When will schools reopen? (opinion)
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Wed, 07/15/2020 - 12:32pm
We need to learn how to live with the certainty of coronavirus. On May 20th, I penned an article titled “Lessons learned from coronavirus.” We are still learning. We know that fatalities have decreased since May; mostly because our elders and people with underlying health conditions have taken the required precautions. Look around you. Most people in Carson City are wearing masks, and keeping 6 feet apart. But life must go on...
The case data above show that about one-third of total cases are testing positive but they also show recovery is over two-third of total cases.
Why do we think schools will be the next petri dish of spreading this virus that is any more than prior virus outbreaks. Precautions are necessary and the precautions should be directed to the teachers, custodians, and staff based on our experiences to-date.
Plexi-glass protect staff in our stores; why not have teachers in their very own plexi-glass bubbles. Let the students stay in their class and the teachers can come to the students, with gloves, masks and their own sanitary products to clean the desk after every class. They can even teach from their remote locations but the students need to be together to enhance their learning experience of education and socialization.
Let there be scheduled breaks so students can wash their hands or sanitize their hands. Let the students stay together in their own clusters by grade levels so contact tracing is easier, should there be a positive coronavirus case. Teachers have always wanted smaller class sizes. This is the time to experiment if there is a correlation between smaller class sizes and student learning.
The public health agencies can outline scenarios and the remediation action to be taken in each case in this environment. An example is dispatching mobile testing teams to test everyone in a student cluster if a teacher tests positive for coronavirus. Young people are going to grocery stores, ice cream shops around town using the necessary precautions accompanied by their parents, grand parents etc., and there is yet to be an outbreak among the young children.
Schools must open in the fall to reverse the ill-effects of self isolation of young people, and lack of direct supervision of their studies. How many parents know the school material sufficiently well by the grade level of their children to be effective educators? How many families have high quality internet service to provide uninterrupted services to accommodate all their children staying at home plus, parents working from home?
Individual social distancing may not be necessary at schools. Social distancing of students in clusters is more feasible with some forethought. We can spread out by converting libraries and gyms to classrooms; stagger start and end times to minimize casual contact between students at non school hours. School books, supplies can be shared minimally.
A disciplined approach during the initial start-up phase of schools reopening will be necessary until we get used to the new rules of engagement. Our teachers and administrators will be critical to this phase. But parents will also need to be co-participants to ensure proper hygiene practices when students return home.
Schools in 22 European countries have opened in the last 2 weeks. This has not led to any significant increase in coronavirus infections among the children, parents or staff. The United Kingdom will require mandatory attendance at schools in the Fall, and teachers will be asked to rigorously monitor absences and even issue sanctions/fines for non-attendance. Why? Because the costs of non-attendance could have a generational impact and pull families back from economic progress for years.
Sacrifices by everyone will be necessary to keep the younger generation on their education track. Parents do not want their children to be “collateral damage” of the coronavirus. Once behind, it is hard to students to catch-up and the probability of dropping-out increases over time. We need to start and moderate along the way as necessary since coronavirus or another virus will be with us for a long time.
When will Schools Reopen? by Carson Now on Scribd
- Carson City
- Books
- carson
- children
- City
- class
- Clean
- coronavirus
- Educators
- elders
- environment
- Experience
- Fall
- families
- fatalities
- Health
- home
- Hours
- Ice
- ice cream
- internet
- learn
- learning
- libraries
- life
- live
- May
- need
- new
- Opinion
- opinion
- parents
- positive
- Prior
- Proper
- public
- Public Health
- Quality
- recovery
- reopening
- school
- Schools
- service
- Services
- Show
- social distancing
- staff
- stores
- students
- Teach
- Teacher
- teachers
- virus
- Education
