Why would they teach remotely? Not spreading in class. I don’t know why people still think we need remote classes at all. Duke will have everyone boosted and in masks!
4 Likes
Not sure about Duke, but at some colleges, professors/instructors have the discretion whether to teach in-person or remotely. Some of them may choose to teach remotely.
1 Like
Class is an indoor stationary activity. Why would it not be a place for transmission?
Granted, it may not be as risky as a dorm or dining hall where residents or diners are unmasked, but that does not mean that risk in class is zero. Note that students not in dorms would not have those risks.
1 Like
I’d like to know why at this point. I work in a k-8 district and many of the teachers have little ones who aren’t vaccinated and vaccinations are only required of staff, not students, and we are all there. They have seen ZERO transmission in our district or our local high school district from the classroom. I don’t think professors have a leg to stand on.
7 Likes
As I just responded above, close contacts from classrooms are monitored or quarantined from our schools’ classrooms (depending on whether they are vaccinated) and not one person has caught Covid at school. Been in person since last March.
Pretty sure it’s the same at Bowdoin. Anyone who caught Covid from someone else was unmasked around them outside of class.
I totally agree with you, kids need to be in school, college classes should be in person. The rules at duke seem to be insane. All of the high schools that are going to be virtual will stop nothing because the kids meet up outside of school now with no precautions and sports and after school still happens. Wear a mask, get vaccinated, stay home if you have symptoms, test if you are exposed.
5 Likes
At lease some K-12 teachers, like their college counterparts, also don’t want to teach in-person, I’m sure. I don’t necessarily agree with everything everyone else does, but I’m not going to demand that they must teach in-person. They may have perfectly good and legitimate reasons. Besides, the fact that we haven’t had significant transmissions in classrooms in the fall doesn’t necessarily mean the same will hold true this winter, considering how much more infectious Omicron is.
6 Likes
There are undoubtedly many good reasons why some prefer to not work in person; however, there are many jobs that need to be done in person, so that is not an option for essential workers, and I include teachers and faculty in that group. I am certain most hospital nurses would prefer not to come in as well. Or grocery store workers, fire fighters, doctors, truckers…
13 Likes
There’s a significant difference between teachers/faculty and those other essential workers you mentioned. Those other essential workers don’t have the remote option that teachers/faculty do, however imperfect that option is.
2 Likes
No one is catching Covid in these classrooms where everyone is vaccinated!
Do you just suggest we use that option forever? College is not remote class. Sorry. That’s not what college is. No one wants that or to pay for it.
Would you like me to describe any of our kids’ in person classes last semester? Not one could be done well remotely. The experience would be completely different and not in a good way.
9 Likes
Given the abysmal failure many students experienced in remote learning at both the K12 and college level, one might question whether that really is a meaningful option at all.
10 Likes
I don’t think this will continue to be true from what I read recently. Vaccination and boosting appear to have little impact on infection and even re-transmission. Their main function seems to be reducing severity, perhaps dramatically, if infected.
2 Likes
I have a kid in college myself, so I understand the remote option is inferior. But we’re in a pandemic, what else in our lives hasn’t been negatively affected?
4 Likes
Our little experiment of one over here has S with Covid and the rest of us still negative four days past last exposure. Another day and I can say we are out of the woods. And our exposure to him was not masked in a classroom.
And if Covid does spread in classrooms with boosters and masks, how concerned are we? Over 500,000 cases today yet deaths still on downward trend. Anyone so concerned can quit their jobs or take a break from college. It’s time to move on for the rest. Some colleges moved on from almost the very beginning and I haven’t heard of students or professors dying at those colleges.
10 Likes
Huh? Bowdoin and colgate just had pretty normal semesters. Not looking to go backwards because of a variant that’s not really killing anyone who is boosted. All kids are boosted at these schools. Yes omicron more transmissible but maybe not with masks on. Everyone I know who has caught Covid in the last three weeks isn’t masked 100 percent of the time outside the house. Lots of dining out and parties to blame
And don’t get me started about the depression and anxiety caused by all of the remote learning. One can’t even find a therapist these days. All booked. D21 has not one high school friend who hasn’t been diagnosed with depression or anxiety in the last year. We cannot go back to remote school if this new variant isn’t resulting in boosted people dying.
7 Likes
I’m healthy enough and my kid in college is healthy enough, so our risks of infection aren’t high. But who am I to judge if someone else feels s/he is much more vulnerable?
I do agree that good masks are critical. Unfortunately, many don’t wear them properly or use inferior masks that wouldn’t work against Omicron.
We will be in some form of endemic covid spread for the next 30 years, and likely far longer, probably the rest of my life. Hopefully, it will continue to be the mild, cold-like version omicron brings currently, though likely there will be both more and less severe versions in the decades ahead. Residential colleges will either accept this, as they currently do for other illnesses, or cede their positions to the remote online schools. Not a single student in the Ivy League ( where I have a kid) has died of covid itself, tho several suicides resulted from covid-related depression.
12 Likes
Right. So the vulnerable need to make different choices if they are concerned.
4 Likes
Yes exactly. I wrote about anxiety but left out the suicides - that uptick due to these students being forced to be alone. I just cannot believe any parent would be ok with remote class.
5 Likes
I too hope this Omicron wave will be the last one and Covid will become endemic after this wave. However, this Omicron wave is massive (and hopefully short), so why not wait it out? There’re reports that some hospitals are severely short-staffed and some ERs operating in emergency mode themselves. There’re consequences if we don’t manage to control this situation.
5 Likes