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C IL | Plan A is that schools open and kids come to school, with masks. Yes, this will be great, especially for those 6-year-olds. Jr High and HS will probably sullenly comply. Teachers wear clear face shields, I believe. This is state-level board of education and public health requirements as I understand. Local input not requested.
If you, the parent, simply don’t want your kid to wear a mask, the school will be happy for the teachers to offer your child online instruction while your child stays at home. This instruction will be for a grade, unlike last spring.
After all, the 10- or 15-year old textbooks the school is using are replete with extensive online resources ... Nope.
Don’t worry, your child’s teacher will be pleased to create this online curriculum out of thin air. After all, they have plenty of free time, being as they are only teaching the rest of the in-person school day to an unusually unruly group of students who have been home for 6 months instead of 3 months, all while they enforce wearing a mask and social distancing, and doing the normal 3-4 hours of prep for in-classroom learning in the evening after school.
The teachers have plenty of free time during their day to create this curriculum.* During lunch break, for example (which by law they have to be offered a break) ... but wait - students can’t use the cafeteria, because that would be a gathering of greater than 50 students. I guess they can eat in the classroom and the teacher can supervise them, while creating this online curriculum, using the bathroom, prepping the rest of the day’s in-classroom activities, making copies (not sure if they have to sit for 3 days before distributing them), and taking a mental health moment. Meals are maybe going to be distributed as kids come in in the mornings? I guess no hot food or refrigerated food?
You could just record the lecture and post it to the Internet, maybe with a mic on the face shield to make sure the video sound was good ... but it’s illegal to record in the classroom unless every child’s parent consents to the recording.
You could try to livestream the lecture via some platform that doesn’t allow recording of the video ... but not every student had internet access at home, or enough access to stream video. And you still have to have a plan to distribute worksheets, quizzes, and tests.
You could just scan everything into a pdf, and post it online, and tell the kids to read the textbook and figure it out - because no kid will use the unfair advantage of having the textbook at home to take an untimed test - nope, not fair to the other kids.
You, the parent, and your child, refuse to answer the phone, answer email, follow up with the teacher or do your work independently on time? Call the administration and let them know how inadequately the teacher is performing. Can’t hurt, right? The administration will already be on the teacher to put the kids first because they haven’t heard from the kid for a while so the teacher should reach out and be a comforting familiar presence during this stressful time.
It only takes 1 kid per class or subject for the teacher to be required to create all the online resources, plus offer a paper version for students without internet. All for a grade. And the kids can apparently go back and forth between being at home during the day and being at school, which seems crazy.
No extra pay, no extra resources, no aides to help, just more than double the work and the stress of trying to keep everyone caught up. All for that huge teacher check.
And ... what about subs? If there aren’t enough subs or if someone has to quarantine due to CV exposure, the teachers are going to be pulled out of prep, lunch, or another classroom to cover the absent teacher.
My wife pointed out that all they ask normally is that you send your kid to school. Can’t figure out how to feed them? The school will. Can’t figure out how to discipline them? The school will. Can’t figure out how to clean them? The school will supply hygiene items, no problem. But now, the school is being asked/required to do all of that while the kid stays at home.
So, says I, you might offer your local teacher a consoling hug.
I’m married to one, best friends with one, and good friends with a third. They are already burned out just trying to figure out how the school year is going to go, the administrations have no good answers, and the decrees from upon high make no sense. Like the Soviet government trying to run an economy. And that’s before parents start making demands.
If you are on a school board, I strongly encourage you to have a real plan to address mental and emotional health and burnout for your staff. Because it’s already well underway due to the unfunded mandate of simultaneous online and in-classroom instruction and colossal lack of resources to address the shortfall caused thereby. And class doesn’t even start for 6 weeks.
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Don’t forget to give your local teacher a consoling hug ...
