PhineasC

The CDC and media will help them make that case by talking about "double mutant variants" that are vaccine-resistant and the hordes of unvaccinated people still out there. It's already in motion.

If you don't get vaccinated you can't go to school and therefore need to stay remote... that's exactly what I am talking about.

That's good. A permanent version of what you described with some students always remote and therefore everyone on Zoom all day is what "in person" means here in MD in most schools. I think many schools are going to remain like this for a long time to come, but I could be wrong.

If you are in "COVID protocol" is there a separate teacher to teach you during that time, or are you on Zoom with the rest of your class?

Saw a stat that 80% of teachers are now vaccinated, yet many large districts refuse to return to school. This issue is bigger and more complicated than just "getting jabs in arms"...

Many, many parents are not even going to get themselves vaccinated, much less vaccinate their 12-18 year old kids...

You have to cultivate a bodily environment that is simply too hostile for even a virus to survive. Something akin to the Earth's mantle or perhaps the surface of an asteroid baked in solar radiation should do it.

It'll be interesting to see how many districts enforce a "no-remote" rule. That will cause issues with some parents (and some teachers).

Nice! Seems like BW managed to keep things going a lot longer than it appeared they would in the third week of March.

Yep. I can't speak to MA schools, just local MD schools. That said, even if the teachers get vaccinated and return, it hardly matters because many kids are still remote, and it isn't "fair" to teach the in-person kids differently from the remote kids, so everyone gets the remote package (some are just sitting in a school building instead of on their couch). Maybe it is different in MA, not sure.

2019's classroom... "Today's classroom" is kids sitting 3-6 feet apart, all facing forward, masks on, and watching a zoom lesson on a laptop run by the teacher who is at home. There may also be plastic barriers between each desk.

Texas and Florida are where we are headed if things are left to naturally open up. If someone thinks those states are just "two weeks away" from mass death, then life is going to remain hard for that person, because the TX and FL examples are how things are going to go across the country soon enough.

Do you have school-age kids? Not trying to be rude, but I find a lot of people who don't see any issue with the schools don't even have kids enrolled in them... What you are suggesting sounds great, but that's not at all what is happening in the schools now, nor is it where they are headed. It's turned into dumbed-down one-size-fits-all Youtube-esque lessons beamed out to every student whether they are in a classroom staring at a laptop or at home staring at a laptop. Things are demonstrably worse in the schools now. It's not debatable. I'm sorry, but whenever I hear anyone try to argue that 2020 will be a good thing for the kids, I just cringe laugh.

We are all waiting for you out here. You can do it!! We all believe in you.

I do think the drive to keep kids remote had a deeper motivation in some cases. The idea of having kids at home glued to a screen all receiving the same exact curriculum beamed directly into their foreheads is basically a fantasy for academics and school administrators, as well as budget hawks. It means fewer teachers (eventually), fewer buildings, fewer negative incidents with students (fights, drug use, school shootings, etc.), more costs being borne by the parents (Internet, electricity, equipment, physical space), and a centralized curriculum that is totally neutral towards race, gender, ethnicity, ability, etc. Sounds great to a person with a Masters in Early Childhood Education who has zero experience with actual children or an accountant in the state government. In many districts, even when the kids go back to "in person," it just means they sit at a desk for 8 hours glued to a laptop and monitored by an IT proctor while the teachers are still at home running the Zoom. This is how "in person" is working in districts in MD. Looking ahead, I believe there will always be some cohort that will refuse to return in person. It could be they refuse to be vaccinated, or they feel it is still too unsafe. Either way, there will not be two teachers to accommodate the split class due to budget constraints, so the current status quo will simply continue, which is what some people want anyway (for the reasons I stated above). I could be a crackpot on all of this, but it's a big part of why my wife and I decided to homeschool. The other big issue was the decline in academic standards, but that predates COVID and is a separate issue.

There is basically nothing I want to do that I can't do now, so I agree with you. That's why I am puzzled that anyone would want vaccine passports. That is literally more restrictive than what we have now. It's going backwards for very little or no gain in "safety." If you are vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about from an unvaccinated person. Texas and Florida have been open long enough now to see that there will not be an explosion in deaths and hospitalizations if mask mandates and other restrictions are lifted at the state-level. Time to pack it in for that narrative. I find the continued talk of "double mutant variants" and "just wait two weeks for the bodies to stack up" from the media and even the CDC to be deeply unhelpful and irresponsible.

What's happening in the schools is a travesty and many kids are falling incredibly far behind. There is no way to sugarcoat that. The "science" has said for some time the schools need to be open. Many districts have been open for a year now with no notable outbreaks. What has happened in the schools is LITERALLY the unions and school boards driving the forecast into the ground.

The thing is, half of America is already "there." We have been going to restaurants, flying on planes, delivering packages/food, staffing warehouses and stores, etc. since last March. It's kind of silly to pretend that was all just invisible background noise and now as the vaccinated people emerge it means something glorious and new. It just means you are rejoining society. Congrats.

Plenty of teachers are in that group. Entire school districts with tens of thousands of students are in that group. I wasn't referring to anyone here in particular.

The work-from-home techno-capitalist class is just now starting to emerge from their telework cocoons and everyone else who has been outside living all along is expected to throw a party to celebrate.

Did you think there would be school systems that would still be closed a year later and showing zero inclination to reopen?

This kind of snarky response rings a little hollow after what we have already seen happen around the world in 2020, though. I'm sure you believed it would just be a two-week lockdown like everyone else did. Yet, it wasn't. Schools are still closed in many places, ruining childhoods. Someone has clearly been out to get the kids and small business owners... And some of us want to be able to get out of bed and go back to normal life. It isn't "our side" that wants to stay home to stay safe...

Like I said, they are coming. Folks can feel free to believe it will never happen here. That's fine. That said, this isn't a vaccine passport. LOL

Thank you for your service.

LOL People are literally already getting on planes and going into shops now without a vaccine, and have been doing so for over a year.