So there is a Christian school in Illinois that wants to open up without face masks. I can’t link the article for some reason. Hmm. Think I would pull my kid if at this school.
Actually, I think she has the opportunity to edit the most consequential year book in that schools history.
Not sure which school, but I am not surprised.
ISBE K-12 guidelines came out last week too, and students, teachers, and staff only need a doctor’s note in order to not wear a mask to school.
Who knows how many schools will have in-person classes, but at those that are, I predict a not-insignificant number of doctors’ notes saying X can’t wear a mask.
This article has some cute ideas like putting a stamp on kids hands before washing them so they learn to scrub rather than just rinse them. Very tempted to use that technique on my teen. 
"Among all the steps organizations are taking — hand-washing, masks, temperature checks, pods, social distancing, and guidelines about staying home if sick — which are the most important?
And crucially, how important is group size? The recommendation to keep groups of children small and separate imposes a particular burden on school districts. In most places, reducing class sizes means reducing in-person class time, staggering schedules and continuing remote learning in parallel with in-class instruction. That requires resources that not all students and schools have access to."
Potential treatments, like potential vaccines, still need further study and testing.
A college cannot realistically expect a good treatment to be available in any specific time frame. Perhaps it may consider the possibility of such, but it still needs to plan for the worst case that it will not be ready or readily available within its planning time frames.
Can we not bash the Christian school. Don’t attend. Leave them to themselves. They arent forcing any of us to do anything. I disagree with the approach. But it’s not my life or my school. Or my right to determine their approach or beliefs. Kind of foundational.
Would we bash an Islamic school that mandates young women cover their faces. Not me.
Let’s stop.
If you are a professor or a teacher, though, and “catching this” is now just a say 3 day event of being ill, and you are then cured, and possibly immune for some period of time, doesn’t that eliminate most of your reasons for not wanting to teach classes in-person (for those not in high-risk groups)?
Social distancing and mask wearing is still fine, of course, but if you are a university that just changed all your dorm rooms from doubles to singles, might you now consider putting them back to doubles? MIght you consider having indoor dining with socially distanced tables vs take out only?
This school?
https://pcafalcons.com/
No one bashed any school. Equating a policy (or non-policy) that endangers the lives of others during a global pandemic to Muslim women covering their faces is off-base.
What did you mean by “not surprised” @Mwfan1921 ?
If that’s not underlying derision help me understand.
Yes religious beliefs are sacrosanct in this country like it or not. If their decision is based on that, it’s 100 percent valid as a comparison. How is not?
If it’s because they are clearly less enlightened than the rest of us in general ?
And the comparison is valid. Unless you meant something else and I misread your meaning.
And I might not be disagreeing with you. It’s just I believe in tolerance and foundational rights being respected. Even if they aren’t the cool kids. It just seemed like the thread would be better off if we left the religious school side bar commentary out of it.
K12 in NJ scheduled to go back in the fall…
- mask wearing by all, and if young students can’t...then they must social distance (Pre-K will be interesting)
- everybody must social distance ....and you might want to also use plexiglass barriers (this is costly)
- teach outside as much as possible
- no carpets
- lunch, gym etc will be set up differently
- no sharing of anything
- we must be prepared for remote at the drop of a hat
- continuous disinfecting (bathrooms etc)
This is going to be interesting. IMO we are all going to be so consumed about germs that we won’t be able to concentrate on our jobs.
It appears the entire liberal province of Ontario will also be forgoing face masks in public schools, so can we stop pretending this is such an outlier? I too expect many, many students to have mask exemptions.
I said I was not surprised exactly for the reason you noted…private, religious schools can generally do what they want when setting policies. Some members of that community are probably relatively less science and data driven when setting said policies as well.
I am sure there will be mask exemptions in schools (how do you enforce a 5 year old to wear a mask all day?) but then they will absolutely have to socially distance (at least in my state). They will have to come up with a plan that works.
The mask, social distancing protocol is a fantasy cooked up by colleges because they need our tuition and room and board dollars. The kids are going to get sick because a college campus is pretty much equivalent to a cruise ship. And the bar scenes in Texas alone are pretty much fraternity parties by any other name. Humans are social creatures. Even the best intentioned person can become complacent when they feel comfortable…we can all fall back into our old patterns so easily. The question is what happens if colleges are forced to close again or even at Thanksgiving when millions of kids are released back into their communities and homes. Do they quarantine away from their families for 2 weeks in a hotel or are relegated to their rooms or the basement?
It will be a challenge to get 5 year olds to social distance all day as well. Same is true for kids in elementary school. Many school districts also do not have the physical space to allow for social distancing at all times. You can try remote learning for parts of the school on a rotating basis. But that creates child care issues which creates work issues. Coming up with a plan that works is a lot easier to say than do/implement.
I wish more people (individuals, families, and colleges) would be talking about this issue, especially those who have family members at home who in at-risk populations for covid-19 infections.
There are tens of millions of people in those at-risk populations…CDC changed one risk factor this week from morbid obesity to any obesity (was at BMI 40+, now BMI 30+).
I think you know her dance history but she now just dances at school which likely will not happen now. I thought football season would be possible because they could practice outside and maybe choreograph dances where they are far enough apart. But they pushed off try outs for the younger high school dancers. No date on that. They can’t start practice until there are try outs and the coaches have no date in mind now. She’s not in control of that.
Dancing at a studio is complicated. You can’t just drop in and take class at her level. She could have maybe done that at Hubbard Street but they are closed. She can’t really just join a company now for one year and doesn’t want to do that. Most companies are doing a little bit of in person class but not performing. She wouldn’t join a full time company as the new girl for just one year and go back to the 25-30 hour a week deal. She really has no options right now for dance except to (1) hold out for the high school thing to happen or (2) take online dance and she’s not interested at all in that.
It’s been decided that yearbook will look different. They will have sections for each month instead of the usual sports, clubs, etc. pages. They have some cool ideas and are trying to think outside the box but she’s mourning the way it “should” be.
I’m trying to get her to look ahead to college at this point in the hope that fall 2021 will be a little better. I do not say it will be back to normal but it’s got to be better than now.
A parent shouldn’t seek a mask exemption because it will be difficult to have a 5 year old wear a mask. These parents of young children can’t have it both ways - districts letting younger kids return to the classroom for childcare reasons, yet not willing to then follow safety standards?
If I seem annoyed, I am. Our district is leaning this way, yet local social media is full of parents whining about their poor kids being masked. Get over it!
The kids are going to be infected. Few will get sick as suggested.
It’s about the others they can infect it seems. If there is a way to limit that effectively that is worth reviewing.
The conflation with case counts as representing the case count of serious illness is astounding.