29 Tweets That Show Why Bringing Kids Back To School During The Pandemic Is Not That Good Of An Idea
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that “extended school closure is harmful to children” and that the school closures in March due to the pandemic have already “slowed academic learning for most children and stopped for some.”
With the federal government backing up the reopening with preparation guidelines, back-to-school day is closer than ever with many schools to open their doors in fall. But Twitter is far from impressed.
In a series of all-telling tweets about reopening, people are questioning if it’s truly the best idea. ‘Cause kids will be kids, and “anyone who thinks children won’t purposely lick their hands and chase each other yelling 'Corona!'” has probably never met one. So let’s take a look at what people had to say down below, which is really a lot to think about.
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I have a twelve year old godbrother who likes to hug and hang onto you all the time, so I know that children will not practice social distancing. There are adults who don't practice it.
If I may, circa 2018/19 "there's a chance it will precipitate at all today, and since it's *technically* winter, we should close for the day just in case -- that was also a thing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is arguing that “even though opening school does pose a risk for the spread of Covid-19, there are many reasons why opening schools in the fall of 2020 for in-person instruction is important.”
The main reasons, according to the CDC, are the following: “Schools play a critical role in the wellbeing of communities” and “Schools provide critical instruction and academic support.”
It also urges that K-12 schools should “coordinate, plan, and prepare” reopenings and expect “potential COVID-19 cases and increased school community transmission.”
I find that whole thing extremely sexist. Not just for the girl, but for us boys because they think we are so stupid that we will be so distracted if we see a bra strap or a bare shoulder that we can’t concentrate on school.
Agreed. And teaching boys that girls' bodies are inherently sexual is problematic.
Load More Replies...I find when male teachers/principals call a female OUT about school dress code specifically mentioning "the boys" in the class ...blah blah. WITHOUT a single report from any of "the boys"....Is VERY TELLING in itself. There is reasonable and then there is just down right CREEPY ....I say looking at EVERY male teacher, principal....what have you. There should always be a female employee to do the JUDGING!!! To follow the "rules"!! Hopefully it was a even amount of genders MAKING those rules.....NOT a male(s). Period.....drops my mic Doesn't apologize!!! History.
Yes! Thank you! I will tell you a plain fact. Many times parents have sent students to school with active fevers, but gave the child a fever reducing medication to get their child in the school door. If it happens regularly with colds and flues, it will happen with coronavirus.
As an Australian my first thought was that girls can’t wear tank tops to school because they’ll get skin cancer. Most kids here wear school uniforms and on the occasional day where they can wear what they want the spaghetti strap tops are banned because shoulders are very susceptible to sun burn.
That statement of CDC recommendations is AFTER the CDC has been threatened by the current administration with loss of funding and/or shut down.
I find the practice of NOT wearing a uniform strange. Every child is the same, not this ones parents have lots of money for lovely outfits that ones hasn't, makes for bullying and snobbishness, let alone a child at school in a tank top!
@Hans, it's not that nobody cares. Students are suffering, parents are suffering, mental health problems are spiking, businesses are closing and people are going bankrupt. But you can't just pretend that covid doesn't exist and expect it to go away. America is in a room filling with water and refusing to remove more than one pail a day, eventually they're either going to have to fully commit to bailing, or they're going to drown. The effects of quarantine are unavoidable, it's just a question of when.
Meanwhile, teachers remain skeptical about reopening. In a previous interview with Bored Panda, an experienced teacher named Melissa Hillman, whose Twitter thread on the alarming scenario of what will happen if schools reopen has gone viral, said that safe reopening is impossible.
“You can’t safely reopen schools when a third of your parents are not following the basic directives that keep the local community safe.”
The teacher also called schools “notorious petri dishes” and said that the danger lies in a “a significant percentage who are not just non-compliant with common-sense safety recommendations, but are actively hostile to them.”
I know where I live the School Board has a meeting between the parent and teachers and only listened to the parents concerns and suggestions and any time a teacher had voiced their concerns the Board would not even listen to what they were trying to say. Every single Teacher is putting themselves and their families at a Huge extremely scary risk at the expense of parents who don't want to deal with their children home anymore. Many put in to Retire.
Ok. If you don't like the lice comparison, how about chicken pox? Or a stomach flu? Or a cold? I worked at an elementary school and when one kid got sick, 50 kids/staff got sick. There was one stomach bug that was so epic, it makes those sugar free gummy bear stories sound like a vacation.
Religious private prek-8th. They had the meeting over zoom. we are going back in person. I remember when in fourth grade they called a family member to clean the nail polish off my fingers (or they would send me home), get made at us for wearing scrunchies on our arms (SINCE WE AREN"T ALLOWED TO wear bracelets), and once my sister was gonna be sent home (my dad brought extra from home though) for wearing socks with a blue stripe at the top when they are supposed to be plain white. I feel like some of it is racism, considering some kids weren't even sent home for having the nike symbol on their socks, just given warnings. Reminds me of the time I got yelled...
For me it's also my students getting long term chronic effects - they are too young to spend the rest of their lives with debilitating complications.
Never tire of a common sense reaction. Am wondering why remote school isn't an option?
The idiots who say "but its against my constitutional rights to have to wear a mask" are the ones who should be forced to clean and disinfect the school every night
...and shut down every team that had contact with The Marlins so we know it's transferrable.
I wonder if this means they'll be allowed to open the windows lower than that black line?
1/2 Both as a parent and as a teacher. As a teacher (toddlers to elementary school): kids cogh/sneeze in your face or on the teaching materials; many times the teacher has to wipe out snot from faces and surfaces again and again. Some kids like to suck on their fingers and wipe them on the teacher or touch the teaching materials - and stick those finger back into their mouths. Some kids show affection for their teacher not only by hugging and kissing them, but also by licking them unexpectedly. Enter the masks: they are commonly used here during influenza outbreaks, but for children younger than five the masks can become a toy and a distraction; if a kid peels his mask from his/her face and drops it on the floor, the teacher asks the kid to put it in the pocket or throw it away, but now a new mask should be provided every time this happens. We, teachers, speak loudly, with or without masks - an increased risk in the current situation. We sing together, chant, read, play - all increasing ..
As a student at a highschool, I feel like we're rats in a science experiment by now. My mom is a teacher in the same school district and nobody in any of those zoom meetings have said "Hey, let's ask the kids how they feel about being forced into a jam packed school with 2,000 kids!" Like yea some kids would never take it seriously but for goodness sake I'm terrified! And I hope others feel the same because I know that there are just some kids who would tease and bully kids for being afraid. I really don't want to go back to school. I'm glad my school is doing online for at least the first quarter.
Nobody can force kids into school. I hope kids remember this. :)
Load More Replies...2/2... the risk of producing and inhaling contaminated aerosols. Everybody is at risk. We all depend on the responsability of others in a face to face teaching environment. I can continue teaching where I am (Japan) because I can trust everybody else.I could not, if I were in the US or EU. As a parent, I would be watching over everything if my son were to go to school (he is in uni, online classes); I would not let him attend in person classes if we were not in Japan.
Easy to judge, but if it's risk Covid or homelessness/severe poverty? And, yes, a civilized nation shouldn't have such a crappy infrastructure etc., but this is the reality in the US. Heaven help us all.
And that's really what this is about. I think if everyone was honest, this is about child care, not really about learning. Are the children in the US such dullards that they will never be able to learn again if they are kept home for another few months? Nonsense. They'd all be fine. They'll learn eventually. But it's tough to learn if you're dead.
Load More Replies...Thankfully a lot of schools(at least that i know of) are being smart about this. Of course there are the other ones as well, I just hope my school is one of the smart ones
My whole opinion on this matter is that if we don't have children how will the human race survive? They are our future generations, maybe treat them like they are, rather than sending them back to school to get a virus that they could die from or their family could. Seems like common sense
Even if schools were to reopen, what rule explicitly states that students must go to school? Personally, I have not gotten a detention, but I would much rather go to detention than risk getting myself or my parents sick. Considering I was diagnosed with a seizure disorder in May 2020, even if I were offered a billion dollars, I still wouldn't go to a class physically.
I posted this on one of the comments as well, but it's relevant to this whole conversation, really, so here it is again: a study in a university setting found that 87% of students were within 2 steps of each other, and 98% within 3. Yes it will probably be lower for high schools and lower again for elementary, but the high-risk conditions of having students stuck in a room together for an hour at a time, plus talking, means that we really should be prepared for the virus to spread like wildfire through the population of a school before the first infected student shows symptoms. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/14/sociologists-say-their-findings-student-interconnectedness-suggest-caution-needed
If all students stayed home for the same amount of time, they would all be at the same place when the time came to catch up. What is truly the harm if they delayed opening, say to January? Are these children going to be so damaged that they will never learn again if they don't go to school now? Keep everyone at home for another few months, and there will be a vast difference.
It's not about the kid's needs for education. It's that parents need to get kids out of the house so they can go to work. Everyone is at risk, but we missed our chance to strangle COVID-19 because a******s in MAGA hat wanted haircuts and now the options for most parents are between risking the disease and risking eviction/foreclosure and starving in the streets.
Load More Replies...So my school can't even keep the yearly cricket invasion/fest under control for a few months and clean it up afterwards, nor can they keep HEAD LICE UNDER CONTROL (VERY annoying, as I've gotten it at least 1 time in a year, every year except 2) and they're saying they can keep a highly contagious, lethal virus under control. What a f****d up joke. Our math problems once we get to come back are going to look like "Sally has a case of the 'Rona. The 'Rona can kill a person in 2 days - 3 months. If one person infected with it can spread it to 200 others, and there are 4,000 students in her school, how long will it take to kill off all of Sally's friends and classmates? Do not include her teachers or family when calculating your response, that will be too depressing."
The parents of poor kids will die. This is the plan for school in the fall. Rich people will home school or send kids to private schools with better control and protection. Poor students of color will spread the disease fast.
I'm sorry, but kids are not wearing masks where I live. They are not social distancing. The schools are set to reopen with barriers and protections in place. How are they less safe in school, with protections and monitored than they are outside at home, playing in groups with none?
I don't know where you are, but most of the kids in my area have been staying at home. Not going out and playing with friends. So, yes, they are safe. Right now. Until they start school. Children cannot take this seriously. If we can't make young adults understand the physical distancing required, how are we going to make a 5 year? And If you are saying that kids aren't wearing masks and that's okay, you're dead wrong.
Load More Replies...Anyone have a response why no remote option? Other than parents have to work so kids must school but at least quarantine the teachers in an environment to remote teach.
I am very curious of unforeseen ramifications 10 years down the line. Especially if Covid lasts as long as the Spanish Flu. It seems every state and even district in the US is approaching this a little bit different. Some students could get ahead, some left behind, suspended summer breaks to "catch up" after the pandemic ends, and maybe even a permanent reduction of school hours nationwide as online learning replaces lecture schooling. Personally, I look forward to reports of students who are behind because their parents were doing the work for them for better grades lol.
Yes but I dont think Holland was in the same situation as the USA
Load More Replies...Hans if you are going to give advice to us Americans, may I suggest you follow the news stories and whatnot before you lecture us on how to do things? If you had been doing that, you would have seen that we are pretty much at war with each other regarding wearing masks. People are being killed for suggesting others wear masks. There are people who just don't give a s**t about others unless it benefits them as well. Unfortunately, everything here is political and for whatever reason, we house a lot of conspiracy theorists. So before you open your pie hole, step down off of your high horse and take a look around at what is really going on. kk thanks
Load More Replies...1/2 Both as a parent and as a teacher. As a teacher (toddlers to elementary school): kids cogh/sneeze in your face or on the teaching materials; many times the teacher has to wipe out snot from faces and surfaces again and again. Some kids like to suck on their fingers and wipe them on the teacher or touch the teaching materials - and stick those finger back into their mouths. Some kids show affection for their teacher not only by hugging and kissing them, but also by licking them unexpectedly. Enter the masks: they are commonly used here during influenza outbreaks, but for children younger than five the masks can become a toy and a distraction; if a kid peels his mask from his/her face and drops it on the floor, the teacher asks the kid to put it in the pocket or throw it away, but now a new mask should be provided every time this happens. We, teachers, speak loudly, with or without masks - an increased risk in the current situation. We sing together, chant, read, play - all increasing ..
As a student at a highschool, I feel like we're rats in a science experiment by now. My mom is a teacher in the same school district and nobody in any of those zoom meetings have said "Hey, let's ask the kids how they feel about being forced into a jam packed school with 2,000 kids!" Like yea some kids would never take it seriously but for goodness sake I'm terrified! And I hope others feel the same because I know that there are just some kids who would tease and bully kids for being afraid. I really don't want to go back to school. I'm glad my school is doing online for at least the first quarter.
Nobody can force kids into school. I hope kids remember this. :)
Load More Replies...2/2... the risk of producing and inhaling contaminated aerosols. Everybody is at risk. We all depend on the responsability of others in a face to face teaching environment. I can continue teaching where I am (Japan) because I can trust everybody else.I could not, if I were in the US or EU. As a parent, I would be watching over everything if my son were to go to school (he is in uni, online classes); I would not let him attend in person classes if we were not in Japan.
Easy to judge, but if it's risk Covid or homelessness/severe poverty? And, yes, a civilized nation shouldn't have such a crappy infrastructure etc., but this is the reality in the US. Heaven help us all.
And that's really what this is about. I think if everyone was honest, this is about child care, not really about learning. Are the children in the US such dullards that they will never be able to learn again if they are kept home for another few months? Nonsense. They'd all be fine. They'll learn eventually. But it's tough to learn if you're dead.
Load More Replies...Thankfully a lot of schools(at least that i know of) are being smart about this. Of course there are the other ones as well, I just hope my school is one of the smart ones
My whole opinion on this matter is that if we don't have children how will the human race survive? They are our future generations, maybe treat them like they are, rather than sending them back to school to get a virus that they could die from or their family could. Seems like common sense
Even if schools were to reopen, what rule explicitly states that students must go to school? Personally, I have not gotten a detention, but I would much rather go to detention than risk getting myself or my parents sick. Considering I was diagnosed with a seizure disorder in May 2020, even if I were offered a billion dollars, I still wouldn't go to a class physically.
I posted this on one of the comments as well, but it's relevant to this whole conversation, really, so here it is again: a study in a university setting found that 87% of students were within 2 steps of each other, and 98% within 3. Yes it will probably be lower for high schools and lower again for elementary, but the high-risk conditions of having students stuck in a room together for an hour at a time, plus talking, means that we really should be prepared for the virus to spread like wildfire through the population of a school before the first infected student shows symptoms. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/14/sociologists-say-their-findings-student-interconnectedness-suggest-caution-needed
If all students stayed home for the same amount of time, they would all be at the same place when the time came to catch up. What is truly the harm if they delayed opening, say to January? Are these children going to be so damaged that they will never learn again if they don't go to school now? Keep everyone at home for another few months, and there will be a vast difference.
It's not about the kid's needs for education. It's that parents need to get kids out of the house so they can go to work. Everyone is at risk, but we missed our chance to strangle COVID-19 because a******s in MAGA hat wanted haircuts and now the options for most parents are between risking the disease and risking eviction/foreclosure and starving in the streets.
Load More Replies...So my school can't even keep the yearly cricket invasion/fest under control for a few months and clean it up afterwards, nor can they keep HEAD LICE UNDER CONTROL (VERY annoying, as I've gotten it at least 1 time in a year, every year except 2) and they're saying they can keep a highly contagious, lethal virus under control. What a f****d up joke. Our math problems once we get to come back are going to look like "Sally has a case of the 'Rona. The 'Rona can kill a person in 2 days - 3 months. If one person infected with it can spread it to 200 others, and there are 4,000 students in her school, how long will it take to kill off all of Sally's friends and classmates? Do not include her teachers or family when calculating your response, that will be too depressing."
The parents of poor kids will die. This is the plan for school in the fall. Rich people will home school or send kids to private schools with better control and protection. Poor students of color will spread the disease fast.
I'm sorry, but kids are not wearing masks where I live. They are not social distancing. The schools are set to reopen with barriers and protections in place. How are they less safe in school, with protections and monitored than they are outside at home, playing in groups with none?
I don't know where you are, but most of the kids in my area have been staying at home. Not going out and playing with friends. So, yes, they are safe. Right now. Until they start school. Children cannot take this seriously. If we can't make young adults understand the physical distancing required, how are we going to make a 5 year? And If you are saying that kids aren't wearing masks and that's okay, you're dead wrong.
Load More Replies...Anyone have a response why no remote option? Other than parents have to work so kids must school but at least quarantine the teachers in an environment to remote teach.
I am very curious of unforeseen ramifications 10 years down the line. Especially if Covid lasts as long as the Spanish Flu. It seems every state and even district in the US is approaching this a little bit different. Some students could get ahead, some left behind, suspended summer breaks to "catch up" after the pandemic ends, and maybe even a permanent reduction of school hours nationwide as online learning replaces lecture schooling. Personally, I look forward to reports of students who are behind because their parents were doing the work for them for better grades lol.
Yes but I dont think Holland was in the same situation as the USA
Load More Replies...Hans if you are going to give advice to us Americans, may I suggest you follow the news stories and whatnot before you lecture us on how to do things? If you had been doing that, you would have seen that we are pretty much at war with each other regarding wearing masks. People are being killed for suggesting others wear masks. There are people who just don't give a s**t about others unless it benefits them as well. Unfortunately, everything here is political and for whatever reason, we house a lot of conspiracy theorists. So before you open your pie hole, step down off of your high horse and take a look around at what is really going on. kk thanks
Load More Replies...