[akiddoc]

People tend to grossly overvalue the benefit of schooling to children. Especially poor, Black, and brown children. 

The primary impetus for fully reopening the schools is to give working families back their state sponsored childcare.

I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic.  If not, I’m speechless.

I'm so serious that I refuse to overlook the scores of millions of Black and brown children who have been harmed by conventional schooling in America.

 I’d be interested in hearing your ideas for fixing the problem with”conventional” schools and black and brown kids. We actually may find some common ground - improving schools (and scholastic options) in economically depressed areas is needed.  On that I think we may actually agree.  But I truly don’t think staying home is the better of the two current options.

I'm not so sure we would agree on much regarding improving school. Some problems cannot be fixed within a system that was created to perpetuate inequities.

I don't think that we should conflate the question of what is better (remote or in-person) from the perspective of people who think conventional schooling helps kids, with what is better for public health in a pandemic, and with what is best for businesses that need workers. If we are talking exclusively about the health and welfare of the children, we should not discount all of the children who are benefiting from not being subjected to the harm of schooling right now.

I'm working in the poorest neighborhood in the Bay Area. All of the kids are now in online school. Most of the parents are close to illiterate. They cannot help their kids learn in these circumstances, and many do not bother having their kids attend class. For the poorest families, having their children go to school is the only hope for a future decent life. Your ideas about school are naive and ill informed. The problems these kids have in getting a good education are so complex that any issues with public schools probably account for 10% of the problem. They are malnourished, their parents are grossly under educated, the families are destitute, they don't always have housing, and they have medical problems that are the result of abject poverty. The public schools are the only place where they eat fruits or vegetables, the only place where an adult is in their life who understands what they will need to do to survive in our culture, and the only place they go where they feel safe. 

That being said, kids are resilient, and missing one year of school won't doom most of them. Missing more than that would be a disaster.

[akiddoc]

People tend to grossly overvalue the benefit of schooling to children. Especially poor, Black, and brown children. 

The primary impetus for fully reopening the schools is to give working families back their state sponsored childcare.

I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic.  If not, I’m speechless.

I'm so serious that I refuse to overlook the scores of millions of Black and brown children who have been harmed by conventional schooling in America.

 I’d be interested in hearing your ideas for fixing the problem with”conventional” schools and black and brown kids. We actually may find some common ground - improving schools (and scholastic options) in economically depressed areas is needed.  On that I think we may actually agree.  But I truly don’t think staying home is the better of the two current options.

I'm not so sure we would agree on much regarding improving school. Some problems cannot be fixed within a system that was created to perpetuate inequities.

I don't think that we should conflate the question of what is better (remote or in-person) from the perspective of people who think conventional schooling helps kids, with what is better for public health in a pandemic, and with what is best for businesses that need workers. If we are talking exclusively about the health and welfare of the children, we should not discount all of the children who are benefiting from not being subjected to the harm of schooling right now.

I'm working in the poorest neighborhood in the Bay Area. All of the kids are now in online school. Most of the parents are close to illiterate. They cannot help their kids learn in these circumstances, and many do not bother having their kids attend class. For the poorest families, having their children go to school is the only hope for a future decent life. Your ideas about school are naive and ill informed. The problems these kids have in getting a good education are so complex that any issues with public schools probably account for 10% of the problem. They are malnourished, their parents are grossly under educated, the families are destitute, they don't always have housing, and they have medical problems that are the result of abject poverty. The public schools are the only place where they eat fruits or vegetables, the only place where an adult is in their life who understands what they will need to do to survive in our culture, and the only place they go where they feel safe. 

That being said, kids are resilient, and missing one year of school won't doom most of them. Missing more than that would be a disaster.