I honestly think that, if colleges are doing their due diligence and still thinking they can safely have kids on campus, then it will happen. The colleges do not want kids to be dying. If they thought that was going to happen, I think they would collectively all say sorry but we all have to be online. This is not what they are all hearing when they meet with public health officials. Colleges in very dense areas are likely to hear it’s going to be much harder to keep kids safe so it’s no surprise that a school like McGill has announced all online plus only about 1000 kids live in dorms there.
And I’m not drinking the Kool Aid. Can’t we give these people some credit? Presidents of these universities are smart people and many of them have spent time in business as well. Many of them are coming to the conclusion that they can make it work. They know how college kids act. They know they only have control for the time kids are in classroom, cafeterias, and other university buildings. They have to know that kids won’t be great about the rules in the dorms and certainly not in off campus apartments. Yet, in spite of that, they think they can make it work.
For schools that can pull it off, there will be a very big “we are in this together” push. I bet they will have a kind of marketing campaign to get kids to buy into this new “normal” on campus. Bowdoin has mentioned “shared sacrifice” more than once now. Colleges will make it super clear that, if this doesn’t work, then it really is time to get off campus and remote learning.
So, we can say colleges need the money and might not make it if class has to be online from home (or an off campus apartment). And that’s why they are going to welcome kids back. Does anyone really think they are doing that while knowing they might have a huge outbreak with a bunch of deaths?
I agree that I haven’t seen one parent here saying that they won’t send their student back to school if campus is open.
@MBNC1755 I’m not saying most K-12 parents and caretakers are old (and to clarify I do not think 37 is old), but I am saying there certainly is a good number of caretakers who are in their late 50s or older.
Also, there are many students at Amherst in rough home situations who had to go home and have had a much greater disadvantage in their education due to it going remote; this situation has exacerbated the effect of privilege on higher education. That is why many colleges went pass/fail for the semester. So staying online would continue to exacerbate the divide between rich students and low-income students.
@ChemAM Again K-12 being open is needed for many staff members at colleges across the country to return to work. Most colleges have at least a handful (if not many more) commuters that are returning home to their parents every day (who are normally older than an average K-12 parent).
If K-12 schools are not back to normal when in many locations they provide everything from the only meals a child may eat, to a safe haven, to special services (speech and disability services), as well as child care for many I do not foresee colleges in that area reopening campus.
The colleges know, and we all know, that college students are not going to be the ones dying if a college opening causes a big outbreak. Whatever their worries, that shouldn’t be one of them. The students might be the ones infecting others, who then die, or who infect others, who die, but they won’t themselves be dying.
It was me, and I stand by it. I found it chokingly disrespectful for someone who’s never held a full time job in his life, much less a blue-collar job, to say that a hotel worker better serve a building full of COVID-infected people or find another job.
We’re on the parent forum, and as a parent (and a long-time teacher), it is absolutely appropriate for me to call out a kid on his inappropriate, disrespectful statement. I am truly flummoxed by someone who thinks that an adult educating a child is being “condescending” to do so.
@fretfulmother I am an adult, and you are not my parent; I am speaking to you as a fellow adult. It’s not educating if you’re not saying objective truths. And again, that is not what I said. I’m saying it is unfair to them, but that is the way things are. I just think we need to be realistic here, and we need to be respectful of each other’s opinions. Just as you stand by your opinion, I stand by mine.
I understand that some on this thread take problem with me telling my interpretation of the situation and use my age as ammo to imply that I should get off the thread. However, I feel my opinion as a college student is valuable here, and it is no less valid than anyone else’s here just because I am younger. However, I have received messages from multiple parents on this thread that they have really enjoyed seeing my posts and opinions and one has even thanked me for being exceedingly “respectful”. So I am not going anywhere.
I think the argument is that, if K-12 is open (whether it’s deemed essential or not), then colleges should be open as well. It’s been discussed already but many high schools are going to have a very difficult road ahead trying to social distance their students.
For our two kids? It’s going to be WAY harder for D21’s high school to figure this out than it will be for Bowdoin to do the same regardless of the fact that kids live at Bowdoin and D21 goes to a public high school. Her high school has 1000 more kids than Bowdoin and they all go to school in one building that’s old with bad ventilation. There will be tons of parents who travel for work or who are doctors and nurses. At least college kids, for the most part, are on or near campus and living together. The high school kids are living with family members who are out all over the place with the possibility of bringing the virus home and then the kids bringing it to school.
@homerdog I think you’re right about that. High schoolers also tend to have much more concentrated schedules (let alone elementary schoolers) as opposed to college students who might only have a couple of separate lectures per day and a lot of time to not be cooped up with crowds.
BTW I know of several parents who plan to keep their kids at home doing the online option if available, rather than send them to college in the fall. Expectations are that there may be a vaccine by January, but if there is not, there will be better testing and treatment.
I thought it was interesting that MIT specifically said that there would have to be online versions of all their classes for the fall term, because some kids would not be there in person for a variety of reasons related to the pandemic.
Assuming most colleges are open in the fall, I’d like to hear back from you on what your friends decided for their kids (who are planning on forcing them online). Interesting to see how that conversation goes when the “kids” friends all go back to campus, but your friends kids stay online.
Vaccine by January? Likely magical thinking- I hope I am flat out wrong. So I guess they will keep the kids home online for the whole year.
K-12 will be absolutely back in school by fall. For how long, who knows? Apparently, there are so many tests in some states right now that they are begging people to take them. Maybe they can save them up for teachers and nursing home workers and get them tested at least weekly. Kids too.
I can’t imagine why you would think it is a hotel worker’s job to work in a convalescent ward for people with a lethal and very contagious disease. A hotel is not a hospital. Have you consulted any hospitality workers about their willingness to do this?
How would it be a convalescent ward? When colleges rent hotels, the students don’t get hotel services- no cleaning etc. Generally, they take over the hotel or a building of a hotel. There won’t be room service, it will be the responsibility of the college to figure out how to get them meals, not the hotel.
Parents can come pick up junior at the hotel if they are sick - the only purpose of the hotel is to separate the positive student from the rest who are not positive. The student will have to take care of themselves or go home, just like if they were at an off campus apartment.
Well, I guess we’ll learn more as time goes on. Between now and August is again more than as much time as has already passed in this pandemic which seems like a long time, at least to me. In (only) one case I know of, I think it’s likely that the parent would capitulate if the kid really wanted to go and the campus was open.
You say “K-12 will be absolutely back in school by fall” - but that is not consistent with the lack of communication I have heard from those who are making the decisions. Have you heard this from specific districts?
We haven’t even heard for sure from our usual day camp that they will/won’t be meeting in person. I have to assume that they will not be meeting, but I don’t know. They’re holding a lot of deposits at the moment.
@“Cardinal Fang” No, but it’s their job to maintain the cleansliness of the hotel no matter who is staying there. I think all hotel staff would agree upon that. Hotel workers probably aren’t going to have much say in the matter; that will be up to the owners and administrators of the hotel. Also, I could imagine that for hotel workers, the market right now is very much in the favor of employers rather than employees.
ChemAm said that if a college rented out a hotel to isolate students who tested positive for covid, the hotel workers should continue to work there because “that is their job.”
Schools in most of Europe are back now. We need to get our children back to school…this is obvious. We need to learn to live with the virus and focus on testing/mitigating. We can’t keep kids out of school for 12-18 months when there is a vaccine. There is no chance - in my opinion - that k-12 will be online in the entire US. Maybe in specific hot spots, temporarily. Our country is HUGE, this is going to be a local issue and it should be.
@“Cardinal Fang” No, I said they either need to continue working there or find a different job if they don’t feel comfortable doing that; it’s rough, but that’s the nature of employment.