Poll says 72% of Americans uncomfortable returning to amusement parks

My kid has an IEP, and normally that means he has two regular teachers, an ESE teacher, a staffing specialist and a psychologist. While he technically is entitled to all of that by law even in this case, it's definitely not the same. It's a real drag that my kid who is almost two years behind in social development is not getting the chance to socially develop. Still, the choice is this or exposure to a disease that he would be especially vulnerable to (not to mention his mom). There's no good choice, just the less likely to cause sickness choice.

I do know a handful of kids (one from my church, three or four out of the hundred at the school where I teach) that actually benefited from virtual learning. Something about being able to focus on learning and not distracted/trying to impress the other kids. That said, a huge number of students found it much, much worse including my own children.

I'll second (or third or fourth) that my own children (3rd and 5th grade) absolutely hated online learning. My son who has ADD found it easier to manage his time and get his work done but he said he missed being in a room with his peers.

I polled my students in the spring. About 20% preferred the online environment. Those that did liked that they could work at their own pace.

If the goal of education is simply skill acquisition then yeah online learning should have a larger role than it currently does. If our goal is to prepare students to be productive members of society than it really should only be used in emergency situations.

The district that I teach in (suburban high school) is starting the year using a blended model. I'm hoping we get a few weeks in to develop connections with the kids before we need to shut it down. The county case positivity rate has been steadily creeping up. Illinois has a magic number of 8%. I'm hoping we stay under that number until Labor Day.

ApolloAndy said:

That said, a huge number of students found it much, much worse including my own children.

A huge number of parents did, too.

We've opted for home schooling for the foreseeable future. It sucks, mostly for my son (who hates school, but is going to be a high school freshman which I can't imagine not being able to experience in person), but also for my daughter going into 5th grade, who absolutely loves school and won't be able to see her friends. It also sucks for my wife, who quit her job to homeschool both kids. Well, she's not at all upset about quitting the job she hated, but homeschooling was such a clusterf*** the last few months. Granted, it should be better this time, but I imagine it won't be without lots of stress, on both my wife and the kids.

The thing we all try to keep in mind, though, is that everyone is dealing with all of these things. That's why the whole "Karen" thing has taken off recently...the people complaining about this or that are acting like everyone is supposed to know what to do when literally everything is different now.

Today was the first day in the OC, and it was a total train wreck by most accounts, including our own. But as I've said before, I think it's important to give the kids, the teachers and the district a little grace, because there's no playbook for this, and only less crappy options. What's worse, the local districts have largely been captive to threats and last-minute decisions at the state level, leaving locals with less time to plan, and no new money to implement anything cost effectively.

Right now I'm just wishing I actually knew what is happening to me as a school employee. In theory I've been assigned to the same position but under current plans that would only be 2 days per week assuming the student I'm one on one with actually comes to school first quarter and if not is my district going to have in person classes because if not there would be no sub work if they do there might be lots of sub work the teacher's union is pushing for virtual. Last night my husband asked if I knew because he thought if I wasn't going back in the fall maybe it would be fun for me and my son to work the last weekends at cedar Point if we could both get hired. Before I was pretty much just going to roll with it and see what happens with it but now I'm really wishing I had some clue. My son is supposed to go in person but I'll believe it when I'm actually dropping him off in front of an open building.

Jeff said:

Today was the first day in the OC, and it was a total train wreck by most accounts, including our own. But as I've said before, I think it's important to give the kids, the teachers and the district a little grace, because there's no playbook for this, and only less crappy options. What's worse, the local districts have largely been captive to threats and last-minute decisions at the state level, leaving locals with less time to plan, and no new money to implement anything cost effectively.

From what I hear O.C. is essentially doing the first two weeks as a trial run and then is unofficially officially starting at the end of the month. But from what I heard from my co workers, it was absolutely a cluster yesterday. I hope it gets better or at least more manageable for your sake and everyone's sake.

Jeff said:

What's worse, the local districts have largely been captive to threats and last-minute decisions at the state level, leaving locals with less time to plan, and no new money to implement anything cost effectively.

That's what has me worried as an educator. Our district has committed to a hybrid model...but there is a board meeting on Thursday. Almost all of the local high school districts have abandoned their hybrid model for a remote start. The feeling is that our board of education is going to do the same, three days before school starts.

What kind of training have we had on best practices in remote learning? None whatsoever. Had we committed to remote earlier we would have had time to get this right. As it is we may have the weekend before school starts to figure it out. Sounds like March all over again.

As support staff I have no clue at this point if I should even expect to work. The teacher's union for my district is urging remote start, I work for the district but in a county building so there's another group of people that can change their mind and whether or not the individual students I'm supposed to be available for one on one end up choosing remote or in person affects whether or not I work or how much or where...in theory I should be starting work in 3 weeks except I don't really know if I'm going to work. My job can't be done/isn't needed if we go all remote again. So I don't know if I should be looking for work or what I should be doing.

Sucks.