I read that article about elite NYC private schools and i have to admit, i am thinking about my 15 year old taking a “sabbatical” from public school for a year. I live on Long Island and from speaking with our district and seeing how abysmal school has been, i think we are better off for him to home school for the year. I can be home. Is it outlandish for him to take a year and study with me? We can cook, read? He loves the NYT for all sorts of stories, and reading investment books. He would miss the social piece, and he may feel rather odd to be pulling away from what his peers are doing. I do, however, think it is a once in a lifetime chance for him to get a better education.
Some kids are doing better at home. We are considering the same for my rising 8th grader. Actually, I like how his online shift has been going and I think his school and teachers are doing a wonderful job. I think there’s a lot less nonsense and certainly a lot less time/sleep lost to commuting, in doing school from home. I also have a chance to encourage parts of a curriculum that I think are missing, like reading more novels and doing more core exercise, and having more tutoring in specific areas (via Zoom). So in our case, we would keep him enrolled, but remote, if that is possible.
Whatever academic model one picks - skill/drill, open-classroom, independent, highly-supervised, research-based, play-based, online, in person - will be great for some kids, horrible for some kids, and OK for most kids.
.Will there be a stigma attached to college degrees from the age of Covid?
@fretfulmother, our pubic school said there will not be an online option for those who choose not to attend in person (if in person is indeed what is offered). If one has a documented medical reason one cant attend in person then the school said they would provide a teacher to “home school” the child. This doesnt make good sense to me. But that is the line they are saying.
Oh that’s annoying…what state? Oops just reread you’re in NY. Is that state wide?
The educational divide will get deeper. Even in well-heeled towns. Often it is going to come down to the Superintendent of schools and how the teachers union contract is written. The best-paid teachers ( like those in my town) still are refusing to deliver regular online classes. This means that kids who are in private school will continue on, learning and going along with bumps but still progressing. The public school kids will have gaps. When they take SAT’s, gaps. When they go from Math A to B, gaps. More gaps when they try to fill in all the things that make for a great education.
This is in an area with great schools. Delve a bit more into schools that cannot even afford an extra $500 per child and you have real problems coming down the line.
The talk on this thread doesn’t mention that private schools are already filled for 20-21. They were filled before Covid even happened as kids applied last Fall. Yes, there might be one or two slots left here and there but applying now for the Fall isn’t a solution . And the private schools can let more kids in due to Covid constraints. I couldn’t read the NYC article someone posted behind a firewall. My guess is that the expensive schools cited in the article aren’t worried at all. They have a captive audience.
Meanwhile here in GA there is one private school (or is it charter) that is year round and started the summer session yesterday in person
Yes, it does seem today that the WHO walked back yesterday’s statements. But did want to point out that at least the reporting I read did initially point out both asymptomatic AND presymptomatic, which if only it had been true, sure would have been wonderful news. See below for one example, just so you know I don’t make stuff up ;-).
I do hope that they all do a better job of truly analyzing the data so we can at some point have more definitive answers on this. Clearly we all know of many famous cases of asymptomatic spread, so we would never feel utterly “safe” due to this problem. But if it ends up being at least “somewhat” rare when all of the cases are analyzed and better research is reported, it would definitely alleviate some of my nervousness at least a little.
From the article: “TO BE SURE, ASYMPTOMATIC AND PRESYMPTOMATIC SPREAD OF THE VIRUS APPEARS TO STILL BE HAPPENING, VAN KERKHOVE SAID BUT REMAINS RARE. That finding has important implications for how to screen for the virus and limit its spread. “What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic cases,” Van Kerkhove said. “If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts and quarantined those contacts, we would drastically reduce” the outbreak.”
Anyway, I guess it is all moot at this point since WHO walked it back; we’ll have to wait for more info. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they really do find the vast majority comes after people exhibit symptoms. Eager for more good news like that!
PS I don’t know how to bold or italicize on this forum, and a few other formatting things. If anyone wants to send me a private message with hints, I’d appreciate it!
@Happytimes2001 you got the gist of it. If you want to read it in full you need to give an email address.
@fretfulmother , i dont know what the State of NY is doing. It is just what my Long Island district told me.
D’s school just threw all housing assignments out the window on her very residential campus (85% live on campus). Based on the what’s been outlined for everyone applying for new housing, there’s a good chance she could end up in a hotel room or random apartment building off campus, not with her current roommate or in the same building with students originally in the dorm or section she was to live in this year. Housing won’t be assigned now until mid-july…class registrations also thrown out the window and will have to reregister early August. This is not a good risk proposition for parents who have to pay the full semester of tuition/room & board in July before knowing if D will even be able to live with friends or get into anything but an online class.
Sorry to hear that, 2ndthreekids. I have a feeling we will hear similar news IF we are lucky enough to have on-campus living for my kids (except they don’t do registration until they are on campus; there is a class “shopping period” and then they are registered, but I do believe the housing will be re-done).
As for my kids’ school, I have zero doubt that at-risk faculty will be allowed to teach remotely. At the college where I teach, I have heard that faculty 60+ or with other underlying conditions are automatically approved to teach remotely, and others will be assessed case-by-case, so I am sure that will be generous (perhaps, “my spouse has diabetes/high blood pressure/overweight, I’d like to work from home”). I myself, at age 50, will leap at the chance to get back into the classroom, with cleaning protocols (seems less key) and distancing/masks (seems more key). So given that we are hopefully no longer arguing that at-risk faculty should be forced to endure the physical presence of these virus-spewing-students, I am looking forward to my kids hopefully getting to live on campus. Will I be nervous at all? Sure! But it still seems like a healthier overall choice vs. staying home.
But now it’s hard not to get picky. I, too, would love for my kids to be able to live with their friends. I do not see a double room as significantly more risky than kids living with their families. Especially if they do testing beforehand. Ultimately, that double (or triple or suite) becomes their “family”. Agreed that if someone needs to quarantine, they need to go move to a single with its own bathroom (the schools I am concerned with have made indications that they are renting hotel rooms for this purpose). But do they really have to split up the roommate assignments? Maybe. Who knows? I hope they take all the precautions to improve safety that TRULY matter, but don’t take all sorts of harsh steps that really don’t have a significant impact on safety. Such tough decisions.
@2ndthreekids is your D at Virginia Tech? I heard they did this. Contacted some kids saying their housing will be the same and asked them to sign a virus “contract” and then a LOT of other kids including some freshmen were told there will be no housing for them. Ugh.
Nobody on this thread was ever arguing that immunocompromised professors should have to teach in-person.
@2ndthreekids - That’s crazy! I know we are all going into this year knowing things will be different and things might change mid-stream, but it seems like you should have SOME idea of what you are going to be paying for, at least at the start of the term.
That’s what we’re thinking. A single could lead to a lot of isolation in the room and eating, but a suite with 2-4 would give her some peeps to hang with.
I wonder how many schools will do things like pull housing and put kids in a bad spot for fall. They might assume that they’ll just stay home and take class remotely since wouldn’t off campus housing be difficult to find at this point? This is not good from a PR standpoint.
Some dining hall / meals info from the Purdue update:
This sounds awful.
It does. I understand why these rules are being put into place and I’m not saying they should make different decisions, but I am already dreading the calls from my D about how lonely and isolated she feels if her school does the same.
To me, it sounds like a conservative plan that can evolve as conditions allow.
I agree. And I could totally see S19 grabbing dinner as the same time as his friends and going to one of their rooms to eat. I don’t think colleges will be able to keep kids from gathering in their own dorm rooms. Or they could take their food to another building on campus and find a table to sit and eat. Not sure if that breaks any rules.