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Foot handles, automatic water and hand dryer, sanitizer everywhere these are good measures. These are a MUST in my opinion.
I think spacing will be key we have MANY SD classrooms with 30 or more kids. This is where Teacher/student ratio hurts us. Things would be manageable and safer with half the amount. Staggered times w/less kids.
I think getting back to school is a must and maybe the first step is Back to School and then extra activities start in the Winter. Gradual.
You are asking people to police themselves. Honestly, I don't have hope for that. Parents send sick kids to school all the time. Heck, they go to work sick themselves. Schools are to blame too because they encourage attendance so they get $$$- they will certainly be changing their ways in this time.
Of course this brings up a completely different set of problems for the teachers themselves. They would have to be paid more to do this or you would have to hire a bunch more teachers. Neither seem financially viable. Any many teachers get into teaching, in part, to have a schedule that runs synchronous to their children's schedule. My wife is a sixth grade teacher; we have children who will be a 4th grader and Kindergartener next year. My wife could not teach all day unless we had daycare for the kids when they weren't in school - - and there is a zero percent chance that teachers like my wife could work more making no extra money and then have to pay more for child care that wasn't necessary before. It just wouldn't happen.
Good editorial on this from the president of Brown University. If colleges and universities don't start up in the fall, it could be catastrophic; some, undoubtedly, will close for good. Others will be financially crippled for some time. It's already traumatic for universities to potentially be losing international students, who pay exorbitant rates compared to American students.
Not exactly an unbiased editorial by the President of Brown University? I looked and their endowment is $4.2B. I’m sure they won’t be hurting anytime soon, but you are certainly right about it crippling others for some time. I’d want to believe that with how much tuition has risen in recent years vs inflation that most schools have some nice reserves. Sadly it’ll be the faculty and students that suffer the most in the interim, not the institutions.
I’m not sure how many will be able to open in the fall as we know it when factoring in on-campus living and class sizes? Her suggestion was to test every student and keep testing them throughout the year. Ok, that might work at a tiny school in BFE, but a major university and/or one in a large city? We all know college aged students think they’re invincible too.
My wife and I were having this exact discussion as we drove by SDSU yesterday. Apparently the community college her aunt works at in New York already shut it down for the fall.
Regardless of how anyone may feel about COVID-19, I think everyone should just accept the fact that anything resembling normal in regards to schools, bars/restaurants, sporting events/concerts, etc. probably isn’t going to happen until sometime in 2021. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it happening?
Kids do need to get back to a normal life, which includes school unless they are home schooled. Yes, social distancing is one answer, but better than that kids staying home when sick is the real answer. Not only do kids need to be in school for academic knowledge they need to socialize which means playing together, be it organized sport or just talking to one another. We also can not put extra burdens on our teachers to work longer hour, cut class sizes or whatever.
How many of us even know what the fall will bring? We do not go into panic when the flu season pushes into the schools. OK we know this is not the flu, but we also have no idea how severe it will be in 4, 5 or 6 more months.
Right now our grand daughter has about one hour of online schooling Mon thru Fri. I assume teachers are still receiving full salary? They have loaded up the kids with extra homework assignments which Mom and Dad have to monitor and help with after putting in 8 plus hours of work.
The idea that these kids are going back to crowded classrooms, school cafeterias and playground activities anytime soon defies common sense. There is no vaccination currently available. Nor do most people have access to testing. And there is a shortage of masks.
Not exactly an unbiased editorial by the President of Brown University? I looked and their endowment is $4.2B. I’m sure they won’t be hurting anytime soon, but you are certainly right about it crippling others for some time. I’d want to believe that with how much tuition has risen in recent years vs inflation that most schools have some nice reserves. Sadly it’ll be the faculty and students that suffer the most in the interim, not the institutions.
I’m not sure how many will be able to open in the fall as we know it when factoring in on-campus living and class sizes? Her suggestion was to test every student and keep testing them throughout the year. Ok, that might work at a tiny school in BFE, but a major university and/or one in a large city? We all know college aged students think they’re invincible too.
My wife and I were having this exact discussion as we drove by SDSU yesterday. Apparently the community college her aunt works at in New York already shut it down for the fall.
Regardless of how anyone may feel about COVID-19, I think everyone should just accept the fact that anything resembling normal in regards to schools, bars/restaurants, sporting events/concerts, etc. probably isn’t going to happen until sometime in 2021. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it happening?
That's interesting about the community college, although I wonder if it being in New York played a big role with that. I would have thought that the community colleges could wait further into the summer before making that decision seeing as how you are largely pulling from students who are already in the area.
I teach at USD, and their choice is going to be a very tricky one: are parents willing to pay big money for school that is going to be delivered on-line? What kind of freshman class can you get who is going to pay that much money for a school experience that doesn't feel any different than any other school's? And yet if you do start back up, sending students home halfway through a semester again is going to be a disaster too. We're already receiving foreboding e-mails about the fall; I trust that the administration is going to try to do everything in their power to make it work, however that ultimately would manifest itself.
That's interesting about the community college, although I wonder if it being in New York played a big role with that. I would have thought that the community colleges could wait further into the summer before making that decision seeing as how you are largely pulling from students who are already in the area.
I teach at USD, and their choice is going to be a very tricky one: are parents willing to pay big money for school that is going to be delivered on-line? What kind of freshman class can you get who is going to pay that much money for a school experience that doesn't feel any different than any other school's? And yet if you do start back up, sending students home halfway through a semester again is going to be a disaster too. We're already receiving foreboding e-mails about the fall; I trust that the administration is going to try to do everything in their power to make it work, however that ultimately would manifest itself.
I'm a USD alumni. My daughter will be a HS senior this fall, so she will be applying to colleges in about 6 months.
There's no way I would pay USD-level tuition if my daughter's only option is to go to college via laptop from her bedroom in my house. I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment.
I'm a USD alumni. My daughter will be a HS senior this fall, so she will be applying to colleges in about 6 months.
There's no way I would pay USD-level tuition if my daughter's only option is to go to college via laptop from her bedroom in my house. I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment.
I don't think you are. My guess is that the seniors will stay on. Juniors probably will too, but maybe take a year off. A larger than normal number of sophomores may transfer to universities closer to their home areas. But the freshmen will be tough - - there could be a good number who delay entry. I think this will be a sparse freshman class.
I will say this, though: I think your daughter is in an excellent position to go to her dream school. I'd be super excited if I were an incoming high school senior this year, or even a graduating senior. There are going to be fewer international students and many more students who are going to do a year at community college (which I'm guessing could have record attendance, as long as the funding is there - - the Great Recession had crazy numbers of students going to community college). Colleges are going to be throwing out acceptance letters like crazy next year. I'm guessing that students are going to be able to get into schools an echelon or two above where they could have gotten into pre-Coronavirus. There are always winners and losers to every event, and while I feel bad for seniors who had their last year in high school hijacked, they could reap rewards when it comes to college.
Of course this brings up a completely different set of problems for the teachers themselves. They would have to be paid more to do this or you would have to hire a bunch more teachers. Neither seem financially viable. Any many teachers get into teaching, in part, to have a schedule that runs synchronous to their children's schedule. My wife is a sixth grade teacher; we have children who will be a 4th grader and Kindergartener next year. My wife could not teach all day unless we had daycare for the kids when they weren't in school - - and there is a zero percent chance that teachers like my wife could work more making no extra money and then have to pay more for child care that wasn't necessary before. It just wouldn't happen.
The contracts would have to all be renegotiated to add extra hours, etc. so that alone is a big hurdle for districts if they wanted to go this route. Campuses can't remain open for extra hours without the support staff too. It opens a big can of worms to try to reinvent the education wheel. Maybe it will happen, I can't say for sure it won't. But for the time being, schools have poured a lot of resources into distance learning materials which is a big indicator that this isn't geared for just the short term.
And while remote classrooms suck, and there's no replacement for the social aspect of the true school experience, it's an acceptable stop gap measure, the alternative being nothing at all.
The contracts would have to all be renegotiated to add extra hours, etc. so that alone is a big hurdle for districts if they wanted to go this route. Campuses can't remain open for extra hours without the support staff too. It opens a big can of worms to try to reinvent the education wheel. Maybe it will happen, I can't say for sure it won't. But for the time being, schools have poured a lot of resources into distance learning materials which is a big indicator that this isn't geared for just the short term.
And while remote classrooms suck, and there's no replacement for the social aspect of the true school experience, it's an acceptable stop gap measure, the alternative being nothing at all.
I don't think the schools understood how disliked the remote teaching was going to be. There is some real rebellion going towards it, more for secondary schools than colleges (some parents of secondary school students are simply not having their kids do it), but in many situations parents are not going to pay for on-line teaching at the college level. I think some parents are going to choose nothing at all rather than this.
With that being said, I agree with your general point.
How many of us even know what the fall will bring? We do not go into panic when the flu season pushes into the schools. OK we know this is not the flu, but we also have no idea how severe it will be in 4, 5 or 6 more months.
Exactly! Just as I said on page 1 of this thread. Four months ago was Christmas so that is a long time going forward too, 6 months ago was Halloween. There are already countries that have it down to near zero (New Zealand and Vietnam, China if you believe them). I realize colleges can't wait until August 1 to decide on this but I think if everyone waits to see where we are in about 1 1/2 - 2 months the picture will be clearer. I know it won't be gone for a long time if ever unless there's a vaccine but it could become something like the flu that we just deal with and weakens over time. I mean all pandemics either weaken or peter out, otherwise we just keep getting the same bug repeatedly and humanity is wiped out. Bubonic plague was literally thousands of times worse than this and if it didn't peter out we wouldn't be here today.
I also think for all the safety (and I understand it) the day is going to come where they just have to find a different way to get us back, whatever it will be and we don't know what it is yet. Not going back to school or college for this school year makes sense at this point and buys time. But they should be trying all they can to make it work come fall.
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