#ReopeningSchools #coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve
The burning question of the day seems to be whether schools should reopen for in-person learning.
Some teachers insist they should be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to the classroom.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say teacher vaccinations should not necessarily be required, as long as schools follow safety guidelines of requiring everyone to wear masks, keeping everyone well apart, having proper ventilation in the schools and having everyone frequently wash his or her hands.
Let’s debate this on not only the safety of everyone involved, but as a practical matter.
Let’s also look at what school will look like for the long term.
As a practical and safety matter, confining, say, 50 kids in one relatively small room with a teacher and, perhaps, a teaching assistant, would seem, on its face, to be unsafe. Even if everyone were wearing a mask, the teacher(s) can be apart from the kids, and themselves, but the kids are still too close for safety.
Some schools are dividing such big classes into a hybrid model, in which some of the kids learn in the classroom, and others learn at home. They alternate days in and out of school, with a day in between shifts to allow for school cleansing.
That seems a practical and safe solution, temporarily. But not having kids in school every day is a burden on the parents, never mind the kids who need the socialization.
But once this pandemic eases to the point of whatever the new normal will be, what will it mean for schools in the long term?
Teachers have been complaining for years about classes being too big and crowded. These experiments during the pandemic may prove useful for solving some long-term problems in education at all levels.
In colleges, will the big lecture halls with hundreds of kids crammed in at a time be a thing of the past, for example?
Can EVERY student who wants to take a class with Teacher X be able to, through some online model? Will Teacher X be able to conduct his class simultaneously, worldwide, online, as other localized teachers grade the students’ work?
Will old schools have to be torn down and rebuilt to improve ventilation? If that’s not practical, will the portable classrooms make a return to provide more space to allow students to spread out?
These questions will be answered over time, as we deal with what’s going on at the moment.
Meanwhile, it may be a good time to think about how much education beyond high school a student would be suited for, and how much that student, or his family, would be willing to pay to get that education.
Fortunately, if a student is hard-working, ambitious, but not necessarily college material, there are many programs out there in which a person can make potentially great money, regardless of education level, background or experience. As a bonus, it requires minimal investment to get into these programs.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
In summary, we all want kids back in school, regardless of what level they are in. Not only is it better for their social well-being (teens, especially, need to be around friends), their educational achievement and as burden relief for parents, it’s good for teachers and staff.
But this experience could change education, as it could other pursuits and business, for the long term. Don’t just wait to see what happens, do your best to make things happen for the better.
Peter