Will schools reopen?
According to some, “there is absolutely no way this country is presently ready to thrust millions of children back into the close-quarters reality of school.” (William River Pitt, 2020, Truthout).
According to others, there will be pressure put on governors and everybody else to open schools, to get them open (D.J. Trump, July 7, 2020, New York Times.). Trump also said that the CDC guidelines for the reopening of school were too tough and should be changed without offering any suggestions. His sidekick claimed that the CDC will be changing their guidelines next week because of what Trump said.
Now, this is authoritarianism in action.
So, is William River Pitt’s comment, and full article closer to the reality of school? Or, does White House gang, who haven’t stepped foot in a school in a long time, have secret knowledge about school that they are keeping from us? Will schools reopen?
Safety First
William River Pitt poses a very strong argument for not opening schools. We have to keep in mind that there are more than 50 million students enrolled in America’s public schools. They are taught by more than 3 million professional public school teachers. At the present time, the spread of the coronavirus is at its highest rate of increase since the pandemic ravaged the United States.
There are some people in leadership positions that simply do not care what happens to these students and teachers who will face each other and the virus every day they step foot into a school.
My guess is that they have little to no knowledge of what the life of a student or teacher is in one day of school.
Teachers Need to Know
If you are a teacher, no matter your age, you will wonder what accommodations will be made to keep you and your students safe. Teachers have many questions, and the answers are in short supply. Whether you teach primary or secondary students, you will come in contact with many people. COVID-19 carriers don’t necessarily show any symptoms. If you come in contact with students who have the virus, and then return home each day, will your family get sick? If you are a student, you’ll come in contact with many fellow students, and adults. You’ll return home in the afternoon. Will you carry the virus on your coattails?
How will your school district keep every classroom and space in the school clean and disinfected? How will all all touched services (desks) be cleaned between classes? Will the students be responsible for cleaning desks and chairs before class? Does the district have the funding available to keep schools safe?
Has the government budgeted for transportation costs associated with the COVId-19 pandemic. For instance, large school buses, can hold 3 per seat, meaning 72 children on a bus. Obviously, this will not be allowed because of social distancing. If schools reduce bus passengers by 50% to achieve social distancing, will the district be able to transport all students to school?
Back to the Future
In 2012, I wrote a post about a high school girl, Skyer Fusaro, who was living in the year 2053. Climate change and the authoritarian push to privatize schools had ravished many parts of the United States. People were forced to live in very crowded high rise apartments in urban areas of America. In this future world, online learning is the standard for most American schools. Skyler’s computer has the processing power of our brains, and scientists developed software that led to an “intelligence explosion” and interestingly, a better way to participate in the actions of our government. President Fusaro (Skyler’s mother) was the first American President elected when all eligible citizens voted from their computers in their homes or in public libraries. And, don’t worry, every citizen in the U.S. has the most advanced technology and connection to the Internet.
Skyler, the young girl in the story, said this about schooling in America.
During the early years of this century, school districts all around the country closed one school after another. They blamed it on budget short-falls. But their decision led to a real problem for us. Remember I said that because of the radically changing climate, many people had to move to safer areas, and these tended to be cities in the far west, in the south, and along the east coast. The cities filled up, but there was very little space for kids to go to real brick and mortar buildings. There just weren’t enough classrooms for all of us. We only get to go to school once a year.
Hassard, J. (2012, April 23). A Letter from 2053 about High-Stakes Testing: 5’s Walk on Thursday. Retrieved July 09, 2020, from https://jackhassard.org/a-letter-from-2052-about-high-stakes-testing-5s-walk-on-thursday/
Schooling in the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing migraine headaches for departments of education, school boards, and high level administrators as they think about schools reopening. Oh, and the parents of the millions of students, and their teachers are wondering what part they’ll play in pandemic schooling.
The mayor of New York City said that students might come back in the fall, but only for one to three days a week. Imagine a high school with more than half the students absent each day. What possibilities are there for secondary schools? Courses that only meet twice a week? More flexible scheduling for teachers. Collaborative studies using online protocols. More emphasis student developed curriculum. Emphasis on life long learning. There are lots of ideas that can and will emerge. But that’s not my immediate concern. My concern is we need to think of ways to think differently of school in our society. Keep society and school as being part of a whole. A system if you will. Not discrete parts.
We can not return to normal. We need to create new ways of organizing school. School purpose should begin with the needs of children, not the needs of college and career readiness, which benefit some individuals, groups, and companies.
Maybe Only 5’s Will Attend School on Thursdays
Crowded classrooms, just like nightclubs and are unsafe. They remain unsafe in a pandemic. Schools are crowded places. Some high schools have more than 5,000 students on campus. Brooklyn Tech leads the nation with more than 8,000. In fact, NY has the top seven schools in the country. Here in Georgia we have several high schools with more than 3,700 students–with the largest in Gwinnett and Forsyth counties. How will schools reopen?
Each day, schools are delaying the opening of school. Peter Greene, a blogger and former high school educator, says, “if officials want US schools to fully open in the fall, they will have to put money where their mouths are.” Greene points out that it will take equipment, training, infrastructure, staff, and more costs unknown at this time.
It will be impossible to send all students each day to any school. Some schools will decide that students can only come once a week, or perhaps 2 or 3 times a week. In my fictionalized story about students living in the future, when you came to school was dependent on your student I.D. number. And in that future time, you only came to school one day a year, and that was to take end of the year tests! And for students in the year 2053, only students whose I.D. number ends in 5 come to school on Thursday.
Today, we might be faced with making difficult decisions about when students go to school. I am not trying to make fun of a serious challenge facing educators and parents. But, to reopen, we need to involve those who know the consequences of any decisions that are made.
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