay home because of the risk.

But that doesn't mean we shut schools down and prevent every student from going, especially when it's much less impacting on children.

And I don't have the answers to everything here. I just think after basically 2 years of schools being shut and opened then shut again, we should be thinking long and hard about the risks and consequences of doing so again, especially when we know COVID does not affect children as severely as it does adults.

While I agree with you that we should consider the effects to children, we should also consider the staff of the school. Children (especially young ones) will spread infections easier because they don’t think about germs like adults do. (I mean like wiping their nose with their hand, putting their fingers in their mouth, etc.) So these children could easily give it to the staff. Those of which could easily die from Covid. It also goes back to a supervision issue. When you have large numbers of staff out a school cannot operate. And schools do close for the flu. If the attendance drops below a certain percentage, a school is required to shut down. Which is how I think we should be looking at Covid. No we don’t need the mass shut downs like we had early during Covid, but shutting down for a week or two to limit the spread for the safety of everyone in the building is totally reasonable.