Thread by @pinxi

@NYGovCuomo, @NYCMayor, @NYCSchools

We need to stop pretending that we can reopen schools this fall and focus our efforts on distance learning and child safety.

Even with currently low rates, the proposals of rotations are fraught with risk.
#schoolsreopening
#distancelearning

#1 We should not rush to resume in-school learning. There is nothing normal about this situation, and going back part-week into a risky environment doesn't make sense. Offices are delaying having employees return until 2021, and these are adults who can be forced to wear masks.

#2 Particularly for younger grades, the in-class proposals will be very disruptive to teachers, students, and parents. Teachers will have to be create both online and in-class curriculums to meet needs that were not covered in their collegiate nor their continuing education.

Decades of experience teachers have gained is barely applicable, as they devise entirely new ways to educating our children. How to support new readers how when both teacher and student are wearing masks? How will a teacher prevent students from hugging, touching, and sharing?

#3 Our community has many students who are of high risk. How can we as a community reopen if a doing so could potentially kill or permanently damage a single student? If there was a toxic leak, the school would be closed until resolved. How is this different?

#4 Too much pressure on our teachers. How could a teacher deal if one of their students gets ill and it was determined that they were the spreader? Will we be testing teachers daily? Weekly? Every other day or week does nothing to protect our teachers.

Add this to the overwhelming amount of work required by teacher to create two curriculums, the fear of infection, the responsibility of keeping a class in order, the stress of online teaching, etc. It is simply unrealistic to expect of our teachers and our school staff.

#5 Lack of contingency planning. How will substitute teaching work? What about the school nurse? There is limited evidence that taking temperatures will work. Why would we embark on a program that is so fraught with risk?

By focusing, on online education and creating programs to support those who can not stay home, we can mitigate these risks. There is no reason to assume that the next year will be "normal" so we should not pretend that it will be.

The normal matriculation from grade to grade is out the window. We need to plan that this will be with us though at least the winter, and figure out ways to deal with the ramifications of online learning.

Our society has changed. We need to work together as a community to come up with ways to deal with this change. We can not just assume that schools will just pick up as if nothing happened.

We have close to 140,000 deaths in the United States and over 32,000 in NY State. And that doesn't count the thousands whose lives have been permanently limited due to the unknown, long-term effects of this pandemic.

Of course, everyone wants to go back to in-person schooling. As parents, we are desperate to any return to normalcy. However, that is a false choice. We should open when it’s safe based on availability of a vaccine and hard science.

Until this point, we need to focus on how to teach our children with the least amount of risk.

The only viable option at this time is full remote learning.

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