I know it's a no-win situation.
bwarb, the "multitudes" were referencing the adults on school campuses.
I'm a person who wants to teach in person, in classrooms, but sees that at this place (AZ) and in this time (now, when cases are insane), our leadership insisting on in-person schooling in a threatening manor is the last straw. Betsy DeVos might be the only public figure I wouldn't bet money on beating Trump in a game of checkers. Look her up, she's lived her entire life in an alternate reality, truly. And President Dumble-Orange appointed her to the Sec.of Ed. There are not enough face-palms in the world.
If I was, say, governor of AZ, I'd probably propose a quarter-by-quarter checkpoint system, as a growing number of individual school districts are doing here. As the national leader has absconded responsibility, and our governor has done the same, it's fallen onto the superintendents and school boards to act like adults. School boards are made up of regular citizens, btw.
Online-only schooling for the first quarter, then check and see how conditions are. If they're not improving/falling, go another quarter.
Maybe I'm a big pansy, but I'm not okay with throwing big numbers and tiny percentages around and being okay with thousands or tens of thousands of little kids dying from this. There's a meme making the rounds on facebook about this - saying: Teachers are not responsible for the recovery of the economy, babysitting children, or "getting us back to normal." Stop trying to guilt us into risking our lives for the government's failure to act.
Oh, oh, do I get to share my sample size of one now? Everyone else gets to.
I had a student beat leukemia 2 years ago. I had to tutor her in her home after school 3x a week, because her immune system couldn't handle the germs of a classroom. It sucked, it was hard. There were days I'd show up and she couldn't stay awake or get out of bed for our session. She was super stressed, obviously, and yes, kids not going to school mimic her situation of being surrounded by the same few adults all day and no fun time with other kids (minus the chemo). But she beat it, started coming to school with a mask, and enjoying 'normal.'
And yes, she was behind. She's still low. So I fully understand both sides of this.
But her life, especially, has been over during all this. Not over as in dying, but over as in interacting with the outside world. I'm certain she's stir-crazy x 10.
But here's my bottom line.
I want in-person schooling very badly.
I know first-hand how detrimental not going to school is for our children, both socially and academically.
And yet still, mandating in-person schooling is absurd.
I'm not at all worried about my well-being, but I know the math and I'm unwilling to sacrifice some number of child deaths and some much larger number of teacher/staff deaths.
What I'd say to fellow posters here is: consider the source of those blindly pushing for in-person schooling. Trump and DeVos. Trump knows the economy cannot rebound unless adults are freed up to go back to work, and they aren't freed up to do so unless their kids are at school. Trump knows he cannot be re-elected unless the economy rebounds. This is the lone, sole reason for his push for in-person schooling.
If you don't understand this to be true, just block me.