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Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

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Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#221

The federal government is doing this on purpose to kill public schools.

Public schools have failed students, especially minorities. Good

I wish we had decent charter school options where I live.

I bet A LOT of parents have this same wish.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#222
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they'll choose not to. It's a market economy. Maybe $30k per year isn't worth risking the life of one's family.

Maybe. I think the major problem is there is not a compelling childcare alternative that's ready to take over if the schools don't open. I also think it's a "tale of two cities". There's a lot of political will to reopen the schools in rural areas that haven't been as deeply impacted by the virus itself. And rightly so - the risk in rural upstate New York is much lower than in Flushing, Queens. It's probably wisest t…

A lot of people are now unemployed. Some of them will open small childcare centers, often operating in private homes on an informal cash basis. (I'm not claiming this is a good thing, just that it will inevitably happen.)

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To you, even if nobody listens to you.

I already answered that.

No, you didn't. You said you don't assign any value to the piece of paper. Find, but did you actually learn anything in the process? That has value, to you.

Now, perhaps your point is that the formal education didn't matter, that is, you could just as easily have learned the same thing by informal means. That is true, if you had the self-discipline or curiosity to do so. While you may have had that, and I did, many who attend public school do not. The things they learn are still of value to them.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#224

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

I think one of the things that has been so disheartening to me about the pandemic is that it has shown how we just can't really do anything anymore in the US. I mean, just look at PPE. I understand being a little flat footed when the pandemic first started, but it's been nearly 6 months now. I would have expected mass mobilization to pump out N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, etc. by the millions. I mean, look…

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Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#225
post #189

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

Good. The current state of the world is incredibly unnatural when you compare it to even 50 years ago. Everything is too connected. We are so much more efficient, but so much more fragile. The best thing you can do to save the world is save yourself and your family. Less fragility, more robustness at the personal / local level. I am mid twenties, and was homeschooled my entire childhood. My father owned a technology…

> but its a good kind of weird.

This isn't guaranteed.

A counterexample is Tara Westover[1] who grew up in an extremist version of what you are describing. She ultimately became successful but it was mostly despite her parents isolation from "the system", not because of them.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/02/20/587244230/memoirist-retraces-...

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#226
post #6

I feel like there is too much emphasis on these and not enough on the ones that earnestly want to go back to work. There should be a balance here, as we really do need a lot of students to have access to schools in the fall. Remote learning doesn't work for everyone and leaves a lot of people behind. The overall consequences of another lost semester may be far worse than the consequences of reopening.

I would prefer every student to be held back 1 semester from graduating high school than 1 more dead (if that were a possibility, but you get the point). I don't even understand how its possible to prefer sending kids back over one semester. Of course I think the bigger issue is its just parents that want kids out of the house for a multitude of reasons including getting back to their own work.

Let’s be honest. It’s not a semester we’re talking about, following your guidelines. It’s more likely three years or so.

Doling the pain out in a few month increments is how it is made to seem more reasonable.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#227

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

"Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable."

Take a look at the covid19 infection rates in the country a little north of you.. as others have posted, not all governments / society has failed.

You need to ask why you have so many people who are proud not to wear a mask simply because it limits their "Freedoms"??

Maybe if they wore a mask, and excersized social distancing things wouldnt be this bad?

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#228
post #219

The Los Angelos teachers added a few other requests [1]. The introduction starts with: [...] LAUSD educators clearly want to get back into schools with their students, but the underlying question at every step must be: Given broader societal conditions, how do we open physical schools in a way that ensures that the benefit outweigh the risks [...] And then proceeds to the following recommendations, among many others:…

I don't understand the logic around the left's hatred of charters. Parents choose to send their kids there - if the existing public school was so good, why would they send them somewhere else? It's simply about choice, and sending your own kids to the best possible option. No one would ever deny their own children the best possible education available. It's so clearly about administrators and professionals over the needs of children, it's simply immoral and bordering on evil.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#229
post #162

Thinking about having a kid. There's no way I would ever have a kid in my current US state. Not saying anyone has done it well vs rest of the world, but there are clearly states (and counties/cities) that have done a much better job at protecting human life than others. As someone who has lived in the US South for most of my childhood and adult life, I truly don't think it's responsible to have children here if you h…

Ditto, except I’m dubious about the prospect of having a child in America.

You’re fulfilling the Idiocracy prophecy. Those who think about their life choices are less likely to breed than those who are more reckless and have children with less hesitation. The similar survival rate of children of the two groups means the more-reckless genes & culture will out-propagate the less-reckless genes & culture. I’m pretty sure less-reckless is what we need more of, but without some extreme and questionable measures, I don’t see how it’s possible to sway the force of nature.

Re: Teachers are ready to quit rather than put their lives at risk

#230

I have pretty much given up on everybody at this point. I have already pulled my kid from school and will not send them back. I am in a single income family and I am now working from home. All actions and purchases at this point are to help us to become more independant from the system. Society and government at large has shown itself to be unreliable and undependable. I am also making longer term plans to move out o…

I think one of the things that has been so disheartening to me about the pandemic is that it has shown how we just can't really do anything anymore in the US. I mean, just look at PPE. I understand being a little flat footed when the pandemic first started, but it's been nearly 6 months now. I would have expected mass mobilization to pump out N95 masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, etc. by the millions. I mean, look…

All of this is a consequence of ideologies that have become popular in the US both in politics and in business. Having government direct a mobilization is not acceptable. A mandate that people wear masks is not acceptable. Having manufacturing capacity to make low-value products in large numbers in the US is bad business when poorer countries can do it for less. Having spare inventory is bad, because just-in-time manufacturing is more efficient. Accepting a reasonable profit at a time of crisis is considered stupid when a business can make windfall profits by pitting states against each other or signing a sweetheart deal in exchange for a no-bid contract. We're looking a lot like Russia under Yeltsin when the place was collapsing and people were stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.

Now, all of this could be turned around quickly with good leadership that could rally the country behind a cause, but we chose someone who is committed to division, who's willing to undermine the efforts of those who work for him, who, even at this time of crisis thinks that nothing other than personal loyalty to him and that he should never make a mistake.

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