Clearer now than ever that the pandemic had a major, negative, regrettable impact on student achievement. But I think that it's a mistake to use this to relitigate the school closure/reopening debates. First: to peg drops in achievement to the pandemic and/or school closures is to implicitly posit an alternative. That is, "these drops are bad, and they wouldn't have been as bad if we did [my preferred school reopening timing]."

For all their complaints about post-modern cultural leftists in the academy, conservatives sure act like they *really* believe in the social construction of facts. axios.com/2022/08/31/rep… All this "pivoting" from primary to general election is an exercise in swanning from a conservative epistemic bubble back into the broader social reality. And you only bother to build--and then delete--a Gab profile or etc if you believe facts are socially malleable.

Boy, it's all anecdotal, but the stories I'm hearing from teachers right now...this seems like a crisis moment for educator wellbeing. It's coming from educators I've come to know as stars: teachers who are amazing, excellent, committed, passionate, etc...they sound like shells of themselves now.

A thread on becoming collateral damage.

School started for my kids on August 30. We were anxious. Our 3-kid, 2-job, 1-dog, 0-child care family had a difficult 18 months. We took essentially no risks. No indoor anything (except dr appts), air travel, summer camps, clubs, restaurants, etc. We made 1 trip to see vaxxed grandparents, but isolated for a week after driving to them.

Been amazing to watch folks make the seamless transition from “You must reopen our schools, they’re safe, Emily Oster says so” to “Schools aren’t doing enough to keep my kids safe.” I get that it’s a more self-flattering move than accepting that, huh, maybe schools can’t open real safely in a surging pandemic, but still.