What do you think school will be like in the fall? UPDATE page 29 for Mass.

HeatherC

Alas...these people I live with ...
Joined
May 23, 2003
As with everything else with this pandemic, I think a lot will depend on where people live. Since we are hearing from most scientists that there will very likely be a second and even third wave during fall and winter, I wonder how things will be handled at all levels.

Here, UMASS is still deciding whether kids will even go back to campus in the fall. My daughters school in RI is undecided as well and may do half on campus, half online, etc.. Then if they open campus in September and have to close in October, people will lose more money because they certainly don’t refund the full amount. And if they are going broke, will they even refund anything next time?

With social distancing likely to have to continue, elementary and high schools are facing the problem of keeping kids distanced which is impossible on every level. There is no way to keep desks six feet apart. Classes can have between 20 and 30 kids in them. There just isn’t t enough floor space to do that.

And how do you keep kindergarteners and younger grades socially distanced at all? Students have to line up to go to lunch, sit on buses together, etc. Plus, schools, I believe will be facing huge budget cuts since states are literally going broke right now.

If you keep it online, how many millions don’t have access to the right technology to make it work? Parents have to work and can’t all homeschool their kids virtually. School is also where millions of kids actually are fed and safe for a few hours every day. So many moving parts to all of this.

I am NOT trying to be a Debbie downer here. I am a substitute teacher and my daughter is a math teacher. These are questions we are wondering about every day. None of the teachers or administrators we know also don’t have any idea how this will play out In September.

I know we will obviously be figuring things out as we go. Curious what your take is on how this will play out in the coming months? Plus, here on the DIS we love to discuss and solve world problems on a daily basis.😁😁. I figure this is just another one we can all solve together.😀
 
Some sort of hybrid in person/online method, by which either alternating days or alternating classes are either in person or online.

Colleges, I imagine a system whereby general (e.g. 'core') courses are provided online and major-specific or lab-related courses are done in person, possibly on a staggered schedule where there is 50% capacity in the classrooms/labs.
 
I read somewhere that if college classes aren’t in person and dorms don’t open they expect a 15- 30% drop in attendance rate students. This will probably lead to job losses at the colleges and so much more.

My son goes to an in state college. If dorms are closed or classes are all online he’ll be doing community college online instead.
 
I'm going to get slammed, I just don't care anymore..... The cure is worse than the disease, between the economy, the education, the ARTS industry (which never gets the credit it deserves) etc... FLAME AWAY!!!

ETA- what I mean by 'I don't care anymore' is that I am ok with posters attacking my opinion. I absolutely do care about the virus.
 
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Our district just announced yesterday that the Fall semester is up in the air right now. Maybe it will happen as normal but with new safety measures in place. Maybe it will happen with modified schedules(alternating days/morning afternoon.) Or maybe it will be 100% online. Our kindergartener HAS NOT done well with online work. She really needs the school environment. So fingers crossed for partial days there at the very least.
 
Both of my daughters colleges have said that they plan to return in the fall to campus. This has eased their minds some but they also know that things can change. As for high school, I am a high school teacher of autistic students. My students are having a very hard time with this. They are not doing well with the distance learning and they really need the routine of a school day even if it is only half a day. My school district is a hot mess. Our new superintendent resigned after 8 months and we have a huge deficient. I don't have answers but I do know that distance and on line learning is not the answer for all kids especially special ed kids. We need to be in person with them and working with them over zoom with shaky connections is a nightmare. Gov. Cuomo decided that he is getting into the education business yesterday and made some statements that have upset all my teacher friends. I hope to be back in the classroom in the fall even with masks and restrictions because I hate this on line learning.
 


Some sort of hybrid in person/online method, by which either alternating days or alternating classes are either in person or online.

Colleges, I imagine a system whereby general (e.g. 'core') courses are provided online and major-specific or lab-related courses are done in person, possibly on a staggered schedule where there is 50% capacity in the classrooms/labs.

I would like to see half days or alternating days with half the classroom size, which would be great even without Rona.
 
I’ve been saying this all along. I’m right there with you.

I also mentioned it weeks ago in another thread, then I had to take a bit of a break from posting. It's interesting in my community how many people have changed their tune once this started dragging out longer than they expected. Or essentially, until it started to affect them.

I'm not saying this isn't a serious virus, I'm just saying our 'fix' is not working for a far greater number of people.
 
I'm going to get slammed, I just don't care anymore..... The cure is worse than the disease, between the economy, the education, the ARTS industry (which never gets the credit it deserves) etc... FLAME AWAY!!!


Seriously, life is not more important? Ask anyone grieving a loved one who has died. 70, 000 people are dead and more to come.
I'm baffled, but I guess if this virus doesn't affect you or your loved one directly, you can say that.
I don't want to flame anyone, but we are seeing death daily, is that ok?
 
Our district just announced yesterday that the Fall semester is up in the air right now. Maybe it will happen as normal but with new safety measures in place. Maybe it will happen with modified schedules(alternating days/morning afternoon.) Or maybe it will be 100% online. Our kindergartener HAS NOT done well with online work. She really needs the school environment. So fingers crossed for partial days there at the very least.

My first grader is doing OK with online learning. Not thriving, though, like he does with in-person school. My preschoolers are really struggling like your daughter, though.
 
I also just bumped the NYS thread because Gov. Cuomo made such a controversial statement yesterday.
 
I teach elementary school in western NY. Texts are flying between me and my coworkers as we try to imagine how this will work. We have about 25 kids in each class. If we utilize our support teachers and their classrooms, and re-work the schedule, we could reduce class sizes, but not to the point that we could keep kids 6 feet apart. And I have no idea how that would work with little ones. My kids are CONSTANTLY touching each other. And they hug me all day long. I can’t imagine holding my hand out to stop them. It breaks my heart to think about it.
But there are still so many questions. What about the bus? Playground? Gym? Lunch?
 
I truly expect everything to be back to the usual here. The only reason we are closed now is because the governor mandated it. If he’d left it to the individual districts to decide, we would have been in school this whole time.
 
Absolutely selfish moment here: I would benefit from my to-be college moving more classes online. I was accepted for aerospace engineering Fall 2020, and the college is an hour away - and I still work full-time. So the more courses available online, the less commuting I'd have to do.

HOWEVER. I think this is hugely detrimental to a lot of new students and isn't ideal for most. And I'm not even going to discuss primary school kids (K-12), those kids need the human interaction of in-person school, in my opinion. I worry heavily about the development of children who are now having to stare into a computer screen all day.
 
Seriously, life is not more important? Ask anyone grieving a loved one who has died. 70, 000 people are dead and more to come.
I'm baffled, but I guess if this virus doesn't affect you or your loved one directly, you can say that.
I don't want to flame anyone, but we are seeing death daily, is that ok?

Some will die from covid.

Some will die because of this virus and never test positive. Delayed medical care, some places are delaying chemotherapy, more child abuse and domestic violence cases, suicide, higher mental heath issues, job losses where people will lose everything they’ve worked for, people losing their health insurance due to job losses so won’t be getting treatment, etc. Do their lives not matter ?

I grew up very poor, below the poverty line most of my childhood. I have friends and family seriously struggling right now with job losses. Poverty is not fun. It’s like a long slow death. Some things are worse than death IMO. I personally would rather risk it with this virus than lose my job and everything I’ve worked for to get out of the life I used to have.

and I work for a hospital and see the impacts of this virus firsthand. But I also see the impacts on people in the communities struggling.
 
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I also mentioned it weeks ago in another thread, then I had to take a bit of a break from posting. It's interesting in my community how many people have changed their tune once this started dragging out longer than they expected. Or essentially, until it started to affect them.

I'm not saying this isn't a serious virus, I'm just saying our 'fix' is not working for a far greater number of people.
You said you took a break from posting, then you come back to a thread asking about schools opening and had to put in a remark that was totally unnecessary and say "flame away." You could have easily left that sentence out with out stirring anything up.
You are just going to get frustrated again, its not worth it.
 
Well, first, it depends what the coronavirus does.

And here they are still trying to get distance learning working here. It "officially" started in Sac City Unified 3 weeks ago, but they are still trying to get computers to kids. And they are dispatching city buses set up as Mobile WiFi hot spots because they were shocked to discover how many people .....both students and teachers.....have no internet at home. The Digital Divide. And all this is happening despite the fact that the teachers union hasn't signed off yet on any of the distance learning, so some teachers are refusing to take part.

They are floated the idea of starting school here a month early in July, and some parents and teacher say they will not allow that to happen.

Bottom line, like I said, it depends on the virus, and at least here in California, it may take the Governor making a tough choice and issuing and executive order. And order that no matter what it is, won't be popular with a lot of people
 

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