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I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

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Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#301

Freddie de Boer just wrote something on his Substack about this - https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/many-kids-dont-have-a-w... The quick takeaway is that school is that for the most vulnerable kids, school is about a lot more than education. Taking school away from those kids can be much more damaging than many people realize. It seems to me like that right strategy would be to just say something like: We encourag…

>> The National School Boards Association says that 1,384,000 public school students are homeless.

Holy fucking crap.

(Sorry I don't normally react like that, and even given homeless might not be "living on street", that is a horrific statistic)

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#302

I speculate that students who spend time learning from internet resources like Khan Academy will get a significant leg up over their colleagues in this case; even more so than usual. This applies both in the sense that "They will learn more effectively", and "They'll have a better shot at getting into universities".

This has always been true in a way. A lot of schools have nothing to offer the top 10% of students, so the students/parents of the students who broke away from the pack were finding ways to learn on their own/have their kids learn on their own.

> A lot of schools have nothing to offer the top 10% of students

IMO, the ability to self-study ahead of peers is a defining criteria for being in that top 10%. So, the system is working as designed.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#303
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another long term (and equally hidden) consequence is the loss of critical educational development in children. We adults can toss off 2 years because it's just a drop in the bucket to us, but 2 years for a child represents a potentially staggering setback in their mental development.

I agree with you, but I think it overstated the value of schooling as the only source of this development. There are so many free online education sources it is truly amazing, and yet for some reason our society’s answer to the pandemic was to have Zoom school at home which no one is happy with, rather than embrace different delivery methods that are actually engaging. Khan Academy, Duolingo, etc etc. I don’t think m…

You (and by virtue, your children) are an outlier.

The most vast swathe of people in this country are not like this.

Schooling is not about learning. It's a mix of daycare, social development/grooming for the workforce, and the removal of the parent's influence on the child's development, in order to serve the state's goals.

Children that are motivated to learn something, will find a way to learn it.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#304

I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable. I’ve seen opinion piece after opinion piece go on and on about how we need to have kids in school. The pieces attack school officials or teachers but complete ignore the logistics of having so many sick teachers. There aren’t enough subs to cover for the teachers. We know this surge will die down in 4-6 weeks. It’s a perfect time to pivot to r…

> I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable. Because "remote learning" is a joke. I volunteered a bit in a virtual high school classroom. The teacher running it is making a frankly heroic effort to keep her students in the school system at all. But no one was engaged, cameras were off, students regularly don't show up at all or drop off in the middle of class. These are comparatively a…

Did you read the OP? What they are doing in school right now is also a joke!

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prior to this pandemic the layman understanding of a vaccine was that they generally prevented you from “contracting” the disease. You get the shot, you don’t get the disease. afaik the flu vaccine has for decades been advertised as: "might not always prevent, but will usually lessen symptoms" So I'm not sure why people think this is a new thing.

The flu is understood to be different, seasonal, yearly variants. It’s also why at least in the US it’s characterized as the “flu shot” as opposed to the flu “vaccine”. Vaccines like MMR and others are understood to be generally preventative and rarely need booster if after initial doses. Think about things that generally require boosters…they are almost always referred to by the laymen as “shots”. Nobody calls the t…

I get what you're saying, and it makes sense, but people also often say "shots" when referring to childhood vaccines (ex: "did they get their shots yet?") They also say things like "rabies shots" and "diptet shot."

And coronavirus is also understood to be seasonal.

However, in spite of all that, I agree that the official messaging throughout this pandemic has been so inconsistent - from masking to "two weeks to flatten the curve" to "boosters" - that the public does have a right to be skeptical and exhausted.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#306

I speculate that students who spend time learning from internet resources like Khan Academy will get a significant leg up over their colleagues in this case; even more so than usual. This applies both in the sense that "They will learn more effectively", and "They'll have a better shot at getting into universities".

Any kid who is disciplined and focused enough to do and benefit from self learning already has a big leg up, whether they are in school or at home.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#307
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Vulnerable population is like half of the population.

Get vaccinated, lose weight. We're two years into pandemic and only fools haven't gotten the message.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#308

I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable. I’ve seen opinion piece after opinion piece go on and on about how we need to have kids in school. The pieces attack school officials or teachers but complete ignore the logistics of having so many sick teachers. There aren’t enough subs to cover for the teachers. We know this surge will die down in 4-6 weeks. It’s a perfect time to pivot to r…

"I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable." What about kindergarten? Teaching 20+ students 5-6 years olds through zoom??? - seems like a fools errand. This could be their most important years for learning. "The pieces attack school officials or teachers but complete ignore the logistics of having so many sick teachers." Everyone will get covid. Period. Just get it. You might get it on…

Have you had COVID? Good luck teaching a room full of 6 year olds with active symptoms. This is what people are essentially asking for right now, at least in certain districts where 10%+ of the teaching staff are out with symptomatic COVID.

Re: I am a New York City public high school student. The situation is beyond control

#309

I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable. I’ve seen opinion piece after opinion piece go on and on about how we need to have kids in school. The pieces attack school officials or teachers but complete ignore the logistics of having so many sick teachers. There aren’t enough subs to cover for the teachers. We know this surge will die down in 4-6 weeks. It’s a perfect time to pivot to r…

> I don’t understand why remote learning during this surge isn’t acceptable. I’ve seen opinion piece after opinion piece go on and on about how we need to have kids in school. I agree that this would be a great time for temporary remote schooling. I think the problem is that months and months of unnecessary school closures have broken parents (and kids), as well as burned a lot of trust that this will be handled with…

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