Perspective is often a very helpful thing. Sounds like your D and family have some. Many others (particularly on this site) are not so fortunate. But even though with it need to be reminded of it every now and again. Definitely a part of growing up for many though a lot of people who lack it are full grown adults.
But I have to head back to the retirement thread because there are some people there with $5 million of investments who are worried they may end up in the poor house. Few of us are thinking about putting a go fund me page up for them.
There are many examples cited here of plans that make no sense( and frankly were illogical even if nothing changed after they were made). There are other tough calls where folks need to make decisions and then things changed. And there is a third category: First world problems where kids think they are entitled to certain things ( often backed up by their parents ). Some of this stuff IMO is in the category of “you can’t always get what you want” For those old enough to know the next line to that song you know how it relates to going back to school.
Boy, these college admins have tough customers. Hope it goes as well as possible for all given the circumstances. Hope everyone stays healthy
Those $600 day care in school arrangements are not school. They are for parents who have no other options to supervise a 2nd or 3rd grader and it won’t be a fun day for the kids either. They will sit in a classroom, work on their computers, maybe have one or two breaks per day. But the parents have no other choice. These are likely kids who had before and after care at the school, another other options like YMCA, Boys and Girls club, private day care aren’t available or cost a LOT more than $600. I think this program would be run through the school’s day care license and not just as a public school program since they are charging a fee.
I’m working with a family to figure out what to do. The kids are 4 (prek) and 5 (1st grade). There are people at their home but no one who can sit and work with the kids on the computer ALL DAY! The adults have jobs, they have limited education and limited English. If offered, the kids would have to go to this type of day care/school. It really would be a last resort. I don’t think the adult at the school room will be interacting with the kids except to let them out of the classroom to use the bathroom. No games, no art projects, no fun.
My daughter just got a job (not her major but no one’s hiring and she needs a job and has done babysitting and nanny work before), 3 kids, 3 different families, 2 /same school. All online. It’s a pod education situation. $1,000/week. All parents work… So this opportunity would of never happened if not due to this situation. She probably would of had a regular job also if not for this situation… Lol
This is all new to everyone, colleges, students, parents. A lot of missteps are going to be taken.
Daycare teachers often HAVE to work. Tenured professors and unionized teachers have enough clout to successfully stay at home. They also CAN teach remotely whereas , the whole purpose of day care is hands on care. There is these great divides these days among Essential workers, unemployed workers, and Workers who can work from remote settings.
I don’t see where the CAs lost anything. They got the same CA rooms they would have gotten had there been no pandemic. As said, it’s possible the doubles will be so occupied in the spring. None of us know what’s going to happen.
I’m sorry for those students who are caught in this mess.
@homerdog. No question the kids now applying to schools are evaluating what’s happening. School like Duke will always have their students. The smaller schools will be the ones that will suffer.
The school districts around here have all kinds of arrangements. There are probably 10 school districts in the Denver metro area. Most are going all virtual for the first quarter and are trying to figure out how to get the kids set up. Last year was not a good trial run.
One of the wealthiest districts is having 5 days of F2F for k-5. Middle and high schools are having hybrid with a modified block system too. They have buses to get kids to school. Honestly, if that district can’t do it, no district can.
Another wealthy district was going to do all F2F, but announced 2 weeks ago that they’ll go to 2 days in school, 3 days online. Major panic ensued and now all private schools, parochial schools, and charter schools (there are a ton of charter schools in that district) are full. Parents have to work and kids can’t be left at home. All the state and federal money follows those kids to the charter schools, and that district has a voucher program (just reinstated by the Supreme Court) and some may lose money to the privates/parochials too.
They will also have less kids to teach, so teachers and staff will be laid off. Unions and teachers should consider this when refusing to go to work in a state with low virus circulation, such as this one. Or perhaps there was no pressure from teachers and the district decided to change the routine for other reasons.
What makes you think the unions and teachers haven’t considered it? Maybe they did and decided the risk of layoff was preferable to the alternative.
States only have low virus circulation until college students from hot spot states bring it in. To contain the virus you have to test, quarantine, and contact trace, and we aren’t doing enough of that.
Moved my kid in at Duke on Sunday and there a few things I noticed.
For the most part, Duke is functioning as Duke said it would function. Students got tested on campus first, then moved into dorms. They let parents know beforehand that there would be online classes and that although there would be in person classes, there was no guarantee that every student would have in person classes. They said this is not a normal year.
They also let parents know that because RA’s were moving in at the same time as everyone else, they would not be visible during moving in because they, like everyone else had to stay in room until test results.
The problems that I am seeing -
They overlooked one dorm building and had,I believe, three students in the whole building with no oversight on the first day of move-in, -a very big mistake. One of the parents decided to take their kid to the hotel with them and she has been very vocal on the FB pages. I dont blame her.
Parents who are alums and/or have had older students attend are upset this yr is not like previous yrs and feel the kids should have had more of a welcome to the school.
The RA’s reaching out to students hasnt been consistent, and therefore when students have questions some dont know who to contact, causing confusion. I personally think RA’s should have moved in early to prevent this from happening. It seems after Duke got feedback over this, the RA’s have started to reach out.
They expect the students to abide by the compact to stay socially distanced because they signed it. I think there needs to be more oversight on this to make sure everyone stays safe and the kids dont unintentionally congregate in unsafe large groups. For the most part, students are social distancing.
My kid is on West Campus- not the traditional First year campus and he is doing fine. His RA reached out to him the day of move-in through e-mail. So far, so good.
I don’t see the big deal about this, either. Do the CAs get compensated with room/board? Or just a stipend? And it almost sounds like one of the main reasons people become CAs is to show off their big(gest) rooms? (“This is upsetting to many of the CAs because usually, one benefit of being a CA they like to flout is larger rooms for themselves,”) It occurred to me that maybe the bigger singles were being used to keep the families happy (happier?) who are paying for rooms. Of course, that would only apply if the CAs get free rooms.
Mistakes happen. Reading the Duke posts just reminded me of my first day at college. After move-in, orientation leaders who had six or so students were supposed to show up at your door to take you to a welcome dinner on the lawn of a nearby dorm. My roommate’s came and got her. I waited. And waited. And waited. I could see and hear the dinner happening from my dorm window. The dorm was empty by this point.
I was hungry! Finally I walked over and asked someone who seemed to have some authority. Turns out I was never assigned a leader! Oops! They said they would fix it, but it didn’t happen. The whole week (yes, we had a week long orientation in the 80s!) I just kept glomming on to other groups. Made friends. It all worked out.
Not trying to say my lack of an orientation group is that same as starting college during a pandemic. I know that tensions are high this year for good reason.
I also don’t know the particulars of what’s gone down at Duke so this isn’t specific to them, but in general I think parents should take a step back. This is not the ideal first year move-in, but it is THEIR college experience and they will figure it out and make the most of it in different ways. They too will have crazy anecdotes to share as they learn to navigate. What a year to start college! Kids are resilient and most will thrive and adjust. When parents express too much sympathy abut a ‘diminished’ experience, they are planting seeds that aren’t helpful with these kids’ launch.
Thankfully we live in a first world country and therefor expect to be treated like we do. I haven’t seen anyones comments seem like entitlement. First, what was a want two years ago at college is now a need. A fridge in your room when you are expected to take your food to go from the dining hall and eat in your room is a need (unless you want food poisoning because the dining hall no longer offers the extended hours that they sold you on) The need to come and go from your dorm and campus because you have a job off campus is a need because you have bills to pay (unless the school wants to give you a break on the costs). Most things that used to be wants are now needs due to changes caused by the pandemic, I could go on and reason all of them. The student seems be be treated by most schools as low man on the totem poll, yet they are paying the bills. Same holds true of the younger students. A forth grader remote learning who can legally stay home alone in my state, may have the need to have someone around for many many reasons. A parents want for them to be supervised after school two years ago is now a need because it is all day at home while trying to learn (what could go wrong there)
Likely, Duke is struggling because they made changes to who was coming to campus very late in the game and didn’t give themselves enough time to get the details right. I feel bad for those freshmen.
We have a hybrid plan. If we close, we go all remote. There’s a plan for that. It’s all detailed out. In fact, we have three detailed plans. One to start that is hybrid with no lunch and home by 12:45, one is hybrid with lunch, and one is all remote. We can see the details for each plan so we know what will happen if the virus gets worse or better. I’m a little surprised that it seems other well-to-do districts might not have plans that can mutate if needed.
I hope things go well for your D and HS! We are starting remote, with a step process to get to hybrid.
The thing is the metrics for making progressive steps toward 50% f2f are still undefined…the superintendent said he is waiting for the county and/or state public health depts to step up and define those.
Huh? I would laugh, but this isn’t really funny. Kids go back in two weeks.
Ugh. I’m not sure if the county or state is going to give metrics for movement between plans. I assume they will leave it up to the school districts who have no experience with pandemics! If our high school and the ones around us can pull off f2f, you guys can point to us and see if that works.
