[Mick]

I think I would leave some amount of decision making to individual teachers and families.

I also don't think we are appropriately pricing in the cost of the lockdown on kids.  It's one thing for someone like me to be locked down.  Or even my brother, who was laid off because his job entailed sales to bars and restaurants.  That is tragic, but was almost unavoidable.

But here are some of the issues with keeping kids at home:

https://www.economist.com/international/...ens-health

The pandemic is harming children’s health. Not that they are dying in large numbers of the virus itself, which seems to affect them only mildly. And not only because of a growing body of evidence suggesting that lockdowns harm their mental health. It is also because life under confinement in rich countries has been making children fatter and more sedentary. These effects may well last much longer than the restrictions designed to curb the disease.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/0...e-benefits

However, the costs of missing school are of immense proportions. Children learn less, and lose the habit of learning. Zoom is a lousy substitute for classrooms. Poor children, who are less likely to have good Wi-Fi and educated parents, fall further behind their better-off peers. Parents who have nowhere to drop their children struggle to return to work. Mothers bear the heavier burden, and so suffer a bigger career setback. Children out of school are more likely to suffer abuse, malnutrition and poor mental health.

This estimate is striking:

The World Bank estimates that five months of school closures would cut lifetime earnings for the children who are affected by $10trn in today’s money, equivalent to 7% of current annual gdp.

Just as we wouldn't think of forcing grocery stores or hospitals closed because of the pandemic, we should consider education in the same vein, an essential activity.  It still chaps my hide that we sacrificed in school education in order to open friggin bars (and again, I say that even with my brother's livelihood dependent on it).

BC

Suffice to say, I agree with you.

[Mick]

I think I would leave some amount of decision making to individual teachers and families.

I also don't think we are appropriately pricing in the cost of the lockdown on kids.  It's one thing for someone like me to be locked down.  Or even my brother, who was laid off because his job entailed sales to bars and restaurants.  That is tragic, but was almost unavoidable.

But here are some of the issues with keeping kids at home:

https://www.economist.com/international/...ens-health

The pandemic is harming children’s health. Not that they are dying in large numbers of the virus itself, which seems to affect them only mildly. And not only because of a growing body of evidence suggesting that lockdowns harm their mental health. It is also because life under confinement in rich countries has been making children fatter and more sedentary. These effects may well last much longer than the restrictions designed to curb the disease.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/0...e-benefits

However, the costs of missing school are of immense proportions. Children learn less, and lose the habit of learning. Zoom is a lousy substitute for classrooms. Poor children, who are less likely to have good Wi-Fi and educated parents, fall further behind their better-off peers. Parents who have nowhere to drop their children struggle to return to work. Mothers bear the heavier burden, and so suffer a bigger career setback. Children out of school are more likely to suffer abuse, malnutrition and poor mental health.

This estimate is striking:

The World Bank estimates that five months of school closures would cut lifetime earnings for the children who are affected by $10trn in today’s money, equivalent to 7% of current annual gdp.

Just as we wouldn't think of forcing grocery stores or hospitals closed because of the pandemic, we should consider education in the same vein, an essential activity.  It still chaps my hide that we sacrificed in school education in order to open friggin bars (and again, I say that even with my brother's livelihood dependent on it).

BC

Suffice to say, I agree with you.